File formats

Skip to main content (skip navigation menu)






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
2020-10-18
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
2019-05-23
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
2019-05-28
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.