Export OpenGL Frames Dialog Box

The Export OpenGL Frames dialog box allows you to export your scene as a sequence of images as they appear in the OpenGL View mode of the Camera view. This means they are exported without effects, antialiasing and proper compositing. This allows you to quickly preview the animation in your scene without having to wait through the full rendering process.

  1. In the top menu, select File > Export > OpenGL Frames.
Parameter Description
Output

Location

The directory in which to export the frames or movie file.

You can click Browse... to open a dialog allowing you to navigate your file system and select a directory.

Filename

The name of the file to export.

If you are exporting frames, the file name of each frame will start with this value, followed by the number of the frame.

Format

Image Sequence

Select this option to create an image sequence.

Movie

 Exports the frames into a movie file.

Frames

 Exports each frame as an individual image file.

Suffix

 Allows you to select the number of digits in the number used to identify each frame.

Drawing Type
Format Specification Description
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.

NOTE PSD files exported from Harmony are tagged with their colour space information in their metadata, except for PSD files exported in greyscale.
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), resolution and field chart metadata. 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.

NOTE PNG files exported from Harmony are tagged with their colour space information in their metadata.
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 Optimized image (*.opt)

A legacy Toon Boom proprietary format that stores bitmap image data with lossless compression. It supports transparency.
OPT1 Greyscale
OPT3 Full colour
OPT4 Full colour with transparency
VAR

Toon Boom Variable Header image (*.var)

A legacy Toon Boom proprietary format that stores greyscale bitmap image data with lossless compression.
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 16 lines Zip compression

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.

NOTES
  • OpenEXR files exported from Harmony are tagged with the white point and primaries coordinates for their colour space.
  • OpenEXR files are always exported by Harmony always have 1 line Zip compression if they contain a 3D image.
EXR_ZIP_1LINE 1 line Zip compression
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.

Image Format

Drop list with all formats listed alphabetically.

  • BMP
  • DPX
  • DTEX
  • EXR
  • JPG
  • OPT
  • PAL
  • PDF
  • PNG
  • PSD
  • SCAN
  • SGI
  • TGA
  • TIF
  • TVG
  • VAR
  • YUV

Colours

Drop list with colour modes. Available modes depend on the selected file type.

  • Greyscale

  • Colour
  • Colour + Alpha

Depth (bits/channel)

Drop list with bit depth value and a label next to it "bits/channel". Available bit depth depends on the selected file type.

  • 8

  • 10
  • 12
  • 16
 

Compression

Drop list that appears for EXR and TIF formats only.

  • Zip (per scanline)
  • Zip (16 scanlines)
Inverted Channels A checkbox that appears for DPX only in 10, 12, 16 bit depths.

Movie options

Opens the movie settings dialog box for your selected video format, in which you can set the video and audio compression settings for your video file:

NOTE This button is available on Windows and macOS only.

Video options

Opens the video settings dialog box, which allows you to set the video compression settings for your video file—see OpenQuickTime Video Options Dialog Box (GNU/Linux).

NOTE This button is available on GNU/Linux only.

Sound options

Opens the audio settings dialog box, which allows you to set the audio compression settings for your video file—see OpenQuickTime Sound Options Dialog Box (GNU/Linux).

NOTE This button is available on GNU/Linux only.

Movie Format

Allows you to choose one of the following movie formats:

  • QuickTime Movie (*.mov): The Apple QuickTime format. This is the default export format and is recommended for its portability, and also because it allows you to choose among several video codecs.

    NOTES
    • On Windows, Apple QuickTime must be installed to allow Harmony to export QuickTime movies. You can configure the export of QuickTime movies to use any codec that is compatible with QuickTime, including H.264, MPEG-4 and Animation.
    • On macOS, Harmony uses Apple AVFoundation to export QuickTime movies, which allows you to export using codecs such as H.264, Apple ProRes 422 and Apple ProRes 4444, among others.
    • If you are looking to export a QuickTime movie with transparency, be sure to choose a codec that supports encoding with an alpha channel.
    • On GNU/Linux, Harmony uses the OpenQuickTime library to export QuickTime movies. This only allows you to export videos in non-proprietary formats such as Motion-JPEG, Photo JPEG, PNG or Uncompressed (RGB).

  • H.264/MPEG-4 (*.mov) : A simple movie format that uses the H.264 codec, which is supported by most web browsers.

    NOTES
    • Using this format does not require additional software. However, if this is the first time you export a movie in H.264/MPEG-4 format, you will be prompted to download the OpenH264 library from Cisco. Simply click Yes when prompted, and Harmony will automatically download the library, then export the movie.
    • There are no encoding options for this format.
    • This format supports resolutions of up to 4096×2304. Each dimension must be a multiple of 16 pixels.
    • Audio exported in this format is encoded in PCM 16-bit stereo, 22.05 kHz.

  • Windows Media Video (*.wmv): The native format for Windows Media Player.

    NOTES
    • Windows Media Video (.wmv) files can only be exported on Windows.
    • Video players and editors on non-Windows systems can generally not open Windows Media Video (.wmv) files.
Options

Open in Player

If checked, the exported images or movie will be opened after the export is finished:

  • If you are exporting frames, they will be opened in the Play application.
  • If you are exporting a movie, it will be opened in your operating system’s movie player.
Resolution

Allows you to specify a resolution to export in, relative to your scene's actual resolution:

  • Same as Scene Resolution: Exports a movie in the same resolution as your scene's resolution.
  • 3/4 of Scene Resolution: Exports a movie at 75% of the scene's width and height.
  • 1/2 of Scene Resolution: Exports a movie at 50% of the scene's width and height.
  • 1/4 of Scene Resolution: Exports a movie at 25% of the scene's width and height.
  • Custom: Allows you specify the preferred resolution of your exported video file, in pixels, in the Width and Height fields.
Range

Allows you to specify the range of frames in your scene to export:

  • All Frames: Exports all the frames in your scene.
  • From / to: Allows you to specify the frame range to export using the two input fields to the right. The first input field is for specifying the first frame to export, and the second one is for specifying the last frame to export. All the frames in-between, including the ones specified, will be exported.
  • Current Frame: Exports the current frame only.
  • Selected Frames: Allows you to select which frames to export. You can enable or disable exporting a specific frame by clicking on it. You can also toggle exporting a range of frames by clicking and dragging over that range in the list.
OK Exports OpenGL frames with the selected settings and closes the dialog box.
Cancel Closes the dialog box without exporting anything.