To convert an open or selected RGB[A] movie, slide show, or image sequence to a sequence of SheerVideo QuickDraw Picture (PICT) files or SheerVideo QuickTime Image (QTIF) files:

1. Select File > Export > Image Sequence… in After Effects's menu bar
   

to bring up the Save dialog box.




2. Specify the output image base name in the Save As text field at the top of the Save dialog box.
   
3. Click the Save button at the bottom right of the Save dialog box
   

to bring up the QuickTime Export Image Sequence Settings dialog box.




4. Select the desired file format in the Format pop-menu at the top of the Export Image Sequence Settings dialog box:
• PICT, to output QuickDraw Picture (PICT) files

  If you save an image in SheerVideo format in a QuickDraw Picture file, the image will be openable by any application that can open PICT files, which includes essentially all Macintosh applications that can open any image files at all, including TextEdit and SimpleText. The drawback is that the SheerVideo PICT file is about 924 bytes bigger than the SheerVideo image file itself.

  QuickDraw Picture files have the file type 'PICT' or 'grex', and the file name extension ".pict" or ".pct".
  

• QuickTime Image, to output QuickTime Image (QTIF) files

  If you save an image in SheerVideo format in a QuickTime Image file, the image will be openable by any application that can open QuickTime Image files. A SheerVideo QuickTime Image file is only about 128 bytes longer than the SheerVideo image itself, so it wastes less space than a SheerVideo PICT file.

  Note that Adobe After Effects 6 does not import QuickTime Images (QTIF files), even though it does export them.

  QuickTime Image files have the file type 'qtif', and the file name extension ".qtif" or ".qti".
  

5. Select Frames per second: best in the pop-up menu in the middle of the Export Image Sequence Settings dialog box, unless you want to resample the video at a different rate.
   
6. Click the Options… button at the bottom of the Export Image Sequence Settings dialog box
   

to bring up the PICT Options dialog box




or the QuickTime Image Options dialog box.




7. Ignore the Don't recompress checkbox at the top of the PICT Options or QuickTime Image Options dialog box, which, as of QuickTime 7.0, is never enabled.
8. Click the Options… button in the middle of the PICT Options or QuickTime Image Options dialog box
   

to bring up the Compression Settings dialog box.




9. Select the desired Sheer codec in the Compression type pop-up menu at the top of the Compression Settings dialog box:
   
• Sheer, to let SheerVideo automatically choose the appropriate Sheer pixel type according to the image pixel format that it receives from the After Effects QuickTime Export function, which is always RGB[A] 8bf. Thus, in this context, selecting the generic Sheer codec is equivalent to selecting the specific Sheer RGB[A] 8bf codec. (See immediately below.)
  
• Sheer RGB[A] 8bf, for use in applications dealing in standard-precision scanned film and computer-generated imagery.

  details

  This codec perfectly encodes all RGB[A] 8bf source footage in real time through After Effects' QuickTime Export facility, with an average compression power of 2.2, so that the Sheer RGB[A] 8bf files take up only 45% as much space as the uncompressed RGB[A] 8bf originals, with zero loss of information.

  Sheer RGB[A] 8bf both encodes and decodes losslessly in real time from and to all RGB[A] 8bf pixel formats (ARGB, and, on PC+Windows, ABGR, RGBA, BGRA, RGB, and BGR), making it ideal for editing in those formats.

  For faster but lower-quality display, the Sheer RGB[A] 8bf codec can also decode in real time to RGB 5b pixel formats (B555, and, on PC+Windows, L555 and L565).

  This codec also losslessly decodes to RGB[A] >8bf pixel formats ('b64a', 'L64A', 'b48r', 'R10k', and 'r210'); and, using Synchromy, losslessly decodes to Y'CbCr[A] ≥10b 4:4:4[:4] pixel formats ('r4fl', 'V416', and 'v410').

  In addition, Sheer RGB[A] 8bf uses Synchromy to decode with the minimal loss theoretically possible to Y'CbCr[A] <10b pixel formats ('v408', 'VUYA', 'r408', 'v210', 'v216', 'Y216', '2vuy', '2Vuy', and 'yuvs').

  
  
• Sheer RGB[A] 10bf, for use in applications dealing in high-precision scanned film and computer-generated imagery.

  details

  Like Sheer RGB[A] 8bf, this codec perfectly encodes all RGB[A] 8bf source footage in real time through After Effects' QuickTime Export facility, with an average compression power of 2.2, so that the Sheer RGB[A] 10bf files take up only 45% as much space as the uncompressed RGB[A] 8bf originals, with zero loss of information.

  Sheer RGB[A] 10bf both encodes and decodes losslessly in real time from and to all RGB[A] 10bf pixel formats (10-bit 'b64a' and 'L64A', 10-bit 'b48r', 'R10k', and 'r210') making it ideal for editing in RGB[A] 10bf formats.

  For faster but lower-quality display, Sheer RGB[A] 10bf can decode in real time all RGB[A] 8bf pixel formats (ARGB, and, on PC+Windows, ABGR, RGBA, BGRA, RGB, and BGR), as well as RGB 5b pixel formats (B555, and, on PC+Windows, L555 and L565).

  Note that After Effects Pro only outputs RGB[A] 8bf through its QuickTime Export facility, so there isn't much point in exporting to Sheer RGB[A] 10bf instead of Sheer RGB[A] 8bf. For true RGB[A] 10bf output, use After Effects Pro's Rendering Queue instead.

  Using Synchromy, this codec also losslessly decodes to Y'CbCr[A] ≥12b 4:4:4[:4] pixel formats ('r4fl'), and, for RGB[A] 8bf source footage, to Y'CbCr[A] ≥10b 4:4:4[:4] pixel formats ('r4fl', 'V416', and 'v410').

  In addition, Sheer RGB[A] 10bf uses Synchromy to decode with the minimal loss theoretically possible to Y'CbCr[A] <12b pixel formats ('v408', 'VUYA', 'r408', 'v210', 'v216', 'Y216', '2vuy', '2Vuy', and 'yuvs').

  
  

Note that QuickDraw pictures and QuickTime Image Files do not support any Y'CbCr[A] pixel formats, and QuickTime will convert any such images into RGB[A] before passing them to the encoder, thus degrading the image, so it's pointless to specify a Sheer Y'CbCr codec. Unfortunately, QuickTime does not provide any mechanism for the encoder to determine the source format.

RGB stands for {Red, Green, Blue}, the color representation used by the human eye, scanners, and displays.

[A] stands for an optional Alpha channel specifying opacity or coverage, used for compositing.

Y'CbCr stands for {luma (Y), Chroma blue-yellow, Chroma red-cyan}, the color representation used by television.

8b stands for 8 bits of information per color channel, the standard precision of digital displays.

10b stands for 10 bits of information per color channel, the standard precision of digitized film and computer-generated imagery.

10. Specify whether or not you want to retain alpha in your exported images, by selecting one of the following items in the Depth pop-menu at the top of the Compressor section in the lower left of the Standard Video Compression Settings dialog box:
    
    • Millions of Colors, if there is no alpha channel or you want to ignore it.
      
    • Millions of Colors+, if there is an alpha channel and you want to preserve it.
      

    Note that for 10-bit codecs, the Depth pop-up menu erroneously offers "Millions" instead of "Billions" of colors. Nevertheless, After Effects Pro and QuickTime do properly support 10-bit codecs.

    To find out whether your input movie has an alpha channel, see the Alpha instructions at the bottom of this page.

11. Ignore the Quality slider, if present, in the middle of the Compressor section of the Compression Settings dialog box. It has no effect on the compression quality of SheerVideo QuickTime Image or QuickDraw PICT images, which is always perfect or best (Quality=Best=100). Note: this slider was removed in SheerVideo v2.3.8.
    
12. For advanced settings, click the Options… button at the bottom of the Compressor section of the Compression Settings dialog box
    

to bring up the Sheer Settings dialog box.




13. Specify whether or not you want to turn on SheerVideo's self-check mode to verify each compressed image by decompressing it to the input pixel format (which is always RGB[A] 8bf in After Effects QuickTime export) and comparing the restored image to the input, by clicking on one of the following radio buttons at the top of the Algorithms section of the Sheer Settings dialog box:
    • One-way (faster), to have SheerVideo just encode the images. This is the default value.
      
    • Self-check (safer), to have SheerVideo encode, decode, and compare the result, to verify that each image is encoded with perfect fidelity.
      

    Note that SheerVideo is so fast compared to other system bottlenecks that you may not notice any slowdown in using the self-check mode, especially for frames small enough to fit in the CPU cache.

14. Specify whether or not you want to take advantage of any vector processor in your computer by clicking on one of the following radio buttons at the bottom of the Algorithms section of the Sheer Settings dialog box:
    • Scalar (energy saver), to have SheerVideo execute a scalar code version of the codec, to save battery power on a laptop with a vector processor, such as a PowerBook G4.
      
    • Vectorized (faster), to have SheerVideo execute a vectorized code version of the codec. When available, this is the default value.
      

    Many of SheerVideo's codecs are available in two forms: scalar code, to run on a scalar processor; and vectorized code, to run on a vector processor. The vectorized code speeds up encoding and decoding by nearly a factor of two, but increases energy consumption, which can be an important consideration on battery-powered computers. Moreover, since vector processors are much more complicated and vectorized algorithms are much more complicated, switching to a scalar algorithm can be diagnostically useful.

15. Select which coding method you want SheerVideo to use, by clicking on one of the following radio buttons in the Coding section of the Sheer Settings dialog box:
    • Progressive, if you want to encode the image in progressive-scan mode. Progressive coding usually compresses better for content having little or no interfield motion.
      
    • Interlaced, if you want to encode the even and odd fields of the image independently. Interlaced coding usually compresses better for content having large interfield motion, and is often slightly faster.
      
    • Automatic, if you want the coding method to be determined by the images' Field Info image description extension. This is the default value. Note, however, that as of QuickTime 7.0, there is still no mechanism for QuickTime encoders to access the image description extensions of the source.
      
16. Ignore the Pixel Format Conversion, which is always Perfect, because Adobe After Effects' QuickTime Export facility only outputs RGB[A] 8bf, and QuickDraw Picture Files and QuickTime Image Files only support Sheer RGB[A] 8bf and 10bf, both of which perfectly encode RGB[A] 8bf pixels.
17. Select the video color standard of the Y'CbCr target for Sheer Y'CbCr[A] codecs, and of the Y'CbCr source for Sheer RGB[A] codecs, by clicking on one of the following radio buttons in the Video Source Default section of the Sheer Settings dialog box:
    • NTSC, for composite NTSC (SMPTE 170-M-1994), digital 525 (SMPTE 125-M-1995, SMPTE 267-M-1995, SMPTE 259-M-1997), or 720x483 progressive 16:9 (SMPTE 293-M-1996)
      This is the default value.
      
    • PAL, for composite PAL or SECAM (ITU-R BT.470-4), or for digital 625 (ITU-R BT.656-3).
      
    • HD, for all current HD formats (ITU-R BT.709-2), including 1920x1080 HDTV (SMPTE 274-M-1995) and 1280x720 HDTV (SMPTE 296-M-1997).
      
    • HD 1035, for 1920x1035 HDTV (SMPTE 240-M-1995, SMPTE 260-M-1992) as well as the obsolete interim color implementation of 1920x1080 HDTV (SMPTE 274-M-1995).
      

    When exporting to Sheer RGB codecs from any Y'CbCr source footage in After Effects Professional, you should use the Rendering Queue rather than the QuickTime export facility, because the latter only exports RGB[A] 8bf, even if the project is set to 16 bits/pixel.

18. Click the OK button at the bottom of the Sheer Settings dialog box to confirm the Sheer options settings and dismiss the Sheer Settings dialog box.
    
19. Click the OK button at the bottom of the Compression Settings dialog box to confirm the compression settings and dismiss the Compression Settings dialog box.
    
20. Click the OK button at the bottom of the PICT Options or QuickTime Image Options dialog box to confirm the PICT or QuickTime Image options and dismiss the PICT Options or QuickTime Image Options dialog box.
    
21. Click the OK button at the bottom of the Export Image Sequence Settings dialog box to confirm the image-sequence export settings, dismiss the Export Image Sequence dialog box, and export the movie frames as a sequence of SheerVideo PICT or QTIF images.
    

Alpha

To determine if a movie or image in After Effects has an alpha channel,

1. Select the movie or image in the After Effects Project Window
   

2. Look at the Color Depth description next to the thumbnail at the top of the Project Window. If it says Millions of Colors+ or Trillions of Colors+, then the source file has an alpha channel. If there's no +, then the source file has no alpha channel.
   

or

1. Select the movie or image in the After Effects Project Window
   

2. Select File > Interpret Footage > Main… in After Effects's menu bar
   

to bring up the Interpret Footage dialog box.




3. Look at the Alpha section at the top of the Interpret Footage dialog. If the controls are operable, then the source file has an alpha channel. If they're grayed out and inoperable, then the source file has no alpha channel.
4. Click the OK button at the bottom of the Interpret Footage dialog box to dismiss the dialog box.