File formats

Currently, the file formats documented on this site are all related to computer animation, and frame based animation in particular.

The FLIC file format

2006-08-14
A detailed description of the animation file format for FLI/FLC files. The FLIC file format was developed for Autodesk Animator, and it is now supported by a wide range of animation software and utilities.
    The document also discusses many enhancements and extensions to the file format from EGI, DTA and Cosmigo, plus that it covers the FLH/FLT/FLX files in addition to the 256-colour FLIC files.
Most recent update: An additional "known error" in the format plus clarifications of the colour palette chunks (how they relate to updating the screen).

The Filmstrip file format

2006-08-14
A description of the lossless (uncompressed) animation file format that Adobe introduced with Premiere. This paper fills in a few details that are lacking from the original description by Adobe and it provides some C source code to read/convert Filmstrip files.
Most recent update: Minor corrections in the code snippets.

The Poly-Raster Image format

2007-10-24
The Poly-Raster Image format is a picture file format that holds one or more device-specific bitmaps along with descriptive headers. Its goal is to be a flexible format that is easy to decode, using few resources. The Poly-Raster format is therefore particularly useful for embedded systems --especially the smallest of these embedded systems. The article presents the file format as well as source code and utilities.
Most recent update: The article has a new section on animation, and the updated software now comes with a GUI version of the image encoder.