After-Effects to FCP - Best format to use to export clip with alpha channel ?

Hello All;
I have created a 10 second video in After-Effects that I want to use in FCP. It seems that I am unable to render out to a Quicktime movie with both the video and the alpha channel (I can only render to one or the other). Could you tell me the best method to get a short video from AE to FCP ? What is the best format to use in AE ? Thanks.
Tim

Animation codec with colors set to Millions +. The plus is your Alpha channel.
If you have FCS 2009 you can also export to Pro Res 4444.

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Working with full-quality DigitalJuice animated backgrounds with alpha channels in a DV timeline can feel like swimming through molasses. There are a number of options for temporarily replacing the clips with low-res proxies (Uncompressed, JPEG2000, TGA, etc.). Before conducting extensive tests, I was curious as to whether or not anyone has an opinion on which 32-bit codec might be the easiest one for FCP to process, resulting in snappier playback while offlining.
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no, at least not last time I looked.
the avid meridian codecs for QT are downloadable from their website
http://www.avid.com/content/7952/Avid%20CodecsLE120Macpkg.zip
sme tips quoted from http://dvinfo.net/conf/archive/index.php/t-78006.html
it is important to move these components out of the root Library and put them into the User Library. That way they won't cause any conflict during startup.
I've since done some trial and error testing and it appears the only component that causes a conflict during startup is AvidAVUICodec.component.
The rest work just fine with compressor and seem to add support for:
Avid 1:1x (AvidAV1xCodec.component)
Avid D100 (AvidAVd1Codec.component)
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Everything except Avid D100 codec (AvidAVd1Codec.component) and the AvidAVUICodec.component.
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ymmv

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Whats the best codec for exporting animations (hopefully using loseless compression) that will retain alpha channel, and use the current sequence settings for fps and size?
Currently Im exporting image sequences, but I'd prefer a wrapper.. I don't know much about the 'Animation' export codec.. I did notice that set to current size had some funky value of 753x450 or something.. instead of my current project size of 1920x1080...
Anyhow.. Just seeing what others are doing..
basically Im reading out some titles that I'll end up dropping over video later.. but since they render out so slowly (**** lower 3rds is slow) Im trying to get a jump on the process..
Tx..

PNG should do it. I think PNG is lossless (that's what they say, anyway). But realistically, if you use PNG, Animation, or JPG2000 set on highest quality, I'd dare you to tell a difference.
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I agree with the captain. You want your AE render to match the NTSC-DV sequence preset in all respects: 720x480, lower field first, NTSC-CCIR 6601 pixel aspect ratio, in either the 4:3 or anamorphic flavour depending on which format you're working in.
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Can't help with that, if one is using a Windows machine then they are subjected to their rules and control.
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The OP said they plan to store movies on the external drive.
Many movies today are well over 4GB in size, thus exFAT has to be used and formatted on the PC, which the Mac can then read.
Older Windows NT versions up to Windows Vista without Service Pack 1 do not support exFAT.
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Some distributions of Linux have begun to include support for exFAT. It is however, only available as a file system in user space, as it's not supported by the kernel.
Irrelevant, OP is using Windows and OS X, not Linux and if they did Linux can read the files at least and transfer, which is all they care about really.
Windows Vista is unable to use exFAT drives for ReadyBoost. Windows 7 removes this limitation, enabling ReadyBoost caches larger than 4 GiB.[14]
Irrelevant, the OP's is intending to use it as transfer drive between Mac's and Windows for movies.
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Some relevancy, but only exFAT can handle 4GB+ files between Mac's and PC's, so the need outweighs the possible problem.
The OP needs to follow the standard Windows practice of "safely removing hardware" before physically disconnecting the external drive. If a write is occurring, it won't allow disconnecting until the write is finished.
Support for up to 2,796,202 files per subdirectory only.[1][nb 3] Microsoft documents a limit of 65,534 files per sub-directory for their FAT32 implementation, but other operating systems have no special limit for the number of files in a FAT32 directory. FAT32 implementations in other operating systems allow an unlimited number of files up to the number of available clusters (that is, up to 268,304,373 files on volumes without long filenames).[nb 4]
Not a issue, only in extreme cases of a lot of small files. The OP plans to use it for movies which are usually large and take up a lot of space on the drive.
IMMO It looks like you just ran off and copied something to argue your point when all the points are basically irrelevant.
There is only one format that can easily share 4GB sized files between Mac's and PC's without further complications.
It's ALSO possible to install MacDrive on the PC and format the drive on the Mac HFS+, but I didn't recommend that because I know it's a hassle just like third party NTFS writing software is a hassle on Mac's.
If you so anti-Microsoft format, then you must know Paragon has to pay a license fee to Microsoft for using the NTFS format.
At least with exFAT there is no fee to Redmond, at least not yet.

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seg.48162731 wrote:
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When I import .mxf File, shot on a Canon C300, into after effects, the alpha channel options are greyed out, when I look in, interpret footage, main. This also is the case importing .MP4 files, shot on a Gopro hero 3. I used to use final cut and using compressor convert the files to pro res 4444 or 422. What's my new workflow for preparing files with alpha channels to use in After Effect and Premiere and do I use Media Encoder to do it?

When I import .mxf File, shot on a Canon C300, into after effects, the alpha channel options are greyed out, when I look in, interpret footage, main. This also is the case importing .MP4 files, shot on a Gopro hero 3.
Better question: Where do you expect that Alpha channel to come from and contain any useful info for transparency? You're making a fuss over a non-issue. Unless you apply keying or other methods of creating transparency, even if there were an Alpha channel it would be fully opaque and then what's the point?
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I have hundred of png files with alpha channel.
I want to suppress alpha channel.
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Thank you very much.

You can use the free command line image processing tool ImageMagick in your Applescripts or Automator workflows, as well as from a Terminal shell.
You can download ImageMagick from http://www.imagemagick.org, but Cactuslab has simplified installation by putting together an installer package. It’s available at http://cactuslab.com/imagemagick/. Download the package and double-click on it. Follow the instructions to install. It will install ImageMagick into /opt/ImageMagick and add it to your $PATH by creating a file in /etc/paths.d/. Restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
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Before getting into how to use Automator or Applescript in your workflow, use Terminal and the command line to see the effect on a single image. Copy one image to your ~/Desktop. In Terminal change the directory to ~/Desktop by typing the following command and pressing the Enter key:
cd ~/Desktop
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mogrify -alpha remove -path /Users/me/Desktop/OutPhotos/ /Users/me/Desktop/InPhotos/*png
According to Apple Technical Note TN2065:
"when you use just a command name instead of a complete path, the shell uses a list of directories (known as your PATH) to try and find the complete path to the command. For security and portability reasons, do shell script ignores the configuration files that an interactive shell would read"
So, you need to use the full path to to ImageMagick commands, unlike in the shell where you can just use the command name.
To batch process using Automator, use the “Run Shell Script” action (note: retain the single space at the beginning of the last line):
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/Users/Me/Desktop/InPhotos/*png
To batch process using Script Editor (Applescript), use the “do shell script” command:
do shell script "/opt/ImageMagick/bin/mogrify -alpha remove -path /Users/pd/Desktop/OutPhotos/ /Users/pd/Desktop/InPhotos/*png"
Further info on ImageMagick:
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/command-line-options.php#alpha
http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/masking/#remove
http://www.imagemagick.org/index.php
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/command-line-tools.php
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/command-line-options.php
Examples:
The original PNG image:
-alpha off:
-alpha remove:
-background black -flatten:
-background blue -flatten:
-channel alpha -evaluate Divide 2:
-channel alpha -evaluate Divide 2 -background black -flatten:

Finding special effects with alpha channel compatible with final cut studio

does anyone know a special effect of a gun flash and explosions with alpha channel compatible with final cut pro studio? I would like to be able to buy these special effects. thanks.

ArtBeats.com
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Using video with alpha channel

I purchased a video clip from istock, the video clip is an .mov and has a alpha channel included. The video clip is santa clause over a black background and tagged at the end is a white solid of the video (I assume this is the alpha channel) How do I use the alpha channel to help key out the vidoe clip that I need. here is a link to the actual video clip I purchased. http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-video-11011749-santa-claus-with-alpha-channel-ntsc.php
Thanks Ja

As Szalam said, the b/w image can be used as a luma matte.
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Alternatively just drag the footage to a comp and enable the checkerboard background to see if there is transparency. These three approaches are the same...just different ways of finding out about the alpha channel.

After Effects to FCP

Hi,
I've been experimenting with after effects lately, but am having a little trouble when bringing footage into FCP.
When I bring footage in, it won't playback at normal speed in the viewer or the timeline, the footage jumps and won't play all the frames. Yet, when I open the file into quicktime outside of FCP it plays just fine.
I'm using HDV footage 1080/50i. All my render settings in After Effects are set to the right codecs, with the correct frame rate and best quality settings.
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Does anyone have any suggestions? Or is this normal?
I get the feeling that once the timeline was exported to dvd files everything would run fine, there isn't a loss of quality in the footage it just won't playback at normal speed.
Thanks.

I've been experimenting with after effects lately, but am having a little trouble when bringing footage into FCP.< </div>
There are many online AE forums, you will need them. Start at creativecow.net.
When I bring footage in, it won't playback at normal speed in the viewer or the timeline, the footage jumps and won't play all the frames. Yet, when I open the file into quicktime outside of FCP it plays just fine. <</div>
FCP will only play from the timeline if the sequence settings match the footage settings. 1080/50i is not within the abilities of all of our machines and you must have you RT set to handle it. QT Player is not trying to process the footage to conform with your sequence settings.
I'm using HDV footage 1080/50i. All my render settings in After Effects are set to the right codecs, with the correct frame rate and best quality settings.< </div>
Maybe, but you haven't listed them here.
The only noticeable difference I can find between the exported after effects footage and the HDV footage already in the project is the MB/sec. The after effects footage is 3MB/s, while the normal footage is I think 3.2/3.5MB/s.< </div>
Not really a factor.
Does anyone have any suggestions? < </div>
Patience and deeper study of your system's abilities and functions. After Effects is a tremendously deep and powerful system. Not for the timid.
Or is this normal?
I get the feeling that once the timeline was exported to dvd files everything would run fine, there isn't a loss of quality in the footage it just won't playback at normal speed.< </div>
if you're going to DVD, why are you working in 1080? You're going to be VERY disappointed in the results.
bogiesan

After-Effects to FCP - Best format to use to export clip with alpha channel ?

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