Optimisation

Optimisation

Essentially, optimisation means making the product look the best it possibly can. You’ll need to consider the purpose of the animation, and how to colour, size, frame, compression and exported file fit the purpose.

You should use vector rather than bitmap for this.

Bitmaps (or rasters)

When you zoom in on a bitmap/raster file, the pixels become visible as tiny squares, and the overall effect is rather blurred

Vector

Vector graphics store the image information as a series of coordinates (vectors), and when zooming in on the image, it does not blur/pixelate

High quality: .mov (known as quicktime file in fcp)

Low Quality: .mp4 (known as MPEG 4 in fcp)

High quality and resolution

A file exported in full animation - VECTOR images, moving backgrounds etc

File - share - Export file - settings

Format, video code, file format and size

.mov files produce larger files. Footage, effects and text will be a better quality, with a lower degree of compression

Very difficult to send over the internet and download/stream on black box devices

The details of the animation get picked up better and nothing is lost - resulting in a more complete and clear production. Details include: object descriptors, scene descriptors and other object oriented file structures which run in the background

Files aren’t compressed = footage, text, transitions, edit effects

Optimisation = Lower quality and resolution

Video code H.264 - standard codec for compression and video encoding

File - share - Export File - settings

Format, video code, file format and size

Recently, this has become the most popular codec to play videos over the web, while also being supported by many smart phones - many advantages and easy accessibility 

Although final cut suggests it is only supported by iPhone devices, it is also supported by Androids/Google phones as it is a web file

An MPEG (also known as an MP4) file provides smaller files, therefore it will load faster. Also allows users to watch videos over a low-bandwidth connection, meaning that anyone with poor internet (Wi-Fi or 3G/4G/5G) would still be able to view the file

Although the high compression sometimes lowers the quality, ultimately it will provide a better viewing experience 

Avoid using any moving images for the backgrounds - stick with images (BITMAP). Otherwise the file image becomes quicker and laggy

Test Plan and Debugging 

Once an animation has been created, it needs to be tested and debugged 

The test plan allows you to check that the animation runs as expected

A screen test could be created to ascertain whether what is in the animation marries with the desired outcomes (for example, if a zombie dog attacks a zombie cat, does it actually look like this on screen?)

Screen Test

A screen test would typically be played to an audience in order to ascertain whether it is fit for purpose