What's an Image Sequence?

Common "pro-sumer" formats like Quicktime will bundle all picture, audio, and ancillary tracks into one large file. By contrast, when working with an image sequence, each frame of video is a separate file.

What is the advantage of working with image sequences?

Image sequences provide the most workflow flexibility and highest image quality. They are the preferred format for final online and color grading work.

What are common image sequence formats?

The most common image sequence formats used in post production are DPX, TIFF, and OpenEXR.

Which formats does Endcrawl support?

Endcrawl's render engine currently supports DPX and TIFF renders.

Why do you recommend working with image sequences?

DPX are uncompressed; TIFF can be either uncompressed or feature lossless compression. Other formats, like Apple ProRes, are still high-quality but their compression is lossy.

But if you're unsure of which render format to select, please check in with your post house or DI vendor first. The Endcrawl support team is always here to help, but we won't have all of the specifics around your finishing workflow.

We're also available to interface directly with your post house to smooth out workflow questions or dial in your exact specs.

Should I be worried about downloading large DPX or TIFF sequences from you?

You should not!

We deliver image sequences as a single ZIP archive. It turns out those uncompressed end titles zip up very nicely, too—about 1-2% of the uncompressed size. So you'll download just one manageable ZIP from us, and then unzip it on your end.

Is an h.264 file good enough?

We typically recommend h.264 for "checker" renders, cash-strapped short films, web series, or personal projects.