Body: <p>All is in the question. For the moment, I use PNG image sequences which is cool but sometimes I wonder if a better option exists. I heard about HuffYUV but I never tried it because it wasn't easy to find informations about it. Anyway this format should be the most standard as possible. </p>
  
  <p>Software I use are : Sony Vegas, Blender, Max/MSP Jitter, After Effect, Processing, etc... </p>
  
  <p>Any Idea ? </p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-10-10T05:17:31.370Z
Comments.Text: What's wrong with PNG?
Comments.UserDisplayName: Gyan
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-10-10T23:30:09.970Z
Comments.Text: If you want to do more research, what you're looking for is an intermediate codec. Other examples are ProRes, DNxHR, and GoPro Cineform (all proprietary, the last two are free, ProRes is only available on non OSX-encumbered machines via ffmpeg). They're minimally lossy, support high bit-depth, all I-Frame and fast to en/de-code. I have them all installed, but my intermediate codec of choice is .png sequence.
Comments.UserDisplayName: stib
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-10-11T01:47:32.790Z
Comments.Text: @Mulvya I think it is possible to obtain a better compression and so better performance by taking account of multiple frame.
Comments.UserDisplayName: snoob dogg
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-10-11T01:49:37.207Z
Comments.Text: @stib +1 for intermediate codec, I will have a look to these, but I'm wondering if a software like Sony Vegas will be able to use them, that's always the problem...
Comments.UserDisplayName: snoob dogg
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-10-11T01:53:17.757Z
Comments.Text: Also, I don't know if that's really a problem but working with images sequences leads to a huge amount of tiny files of various size and I don't like the idea it fragments my hdd like that :( ...
Comments.UserDisplayName: snoob dogg
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-10-11T05:12:43.570Z
Comments.Text: You can save PNGs as a MOV, using ffmpeg: `ffmpeg -framerate 25 -i in%d.png -c copy out.mov`
Comments.UserDisplayName: Gyan
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-10-12T03:32:25.063Z
Comments.Text: You can get better compression with intra-frame codecs like h.264, but you get *worse* performance, because multiple frames need to be processed to display one frame. All of those codecs will be smaller than png sequences, but at the expense of being lossy.
Comments.UserDisplayName: stib
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2017-10-12T03:36:19.607Z
Comments.Text: And fragmentation is going to happen regardless. Fragmentation is actually where *large* files don't fit into the available gaps on a hard drive and get broken up by the OS into fragments. Small files fit into available gaps better, so are less likely to be fragmented. But yes, it can be tedious working with folders containing tens of thousands of files.
Comments.UserDisplayName: stib
Tags: <codec>
Title: Which lossless RGBA codec should I use for share animations sequences between my different video software?
UserDisplayName: snoob dogg
ThreadText: # Which lossless RGBA codec should I use for share animations sequences between my different video software?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2017-10-09)
  
  All is in the question. For the moment, I use PNG image sequences which is cool but sometimes I wonder if a better option exists. I heard about HuffYUV but I never tried it because it wasn't easy to find informations about it. Anyway this format should be the most standard as possible.
  
  Software I use are : Sony Vegas, Blender, Max/MSP Jitter, After Effect, Processing, etc...
  
  Any Idea ?
  
  **Tags:** codec
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: What's wrong with PNG?  
  > **username_2**: If you want to do more research, what you're looking for is an intermediate codec. Other examples are ProRes, DNxHR, and GoPro Cineform (all proprietary, the last two are free, ProRes is only available on non OSX-encumbered machines via ffmpeg). They're minimally lossy, support high bit-depth, all I-Frame and fast to en/de-code. I have them all installed, but my intermediate codec of choice is .png sequence.  
  > **username_0**: @Mulvya I think it is possible to obtain a better compression and so better performance by taking account of multiple frame.  
  > **username_0**: @username_2 +1 for intermediate codec, I will have a look to these, but I'm wondering if a software like Sony Vegas will be able to use them, that's always the problem...  
  > **username_0**: Also, I don't know if that's really a problem but working with images sequences leads to a huge amount of tiny files of various size and I don't like the idea it fragments my hdd like that :( ...  
  > **username_1**: You can save PNGs as a MOV, using ffmpeg: `ffmpeg -framerate 25 -i in%d.png -c copy out.mov`  
  > **username_2**: You can get better compression with intra-frame codecs like h.264, but you get *worse* performance, because multiple frames need to be processed to display one frame. All of those codecs will be smaller than png sequences, but at the expense of being lossy.  
  > **username_2**: And fragmentation is going to happen regardless. Fragmentation is actually where *large* files don't fit into the available gaps on a hard drive and get broken up by the OS into fragments. Small files fit into available gaps better, so are less likely to be fragmented. But yes, it can be tedious working with folders containing tens of thousands of files.  
  
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  ## 0 answers
  
  