Render PIXELS without anti-alias?

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 6:17 pm

I have a challenge. I've been noodling and noodling but can't find a way to get a very small image (110 x 92 pixels in this case) to render in AS without get all blurry. I've tried messing with the camera, having my project the exact same size as the document in question, rendering larger, rendering a movie without anti-aliasing, changing layer settings ... no luck. I challenge anybody to find a way to render this image:

Without ending up with a blurry mess. I could change the size in Photoshop beforehand, but to do that for a lot of scenes is a mission. It'd be great if I could find a way to avoid this:

It'd be great to be able to render a 110 pixel sized image much larger without anti-aliasing, similar to how Photoshop can size up or down with a 'nearest neighbor' interpolation that doesn't smooth pixels, instead of the 'bilinear' that I suspect AS uses as default.

Wonder if this is an easy correction or a script or something could do this?

Strangely, the image looks absolutely perfect in the AS work view. Its just when rendering things go a bit weird.

Thanks,

Mike

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 6:36 pm

Looks like it simply can't be done.

How about using a screen capture tool and just grab the workview? I know I had one which was able to be placed exactly over the captured area, then used with a keystroke. Would be possible to advance 1 frame in AS, then captrure, and again as often as needed. After that a batch job within PS to enlarge, and maybe a batch using ReNamer.

Unfortunately I don't have that grabber any more and don't remember the name ...

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 9:40 pm

Not a bad idea, thanks slow.

Hmm. Not very time-efficient though though not impossible. First prize would be a more simple and elegant solution, though yours is pretty ingenious I gotta say. I suppose I could use Snapz Pro and add the sequence in Final Cut Express.

I'm hoping somebody can mess with some command line or haxorz rendering engine to not smooth all the pixels - that'd be first prize.

Anyway, nice one, that's always a possibility. I quite like it for the meantime but I cringe at doing a 3 and a half minute project with around 100 scenes like that.

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Sat Feb 19, 2011 11:27 pm

EDIT - ok multiple layers of pixel stuff doesn't look as perfect as I thought in the working view of AS.

Sigh. I think After Effects may be better suited to this task though its super duper pricey. Slow - do you know if After Effects would take a small image and render it correctly?

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 12:06 am

Hm, I think you could use Automator for recording - once you've correctly placed Snaps, all it needs is to repeat "tell application AS keystroke right, tell application snaps keystroke "record"".

My latest AfterFX is version 5.5, and I doubt it is pixel-correct since it uses sub-pixel computing as well.

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 12:12 am

Thanks slow.

The image looked perfect in the working view because it was a composite single image. As soon as I have multiple image layers I start seeing jaggies and tearing of the images up close. So, thanks, nice suggestion but it kind of rules out the posibility of recording from the working window.

Best results I get thus far is by sizing up in Photoshop with 'nearest neighbor' filter x10 then working in AS and rendering with 'antialiased edges' enabled in AS' render settings. However, I'm messing around with Photoshop's export to video option. That could be quite neat, though I enjoy working with AS' tools. If Photoshop had a better timeline and audio I could probably do it all in Photoshop. I see CS5 does include audio. Hmm. I have CS4. Will check it out.

cheyne · Post by **cheyne** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 4:43 am

Hey Mikdog,

Love the new signature man, thumbs up! Well dude, I must say I feel your pain. I was working with a friend on some video for a game he was making once upon a time and we went through the same dramas.

For qualities sake we resigned ourselves to the fact we would have to redo the artwork. Basically, from memory, we made our single "pixel" about 30 pixels squared. Have you seen the video clip for Junior Senior - Move your feet? http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1102577/m ... or_senior/

We got the idea to use "larger" pixels from that video, basically having upscaling the "8 bit" palette size, in general terms.

Sorry I don't have any suggestions for a quicker way around this! Good luck with sorting out the project

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 8:55 am

Yep I know what video, it rocks! So if you did 30 x 30 pixels, did you have a square grid or something? How'd you get everything to snap together neatly and get the 30 x 30 pixel thing working? Thanks

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 11:00 am

(I don't ask why you insist on doing it the hard way ...)

In PS you could
1. define a grid which fits your "megapixel" size
2. use the mosaic filter with that megapixel setting (test image dimensions before because I don't know where it starts: center or edge)
3. drop a megapixel square into your brushes

patricia3d · Post by **patricia3d** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 11:48 am

I have used a funny trick with ASP to create this

size= 109 x 125

1. Render as Swf
Play SWF using IE
Make the IE window small
Print Screen
Open GIMP
Paste Screen
Cut the required size and paste as new image.

cheyne · Post by **cheyne** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 2:15 pm

@Mikdog

Yeah mate, we had a grid setup so it'd be like using a 1 pixel brush on a standard grid. Worked nicely, fortunately he had a larger screen to work on.

@Slowtiger

Hah, yeah, I'm probably a sucker for punishment

. At the time we experimented and personally weren't satisfied, that's the only reason we went for redoing the project. It was a small bit otherwise I wouldn't have bothered. I like your suggestion though, I'd rather save time and swallow my pride these days

ponysmasher · Post by **ponysmasher** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 2:37 pm

I've actually been in the same situation. If I remember correctly what we did was export as SWF, import into after effects where you can render it to draft quality and there you go.

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Sun Feb 20, 2011 11:21 pm

Thanks pony ... hmm, did the flash export allow you to squash and stretch the PNG images? Interesting solution. May give that a try. I don't own After Effects but maybe Final Cut Express can do something similar.

Cheyne - thanks man. I'm curious to know how you set up your grid? I mean, I can't quite figure out in my mind how you'd do that - was it a grid of a 1 pixel line width squares or something? Then did you use the fill tool to fill the squares? You use markers with a snap to grid option? Thanks.

cheyne · Post by **cheyne** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 6:57 am

Hey Mikdog,

I didn't explain from the start sorry, I used Photoshop and painted each frame, exported and composited it later.

With the setup, I made a 30 pixel square brush, than set the grid to be 30 pixels i.e. each grid square is 30x30. Than set "snap to grid" and painted away. I didn't want to diddle around with filling, so that's why I made a square 30 pixel brush. That seemed the simplest way to me, I was used to doing it that way when I used MS Paint in my younger years.

Hope that helps mate

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Mon Feb 21, 2011 8:25 am

Thanks Cheyne. I tried that but the snap to grid thin isn't absolute so I'm still left with big squares being places erratically, out of a solid square grid. Did you change a setting in the grid perhaps so that the brush would snap to a grid precisely? My Photoshop grid is more like a 'suggestion' rather than solid absolute grid.

Thanks.