CS4 not rendering alpha channel

Just started using AE CS4 and cannot render an alpha with my qts. I have a lot of transparency but the render has full frame of alpha. I also tried rendering a png sequence and a photoshop file.
I am working on an 8-core two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 5400 series processors with
Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard
Thanks for your help -
Alicia

You are right, I apologize. I just assume everyone is experienced. I have been using AE for about 18 years. Never have seen this issue. I usually render out using animation using rgb+alpha & millions + but no luck. Then I tried a png sequence with rgb+alpha & millions + and still no luck. I also tried a photoshop render rgb+alpha with millions +.
Finally I moved to another suite. The engineer is going to try to change cards & do a reinstall of AE.
And David I won't post this on CC just to please you.
Again my apologies -
Alicia

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Photoshop not presenting alpha channel as expected (like I'm seeing GIMP does)

Greetings,
I have a need to edit the channels independently (the values in my image mean things numerically rather than just what it looks like visually - so I need to edit the grayscale values in each of the R - G - B - and A channels seperately).
I've searched through google and other forum posts and others bring up the concept of not understanding alpha versus transparency - but I have yet to see an explanation that fully explains what I'm experiencing.
The closest was http://forums.adobe.com/message/2563436#2563436 But while I saw the exact same symptoms being described, the specific question was never really answered.
Hopefully, a concrete example with pictures will be able to communicate the issue and solicit a useful explanation and/or solution.
While, I'm specifically working with an RGBA image, below is a screenshot of a PNG that demonstrates the exact same behavior or symptom. The screenshot below represents the PNG inside GIMP and PS CS4. BTW, if you'd like to see or play with the image yourself, you can grab the same image at http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/img_png/imgcomp-440x330.png
GIMP, interestingly enough loads the PNG as expected - I see the transparency of the image treated as a true alpha channel.
In PS CS4 however, the transparency seems to be somehow embedded in the Red - Green - and Blue channels; but NO seperate alpha channel.
I can create the alpha channel through Select - Load Selection - Layer 0 Transparency - and pasting that into a newly created alpha channel - but the color channels still have the transparency mixture symptom - rather than showing the JUST the color component of that channel. (Note the channel differences of the GIMP's Red Channel versus PS's Red Channel - Said in another way, the yellow ball in the upper left of the image should have a red value of 255, so the Red Channels grayscale upper left ball should be white like it is in GIMP, rather than Gray as it is in PS).
I never thought I'd experience GIMP being superior to Photoshop - so hopefully somebody can shed light on what is going on - what configuration I may have myself in - or a process to get the channels seperated out in the manner I wish to work with them. Furthermore, maybe somebody can educate the Photoshop community what the difference between transparency and alpha[transparency] is. I haven't found quite the right explanation that makes the light go off in my head yet. As best as I have gleened "Alpha", which can be applied to any kind of channel, typically is in reference to transparency - and is applied as a document-whole transparency (as opposed to transparencies applied at a layer level - such as a layer mask).

I think I've finally determined that modern Photoshops have gone in a different direction that I feel "Alpha" should be done.
(good or bad).
Here are the steps and/or details of how I arrived at that conclusion.
If nothing else this has been very educational on how Photoshop treats alpha.
- Import your alpha'd PNG with SuperPNG format (see above on how to make sure you use the SuperPNG plugin to load the .png).
- In the SuperPNG dialog select "Alpha appears as seperate channel"
- Create a layer from the Background and Delete the original Background
(since the Background is locked and we can't edit the Background - we want to add a layer mask based on the alpha)
- Ctrl-Left Select the "Alpha 1" channel - Ctrl-C - and hit the "Add Layer Mask" button (square with the circle at the bottom of the LAYERS rollout)
- For this demo and clarity, I went ahead and deleted the alpha "Alpha 1" that came in through the SuperPNG plugin
So now I have the Layers like I kindof expected the main document to just come in as (kindof though - it is presented in a Layer Mask rather than Alpha Channel).
What is interesting - which you'll see if you toggle the layer mask on and off
(shift-click the mask thumbnail in the layer)
Note how the thumbnails in the channel views render differently during the toggle.
When the mask is off you see the individual color channels like I expect - black where there is an absence of that color.
However when you enable the layer mask - the individual color channels show in semi-transparent/checkerboard.
So this is exactly how the color channels are presented when loading in a .png (WITHOUT the SuperPNG plugin) or an .rgba
..you get the semitransparent views of the color channels - BUT the difference is - you have no way to directly see or edit the Alpha channel.
nor are the color channels represented as completely opaque versions.
What is really interesting - it is there though - if you Ctrl-Left Select the layer, Ctrl-C, and "Add Channel Mask" - you'll get the Alpha mask.
HOWEVER, the big issue is that you can't toggle or edit the Color-Channels like the Layer counterpart above;
they are ALWAYS the semitransparent/checkboard version; AND now we basically are double applying transparency
(due to the still embedded alpha/transparency AND the newly create "Alpha 1" channel)
I think this a bug (or a poor reimplementation of modern Photoshop releases; I believe older Photoshops used to break out Alpha in the "arguably correct" way - and in fact the way GIMP currently does).
Or maybe there are other explanations - like abstracting some of this complexity away from less advance users, etc?
So the SuperPNG plugin was useful in experimenting, understanding, and demonstrating what is going on.
However, if I'm trying to read in .rgba directly, I don't think I have a way of making the "Alpha appear as a seperate channel" as I think any image with "alpha" component should.
(png, tiff, rgba, etc).

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I thought this problem would have been taken care of by now.
Guess the bug fixes in CS5.5 are few if at all
1) Export any movie to ProRes 4444 and set to export alpha channel straight.
2) re-import to AE
3) Open Interpret Footage Dialog....
One gets REALLY disillusioned when discovering that ALL alpha options have been grayed out.
When is this ProRes MADNESS going to STOP !!!!!

Dan,
if you are ever in Hamburg, Germany. Let me know and the brews are on ME.
In my testing madness I exported a movie WITH NO ALPHA.... That is the reason why I was NOT seeing any alpha options on import.
I dup'ed the vid layer and moved it about and set the opacity to 50... Then exported. And imported. And THERE they were ....
LE ALPHA OPTIONS....
Best Regards
M.

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Just searched through the forums to find this thread in the (now-Read Only) Photoshop CS6 Beta forum:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/4310886
Which is exactly the same issue I'm having. I just cropped about a 1000 images with alphas originally created in PS5 and resaved using PS6.
My client still uses CS5 and the images won't recognize the alpha channels in inDesign5.
I see in this thread that it said a fix for older versions of inDesign was being worked on, this was back in April.
Any news on these fixes? (before I open PS5 and resave all these files)

Hi Peter,
The images in question all use alpha channels to mask out the image backgrounds (usually white) in InDesign layouts.
I opened the images in PS6 to crop out excess background (to get file size down) and saved the new files.
When I go to import the images one by one into InDesign 5 (via Cmd-D, Import options ticked) the Alpha Channel pull down menu is greyed out and I'm unable to select the Alpha Channel.
If I open the image in PS5 and resave, I'm then able to access the Alpha channels in ID5... but that's a lot of images to go back through to fix.
I also tried opening the layout in ID6 (where the alpha channels do work) and saving down to the idml format. When opening up in ID5 the alpha channel is no longer recognized and the background of the image that was masked out is now visible.
Cheers,
Alan

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Thanks

i have tried "purge cache" and checking "generate monitor size preiews" and
nothing. Anyone have any other advice?
Usually that should do the trick, although it should be the other way round,
after having set monitor size previews you use the purge cache for folder
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Recently did a large project of creating alpha channels from green screen footage.
Made the timelines 4444 and tried to output.
If I export as Quicktime, I get the timecode but not the Alpha channel.
If I export as Quicktime Conversion, I can get the Alpha channel, but not the timecode.
Am I doing something fundamentally wrong?
Is there a way to get both on the same output?
Like I said, this project is large -- 91 files -- and it takes more than 8 hours to export out either way even on a current 6 core machine.
What I really do NOT want to have to do is some crazy copy and paste of the timecode information from two separate exports.

You said, "'export as Quicktime' is a very vague description."
Actually, it's not.
A person only has a few choices in Final Cut Pro. If you want to get really specific;
File > Export > QuckTime Movie...
Or
File > Export > Using QuickTime Conversion...
That's it!
With the first and ONLY the first, it will export whatever is on your timeline and you can get Timecode, but I can't figure out a way to make it output the Alpha channel with it.
With the other, you can get any sort of converted output you can input, including ProRes 4444 and Alpha, but unfortunately not the Timecode track.
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Hi all! I have a problem. Please help me. Thank you very much.
I want to display alpha Channels to proxy and show transparency correctly. I have get the datas of alpha Channels and RGB color. Following are the codes:
void HiddenData::PaintPreview()
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PSPixelMap pixels;
int spotChannelCount = gFilterRecord->documentInfo->alphaChannelCount;
pixels.version       = ( spotChannelCount > 0 ) ? 2 : 1;
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pixels.bounds.right = proxyRect.right;
pixels.bounds.top    = proxyRect.top;
pixels.bounds.bottom = proxyRect.bottom;
int32 proxyWidth = proxyRect.right - proxyRect.left;
int32 proxyHeight = proxyRect.bottom - proxyRect.top;
pixels.imageMode     = gFilterRecord->documentInfo->imageMode;
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pixels.colBytes   = 1;
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pixels.baseAddr   = channelData;
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delete[] overlay;
But there is a problem.The image of alpha Channels in proxy is not clear, because overlay[i].opacity = 50 * 2.55.
It looks like diffrent from displaying in photoshop.I do not know how to use pixels.mat and pixels.masks.
Thanks!

I run the plugin. But It can not show alpha channels. Can you show the code in your example clearly.Thanks! Following are the frames.
The original document:
The result:
Can not show the alpha channels.

.png animation files... how to import keeping alpha channel please!

My graphics man has buit me a animation on white swirly things on his system
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On gfx without alpha I open then in quicktime, open a sequential files then export to dv.
Now of course dv will not keep alpha channels so any help on how to take this animation alpha .png and get it into my fcp time line would be much appreciated,
regards
daz

Apple Animation is a high quality video codec that can support an alpha channel.
While there are other formats that also support alpha channel, Apple Animation is the codec of choice on the Mac because it lets us transfer files between different software packages without any hassle.
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When trying to encode live strem with alpha channel (32 bit) using the latest Flash Media Live Encoder (FMLE) I have got no alpha chammel coming out from the encoder heading the FMS.
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Hi,
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Quad-core 2.5 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.6) 30" Apple Cinema Display
Quad-core 2.5 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3) 30" Apple Cinema Display

Thanks for the suggestions. I have not yet tried laying a solid black video track underneath to see what it does, but it seems like a good idea and I'll try it out to see what happens when I get back home.
I'll try to explain what I mean by the image looking wrong.
I'm picking up where another left off, so I'm not sure of how he cut the quicktime movie together; all I know is that they used alpha channels in Photoshop and After Effects to make the image looks the way they want it. This is a drawn character laid on a white background with a black frame around the entire image. It looks the way he wants it to in the quicktime movie, and this quicktime movie is 720x480, animation millions colors +, 24fps.
This movie, along with others of the like, need to be cut together in FCP and then put on a DVD with DVDSP. When I export it and it looks "wrong", what's happening is there is a black block behind the drawn character. The guy that made the movies in AE says that, that is what it looks like when the alpha channel is not working correctly.
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In FCP's user manual it says that if you're passing your movie on to a DVD, to use a high or lossless compression to keep the quality up, like animation or PhotoJPEG. For this reason, I haven't wanted to go to DV - especially with this type of image (graphic drawn shapes), it's easy to see a quality difference.
It really seems like there is a lot of voodoo involved with compression settings. As for now the best "fool-proof" solution I've found is to re-render the movie in After Effects at millions (not+) so that it won't contain the alpha channel info, and FCP seems to like that a lot more.
I just wish I could get FCP to work with the movies as they were because I'm having to re-edit everything to work with these new movies now.
Thanks again for the tips and insight.
Quad-core 2.5 G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3) 30" Apple Cinema Display
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When you don't get a response here it usually means one of several things:
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CS4 not rendering alpha channel

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