Image Formats for Rendering Write Nodes

To export an image sequence, you must to adjust a few settings in the Write node’s properties. The most important one is the Drawing Type parameter, which determines the image format in which individual frames are exported.

Most available formats are named after their file extension, but some also contain suffixes indicating how they're encoded. For example, while PNG is exported with three colour channels—red, green and blue—and encoded at 8 bits per channel by default, PNG4DP is a variant of PNG with four channels—red, green, blue and alpha (transparency)—as well as double precision, which means each colour channel is encoded in 16 bits instead of 8 bits.

Here is a list of all the image formats supported for rendering with Write nodes in Harmony

Format Specification Description
TVG

Toon Boom Vector Graphic (*.tvg)

Toon Boom's proprietary format for storing vector drawings.

NOTE To export TVG files, your Write node must be connected to a vector drawing layer or to a vector composite node. The exported TVG files will contain the vector and bitmap drawing information, but will ignore effects and deformations.
TGA Full colour

Truevision TGA/TARGA (*.tga)

A standard image format with lossless compression and support for transparency.

TGA files use more disk space than PNG files, but rendering in TGA is faster.

TGA1 Greyscale
TGA3 Full colour
TGA4 Full colour with transparency
SGI Full colour / 8 bits per channel

Silicon Graphics Image (*.sgi)

A highly capable format with lossless compression as well as support for double precision and transparency.

SGI1 Greyscale / 8 bits per channel
SGI3 Full colour / 8 bits per channel
SGI4 Full colour with transparency / 8 bits per channel
SGIDP Full colour / 16 bits per channel
SGIDP3 Full colour / 16 bits per channel
SGIDP4 Full colour with transparency / 16 bits per channel
PSD Full colour / 8 bits per channel

Photoshop Document (*.psd)

An Adobe Photoshop proprietary format used for image editing.

PSD files exported by Harmony contain a single background layer with the rasterized image.

PSD1 Greyscale / 8 bits per channel
PSD3 Full colour / 8 bits per channel
PSD4 Full colour with transparency / 8 bits per channel
PSDDP Full colour / 16 bits per channel
PSDDP1 Greyscale / 16 bits per channel
PSDDP3 Full colour / 16 bits per channel
PSDDP4 Full colour with transparency / 16 bits per channel
YUV

Y'UV frame (*.yuv)

A legacy format optimized for NTSC television. The image information is encoded in the Y'UV color space, which means Luma (Y') and Chrominance (UV).

NOTE YUV images must be exported in NTSC resolution (720 x 540), or they will not be legible.
PAL

PAL frame (*.pal)

A legacy format optimized for PAL television.

NOTE PAL images must be exported in PAL resolution (768 x 576), or they will not be legible.
SCAN

Toon Boom Scan Files (*.scan)

A Toon Boom proprietary format used by Scan to store scanned image information along with its registration (peg) information. SCAN files are in gresycale.

PNG Full colour / 8 bits per channel

Portable Network Graphics (*.png)

A highly portable image format with high lossless compression as well as support for transparency and double-precision. PNG is typically used for Web applications, graphical user interfaces and image sharing.

Rendering in PNG takes more time than rendering in TGA or in uncompressed image formats, but saves a lot of disk space.

PNG4 Full colour with transparency / 8 bits per channel
PNGDP Full colour / 16 bits per channel
PNGDP3 Full colour / 16 bits per channel
PNGDP4 Full colour with transparency / 16 bits per channel
JPG

Jpeg (*.jpg)

A very compact image format with lossy compression. It is typically used for Web pages and photo sharing. Because it does not preserve image quality, it is recommended to never render in Jpeg format unless you are exporting stills for a Web page or are making quick render tests.

BMP Full colour

Bitmap (*.bmp)

A standard uncompressed image format commonly used on Microsoft operating systems.

BMP4 Full colour with transparency
OPT Full colour

Toon Boom OPT image (*.opt)

A legacy Toon Boom proprietary format that stores raw image data with lossless compression.

OPT1 Greyscale
OPT3 Full colour
OPT4 Full colour with transparency
VAR

Toon Boom VAR image (*.var)

A legacy Toon Boom proprietary format that stores raw image data with lossless compression in greyscale.

TIF

Tagged Image File Format (*.tiff)

An image format with many compression and encoding settings. It is often used for image exchange in visual arts and publishing.

TIFF images exported by Harmony are uncompressed, encoded on a per-pixel (interleaved) basis in PC byte order.

DPX 8 bits per channel / Full color / RGB channel order

Digital Picture Exchange (*.dpx)

A professional photo format that supports various different approaches to storing colour information, which can be used for storing, exchanging and editing raw information recorded by cameras. It is commonly used in film production.

DPX3_8 8 bits per channel / Full color / RGB channel order
DPX3_10 10 bits per channel / Full color / RGB channel order
DPX3_12 12 bits per channel / Full color / RGB channel order
DPX3_16 16 bits per channel / Full color / RGB channel order
DPX3_10_INVERTED_CHANNELS 10 bits per channel / Full color / BGR channel order
DPX3_12_INVERTED_CHANNELS 12 bits per channel / Full color / BGR channel order
DPX3_16_INVERTED_CHANNELS 16 bits per channel / Full color / BGR channel order
EXR

OpenEXR (*.exr)

A highly capable deep image format. Each pixel in an EXR file is exported with its Z-depth information. Additionally, if a pixel is semi-transparent, the color and depth information of pixels further back is stored along with it. If your scene has multiplane or 3D elements, this format can be used for compositing your animation with other graphical elements in 3D animation software.

PDF

Portable Document File (*.pdf)

Typically, PDF files are used to store, archive, share and print documents. However, Harmony uses the PDF format for its capability to store bitmap images and vector graphics.

If the write node is connected to a vector drawing layer or to a vector composite, the exported PDF files will contain the image as a vector graphic. It will ignore bitmap layers, effects and deformations. Otherwise, the PDF files will contain the rendered image as a bitmap.

DTEX

Deep Texture (*.dtex)

A commonly used deep image format. Each pixel in an DTEX file is exported with its Z-depth information. Additionally, if a pixel is semi-transparent, the color and depth information of pixels further back is stored along with it. If your scene has multiplane or 3D elements, this format can be used for compositing your animation with other graphical elements in 3D animation software.

NOTE Exporting in Deep Texture requires RenderMan to be installed on the machine and the path to RenderMan properly configured in Harmony—see Setting 3D Renderer Paths.