What is the FLC file format?
The .flc file extension identifies an Autodesk FLIC animation, a binary raster animation format introduced with Autodesk Animator Pro in 1990. FLC is the enhanced successor to the earlier .fli format, sharing the same FLIC container family but removing the original fixed 320×200 resolution constraint and supporting arbitrary frame dimensions.
Each .flc file begins with a 128-byte header containing the magic identifier 0xAF12 at byte offset 4, along with frame count, pixel dimensions, playback speed in milliseconds per frame, and an initial color palette. The body consists of sequential frame chunks, each subdivided into sub-chunks that carry either full-frame pixel data (BRUN) or delta-compressed differences from the previous frame (LC and FLI_COPY). This delta encoding makes FLIC efficient for animations with limited inter-frame change.
The format is inherently palette-based - standard FLC uses 8-bit color (256-color indexed palette), with extended variants supporting 15/16/24-bit color. There is no audio track; FLIC is a video-only container. It was widely used in DOS-era games and multimedia titles through the 1990s.
Today FLC is effectively obsolete, superseded by GIF for short looping animations and modern codecs for video. Playback remains possible through FFmpeg, VLC (with plugin), and XAnim. The format specification is in the public domain and well-documented.
Security & safety
RISK: LOWFLC is a pure raster animation format with no scripting, macro, or executable capability. Extremely low malformed-file attack surface; no known active exploits.
Format details
in a nutshellPrograms that open FLC files
Windows3 apps
VLC media player
Open-source Open the FLC file via File → Open File; VLC decodes FLIC via its FFmpeg plugin. 
FFmpeg
Open-source ffmpeg -i input.flc output.mp4 - also usable for batch conversion to modern formats. 
macOS1 app
Linux2 apps
Technical details
deep spec| Magic bytes | 0xAF12 at file byte offset 4 (FLI predecessor uses 0xAF11) |
| Byte order | Little-endian |
| File header size | 128 bytes, containing magic, frame count, dimensions, speed, and palette |
| Frame chunk magic | 0xF1FA identifying each frame chunk in the stream |
| Compression | Per-frame delta encoding using BRUN (full-frame RLE), LC (byte-delta), and FLI_COPY (raw) sub-chunk types |
| Color depth | 8 bpp (256-color indexed palette) standard; extended FLX/FLH variants support 15/16/24 bpp |
| Maximum dimensions | FLC: up to 64,000 × 64,000 pixels; FLI predecessor: fixed 320 × 200 |
| Frame delay | Stored as milliseconds per frame in the 128-byte file header |
| Audio | None - video-only container with no audio track |
| Typical file size | 50 KB - 5 MB for short 256-color animations |
| MIME type | video/x-flic (also seen as video/flc and video/fli) |
| Associated OS | DOS, Windows, Linux |
| Released | 1990 (Autodesk Animator Pro) |
| Latest version | FLC (type 0xAF12); extended variants FLIC with 16/24-bit color via FLX/FLH sub-types |
| Open standard | Yes · royalty-free |
| Specification | www.compuphase.com |
FLC conversions
Community Q&A
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