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Mastering
3D Studio MAX R3 |
Output Size
The Output Size section is also fairly straightforward, containing the
pixel dimensions of the rendered image. The default is the Custom size
option, with the standard preset buttons to the right. The drop-down list
offers many other preset sizes.
The main difference between using the Custom output size and using these
presets is that Custom has the option of setting a camera aperture width,
but the aperture width of the presets is defined by the format type. Table
11.1 describes the use of the various aspect ratios, along with their
aperture width.
Table 11.1: USES OF OUTPUT SIZE OPTIONS
Output Size
| Use
|
Custom
| Standard presets or user-defined; user-defined
aperture width
|
35mm 1.33:1 Full Aperture (cine)
| Motion picture film; 24mm aperture
|
35mm 1.37:1 Academy (cine),
35mm 1.66:1 (cine),
35mm 1.75:1 (cine),
35mm 1.85:1 (cine)
| Motion picture film; 20.955mm aperture
|
35mm Anamorphic (2.35:1) (Squeezed)
| Motion picture film, 70mm intended playback
shot on 35mm and stretched; 42.57mm aperture
|
70mm Panavision (cine)
| Motion picture film; 48.59mm aperture
|
70mm IMAX (cine)
| IMAX film; 48.59mm aperture
|
VistaVision
| Wide-angle cinematography; 37.719mm aperture
|
35mm (24mm X 36mm) (slide)
| Slide film, print graphics; 34.2mm aperture
|
6cm X 6cm (2 1/4 X 2 1/4)
(slide)
| Slide film, print graphics; 51.6mm aperture
|
4 X 5 or 8 X 10
(slide)
| Stills or print film; 88.9mm aperture
|
NTSC
| N. America and Chilé broadcast and
industrial video; 20.12mm aperture; pixel aspect 0.900
|
PAL
| European broadcast and industrial video;
20.12mm aperture; pixel aspect 1.067
|
HDTV
| High-definition television; 20.12mm aperture
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Options
The Options section of the Common Parameters rollout consists of eight
check boxes that enable or disable certain options during rendering.
Video Color Check replaces any non-NTSC colors with black in the rendering.
Force 2-Sided renders both sides of surfaces, whether or not you have
assigned a 2-Sided or Double Sided material. Atmospherics, Effects, and
Displacement simply turns on or off the rendering for the atmospherics,
Render Effects, or displacement maps you have added to the scene. Super
Black is used for compositing to render the background as a pure black
and the darkest areas of the foreground a less pure black. Render Hidden
renders hidden objects. Render to Fields renders to the two separate fields
per frame needed for video.
Render Output
The Render Output section is where you choose the type of file output,
the name, and the destination of your file. The files button brings up
the dialog box illustrated in Figure 11.11. The Save as Type drop-down
list in the dialog box gives you the file output options detailed in Table
11.2. You can use all of these file types with animations, but with a
still-image file type, you will be outputting a series of stills rather
than one movie file. The series will be sequentially numbered (starting
with filename0000) for easy transfer into an editing or
compositing program or MAXs Video Post.
FIGURE
11.11 Render Output File dialog box
Table 11.2: AVAILABLE FILE FORMATS
IN MAX
File Format
| Extension(s)
| Description
|
Autodesk Flic movie
| flc, fli, cel
| 8-bit, animated
|
Windows AVI movie
| avi
| 24-bit, animated
|
Windows bitmap
| bmp
| 8- or 24-bit, still image
|
Encapsulated PostScript
| eps, ps
| Encoded still image for PostScript printers
|
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)
| jpg
| Compressed still image
|
Kodak Cineon
| cin
| 24-bit still image with printing density
options
|
QuickTime movie
| mov
| 24 or 32-bit with alpha channel, animated
|
PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
| png
| 8-, 16-, 24-, or 48-bit color plus alpha
channel option and interlace option, still image
|
RLA (Run-length encoded version A)
| rla
| 8 or 16 bits per channel, plus alpha and
8 other optional channels, including Z-Depth, still image
|
3D Studio MAX RPF (Rich Pixel Format)
| rpf
| 8 or 16 bits per channel plus alpha and
12 other optional channels, including Z-Depth; still image
|
SGIs image file format
| rgb
| 8- or 16-bit color plus alpha channel,
still image
|
Targa
| tga
| 16-, 24-. or 32-bit with alpha channel,
still image
|
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)
| tif
| 8-bit grayscale or 24-bit color, still
image
|
When choosing a file format, you will need to consider whether you need
an alpha channel. Alpha channels store the transparency information of
the pixels for use in compositing. File formats with a fourth 8-bit channel
(called 32-bit) give you the ability to store an alpha channel. Some formats
allow 16 bits per channel, and some allow you to store an alpha channel
with less than 24 bits of color information, so your file format may actually
be more or less than 32-bit with its alpha channel.
|
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| TIP If you want
a single movie file with an alpha channel, your only option is a QuickTime
movie. Select Animation, Planar RGB, TGA, TIFF, or None for your compressor,
and change your color setting to Millions of Colors+
in the Compression Setup dialog box. Compression is discussed in more
detail in the next section of this chapter.
|
If you need to use Z-buffer information to take into Discreet effect*
for 3D compositing, for example, you will need to use a format like RLA.
RLA files will store extra 8-bit grayscale channels of information, including
3D information like Z depth. This allows for advanced compositing. Remember
that the rendering still creates two-dimensional arrays of pixels. An
RLA file with a Z depth channel simply has an additional 8 bits of information
that describe each pixel in terms of its distance from the camera. RLA
channels are also supported by Adobe AfterEffects 4.1. RPF files are currently
recognized only by MAXs Video Post. The next version of effect*
will likely support them.
|
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| NOTE Boboland
offers a free MAX script to extract channel information from RLA and
RPF files to grayscale images in other file formats. Go to http://www.gfxcentral.com/bobo,
click Bobos MAXSCRIPTS r3, then ChannelExtractor 0.2 MacroScript
Source to download.
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After choosing your file type, choosing the save location, and typing
in your file name, you can click the Save button to return to the Render
dialog box with your file output set.
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| WARNING Be
sure that Save File is checked, especially for an animation. Nothing
is worse than waiting for a long rendering only to discover that the
hours of painstaking work rendered by your processors was not saved
to disk. (Only the last frame will remain in the Virtual Frame Buffer.)
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© 2000, Frol (selection,
edition, publication)
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