Exporting with alpha channel and edges are ragged

I've got a short animation that is mainly a PSD of a map of NC with some animated push pins on it. I've got a local cable provider wanting an export of the animation with an alpha channel. He's using Premiere on a Mac, I'm on PC. No matter what codec I use that supports an alpha channel, the outer edge of the graphic of the State comes out ragged. Zooming in to the PSD in PhotoShop shows that the edge is antialiased, so I would imagine that this is what is causing the ragged edge on export.
Here's grab of the export. This is with QT Animation codec-quality 100, but the same results occur with DNxHD, Cineform, PNG, etc.

I think you are just seeing the extra areas of the fill.
If the output files works correctly in the editor, you should be good to go.
MtD

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DNxHD (.mxf) export with alpha channel

Hello!
I'm working with one Finnish children's feature film which will star end of this year as an DIT. Movie will include lot's of green screen and the production want's me to do chroma keyed DNxHD 36 renders with alpha channel for AVID editorial. So far I have found out that neither davinci desolve nor assimilate scratch can't do it. Is it possible to render DNxHD with alpha channel from AE? And can Avid import these files with alpha channel? All help is needed and appreciated.
Cheers
Antris

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...
If all else fails (I did just try it here and it worked), maybe try a TIFF or TGA sequence?
post back,
Patrick

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!

I want to export with alpha channel using a codec that carries less data than gopro cineform

Hi--I want to export some intermediate files with an alpha channel. i'm using gopro cineform, and these files end up being so large, meaning that i have to sit through hour long renders. is there a a codec i can use that has an alpha chanel but creates a smaller file size?
thanks

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!

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

EXPORT WITH ALPHA CHANNEL

I need to know how to export a clip with the alpha channel intact. I keyed a green screen shot and exported it, but everytime i open it in final cut it has a black background. Need help asap it is the last shot I have to do for a music video that has to be done by monday, thanks.

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...
If all else fails (I did just try it here and it worked), maybe try a TIFF or TGA sequence?
post back,
Patrick

Adding logo with Alpha channel to Quicktime and exporting as .mp4

I'm adding a PNG file with alpha channel to my existing movie file using "Add to Selection and Scale".
I then have my movie with the overlayed graphic.
When I then Export as an mp4, the alpha channel is ignored!
Any help, anyone?

Yes it looks perfect in Quicktime.
But for some reason I can't save it as anything else or even export a still frame without the alpha being ignored and the image going all fuzzy.

No Method of Batch Export for Clips with Alpha Channels?

Good morning,
As many a flustered editor has eventually discovered, in order for FCP to export sequences with alpha channels to a 32-bit format, the timeline has to be un-rendered at the time of export, or else the transparent parts will appear black in the outputted file. This sort-of makes sense if you know how FCP and render files work, but in a perfect world I think I'd have designed the export interface a bit differently. Now that I think about it, I'm actually working in an Animation (Millions of Colors +) sequence, so converting transparent areas to black makes no logical sense at all.
Anyway, I have several sequences that I would like to export as 32-bit TGA QuickTime files, preserving their transparency. If I Export Using Compressor, the process results in pre-rendering of the sequence, turning the transparent areas black. The same problem occurs if I export QuickTime reference movies from FCP and open them directly with Compressor.
Does anyone know of a way to avoid this silly phenomenon or am I stuck individually exporting each sequence from FCP, one...at.......a................time?
Thanks,
Zap

Thanks, Andy, "Batch Export" eventually did the trick!
I forgot about that tool because I've never actually had to use it before! After playing around with it for a while, I found that as long as the sequence settings for each sequence in the batch are set to a codec with an activated alpha channel, it works just fine.
Thanks again,
Zap

Export PNG images with alpha channel from flash

Hi,
I have this FLA with animation and when played, the animation has alpha channel. I can’t understand why when I look in the library I see the frames without the alpha channel and also when I try to export/extract the image again the image don’t have alpha channel.
How is it that in flash this image has alpha channel and how to get it out like that into PNG?
Here is the link to download the FLA:
http://download759.mediafire.com/nb749r29220g/e0636ab0ru6ouoa/Untitled-1.fla

"when played, the animation has alpha channel"
how are you playing the animation? control/enter in Flash, Publishing to a Web page or what?
How can you tell that the animation has the alpha channel? What exactly are you seeing?
What is the aniimation? a series of images, one image moving? Are teweens imvolved?
" when I try to export/extract the image again the image don’t have alpha channel"
How are you exporting the image? is it a single image? or a series of frames that makes up an animation?
What was the file format of the original image? you brought that image into Flash and animated it? Now you want to export as a .png with transparency?
Have you ever tried to export a simple .png before so that you see and understand the dialog box that pops up during export? are you chosing "24 bit with alpha channel" in the "Colors" choice?
For those of us who may not want to download your file, please provide a more detailed describtion of everything related to this question.
Best wishes,
Adninjastrator

Exporting a move clip with alpha channel

Hi there,
I’m trying to export a move clips with alpha channel.
I’m trying to export an animation with Premiere CS5. I made an animation of a rotating object in Maya and exported it with alpha channel as tiff images. Then they are edited with Photoshop to give them a drop shadow.
My problem is this. Can I export this tiff animation with the alpha channel?
My plane is to use move clips over backgrounds in a game – depending on the result there are different animations playing on top of several different backgrounds. There for the objects has to have a transparent/alpha channel over the backgrounds.
Again the reason for this is the complexity of the game and to make the game looking as real as possible. I’m hoping for some help here to make my plan possible
…thanks

Thanks alot for the help.
But now I’m wondering how to get the file size down?
The 32bit and alpha channel just increase the file size from about 1MB to 9,3MB, which is pretty much??
…any ides mate?

What codec to convert .MXF and MP4 files into to use with alpha channels in Ae and Pr CS6?

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?
Mylenium

Graphics, ImageIO, and 32-bit PNG images with alpha-channels

I have a series of 32-bit PNG images, all with alpha channels. I'm using ImageIO.read(File) : BufferedImage to read the PNG image into memory.
When I call graphics.drawImage( image, 0, 0, null ); I see the image drawn, however all semi-transparent pixels have a black background, only 100% transparent pixels in the source image are transparent in the drawn image.
The Graphics2D instance I'm drawing to is obtained from a BufferStrategy instance (I'm painting onto an AWT Canvas).
Here's my code:
Loading the image:
public static BufferedImage getEntityImage(String nom, String state) {
          if( _entityImages.containsKey(nom) ) return _entityImages.get( nom );
          String path = "Entities\\" + nom + "_" + state + ".png";
          try {
               BufferedImage image = read( path );
               if( image != null ) _entityImages.put( nom, image );
               return image;
          } catch(IOException iex) {
               iex.printStackTrace();
               return null;
     private static BufferedImage read(String fileName) throws IOException {
          fileName = Program.contentPath + fileName;
          File file = new File( fileName );
          if( !file.exists() ) return null;
          return ImageIO.read( new File( fileName ) );
     }Using the image:
Graphics2D g = (Graphics2D)_bs.getDrawGraphics();
g.setRenderingHint( RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING , RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
public @Override void render(RenderContext r) {
          Point p = r.v.translateWorldPointToViewportPoint( getLoc() );
          int rad = getRadius();
          int x = (int) p.x - (rad / 2);
          int y = (int) p.y - (rad / 2);
          BufferedImage image = Images.getEntityImage( getCls(), "F" );
          r.g.drawImage( image, x, y, null );
     }

You may want to check on you system and see what ImageReaders are available, it could be ImageIO is just not picking the best one, if not, then you can use getImageReaders to get an iterator of image readers, then choose the more appropriate one.

Best Codec for exporting animations with alpha channel from FCP timeline

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.
I use PNG because it's supposedly lossless, renders twice as fast as Animation in a FCP timeline, and is usually about half the size.
If you use "Export Using Quicktime Conversion", you will need to check all of the settings manually to make sure they match your sequence settings. This is always true, no matter what codec you use.
If that sounds risky, your other option is to go into your sequence settings and change the codec to the one you want to render to (this will probably turn your whole timeline red), and then choose Export -> Quicktime movie.

Are Quicktimes with alpha channel gone in Keynote 6.0?

Say it aint so. This is a very crucial feature of the app for my company.

While presenting from an iOS device is certainly useful, I want to be able to do the best presentations possible. Looks like Keynote 5.3 will be the tool of choice for some time yet.
Keynote 6, while a step forward for maybe 99% of users (that don't want to care about what works and what doesn't on various platforms), is a major leap backwards for the professional presentation business.
Time for Apple - or perhaps better yet, some third party - to make a Keynote Pro and make it desktop only, if that's what it takes. Bring back the larger choice of transitions, support for QuickTime alpha channels and dynamic Quartz Compositions, interaction with master slide objects and mixing of themes in the same presentation. And don't stop there:
Add parallell layers or tracks, so that some visuals or audio can play uninteruppted over several slides.
Add dynamic inputs, so a text and media fields can be populated by tweets or other RSS feeds.
Add a proper theme editor, so you easily can change various defaults and maybe add custom border styles and stuff.
Make the presenter's display more flexible, and allow for (simple) editing of slides while running the show.
Phil Schiller may have the time and resources to let 3D animators render full frame wow!-inducing movies-as-transitions, but isn't it better to have more power within the application itself? And with Keynote 6, some of that power is gone.
Maybe it'll be like with FCP X, where some of the lost features of the previous version got added back in an update. But as with anything Apple, who knows?

The middle handle on the rectangle is not there anymore when I select it with the black arrow (v) tool. Show bounding box and edges are both on. Where dd the middle anchor go??

The middle handle on the rectangle is not there anymore when I select it with the black arrow (v) tool. Show bounding box and edges are both on. Where dd the middle anchor go??

haggyabeken,
I am afraid you have come across the Live Rectangle bug which is limited to the MAC versions starting with 10.7 and 10.8, but not 10.9 (Mavericks), see this thread linked to below.
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1595973
So a switch to Mavericks with a reinstallation might be the way to solve it here and now.
To get round it in each case, it is possible to Expand the Live Rectangles to get normal old fashioned rectangles, or to Pathfinder>Unite, or to use the Scale Tool.
A more permanent way round that is to create normal old fashioned rectangles, after running the free script created by Pawel, see this thread with download link:
https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1587587

Exporting with alpha channel and edges are ragged

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