Can't export with alpha channel - Again!!!,

So, I have an intro that is designed as an overlay of the incoming video. The objects move out the way to reveal the video underneath. BUT, when I export the sequence the resulting movie has black in the background.
Now, I had this issue several months ago, and after tons of research and trial and error, all of a sudden it worked when I came back to Motion on another project. No explanation. It just worked.
Usually, I have the background set to Transparent and then export using Lossless and Alpha. Works fine. Well, not today. I've changed every export setting under the sun trying variations of Lossless with Alpha and also tried the Animation codec. No luck.
So, what is going on? Any thoughts?

Thanks for your help Patrick. I tell ya, I can't believe what's going on. As I said, this project until today has not caused me any issues what-so-ever. The other six sessions are totally fine. I also created a quick project with the same settings added text - then exported using the same settings I've used before, and it exports with the proper alpha channel.
Yet, I rebooted the Mac, made sure to delete old versions in the trash can and everything. Still, no alpha.
To keep moving forward, I literally had to use a color key in FCP to cut out the background color.
Crazy!

Similar Messages

  • Can't export with alpha channel

    PROBLEM: No matter what export settings I use or manipulate I can't get the exported movie to have an alpha channel.
    I've read several threads on this, and none of them solved my issue. Temporarily I just imported the Motion 3 project and used it as my overlay video - it's a title intro that slides out to reveal the video underneath it.
    However, I'd prefer to create self-contained QT's as there are 7 sessions.
    In After Effects I'd typically choose Animation and select 'using Straight Alpha'. Motion has a preset of Lossless + Alpha Movie, or you can go to advanced and select Output tab and deselect Pre-multiply Alpha. Neither works. The exported video still has black. What's totally insane is that I was using these settings up until today and everything was fine!
    And yes, I've chosen 'Transparent' under the view options and still black is always included.

    We do have an answer, it's usually a simple user error: not being able to tell the alpha is really there. If you're watching in QTPlayer, you will see black. If you open the movie in FCP, you should be able to change the alpha interp to suit.
    Even if OPs claim to have tried this, it's still the first thing that comes to mind and, since the OPs rarely return to tell us what REALLY happened, we are left with the assumption that this was the problem all along.
    If you set your render controls to Animation with millions of color + (many of us simply forget the PLUS) and we presume there is no solid shape or opaque layer (easily missed in Motion's weird timeline display) it is fundamentally impossible not to get an alpha.
    Not to say it can't happen but I've been on support forums for AE, Media 100, FCP and others for more than a decade and I have never heard of the Animation codec actually failing. It is always user error or a broken application.
    I hope you folks find a new and unique solution that we can add to the list. But this is the best we know to give you: Check and recheck the easy stuff.
    bogiesan

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    Are you sure your alpha is there? (check by pressing "a" with the mouse over the view window).
    Did you try telling FCP that there is an alpha channel? If you did "Send to Shake", Final Cut Pro doesn't expect that the QuickTime it's getting back will contain an alpha channel (It's meant to match your sequence settings). You might try dragging the output directly into the browser to re-import it and see if it recognizes the alpha...
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    Thanks for your help Patrick. I tell ya, I can't believe what's going on. As I said, this project until today has not caused me any issues what-so-ever. The other six sessions are totally fine. I also created a quick project with the same settings added text - then exported using the same settings I've used before, and it exports with the proper alpha channel.
    Yet, I rebooted the Mac, made sure to delete old versions in the trash can and everything. Still, no alpha.
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    Crazy!

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    Are you sure your alpha is there? (check by pressing "a" with the mouse over the view window).
    Did you try telling FCP that there is an alpha channel? If you did "Send to Shake", Final Cut Pro doesn't expect that the QuickTime it's getting back will contain an alpha channel (It's meant to match your sequence settings). You might try dragging the output directly into the browser to re-import it and see if it recognizes the alpha...
    As a matter of fact, maybe you can check in QT Player, load it into QuickTime Player, cmd-j, click on the video track and play with the transparency setting. Try Straight Alpha - that should lead to the background going white - then you'll know its coming out of Shake properly and concentrate on getting FCP to recognize it...
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         }My apologies if that doesn't display correctly in the post.
    Basically, I create a BufferedImage the hard way, matching all the parameters of the image I get when I load in a PNG with alpha channel.
    The last bit, (for simplicity), just makes sure I copy over the alpha channel of old image to the new image, and assumes the color was black. This doesn't make any real speed difference.
    Now that runs lightning quick, but interestingly, see the bit I've commented out? The alternative to setting the ARGB values was to just draw the old image onto the new image. For a 640x512 image, this command (drawImage) took a whopping 36 SECONDS to complete! This may hint that the problem is to do with conversion.
    Anyhow, I got rather excited. The conversion went quickly. Here's the rub though, the image took 9 seconds to save using ImageIO.write, just the same as if I had never converted it. :(
    SOOOOOOOOOOOO... Why have I told you all this?
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    I really would appreciate any help you can give on this. It's very frustrating.
    Thanks again. Robert Redwood.

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