Hi Phil -

Are you able to export from AE in MOV format? With the right options selected, that would allow PDR to "read" the alpha channel properly.

Cheers - Tony
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Quote Hi Phil -

Are you able to export from AE in MOV format? With the right options selected, that would allow PDR to "read" the alpha channel properly.

Cheers - Tony

Thanks - when I try and open the .mov render in either PD or Sony Vegas 10 Pro I get the following error messages
Phil

Hi Phil -

It looks like you need to install either Quicktime or Quicktime Lite. I'd try the latter first. It should correct the issue.

Also, when you're exporting your MOV file from AE, make sure sure you select RGB+Alpha in the video output options.

Cheers - Tony
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Thanks Tony
Still struggling. Downloaded Quick Time - couldn't get QT Lite to work. I have associated .mov files with QT. I have viewed my animation in QT but without a transparent background and still get the error messages in PD16 and SV.

Am trawling through the adobe forums!
PHil

Hi Phil -

For a start, I'm not an AE user's bootlace! Using the trial version, however, I was able to render a video that imports and plays back in PDR with its alpha channel & without import error.

I did not create the animation, but simply used a pre-made alpha channel video. Attached is a screenshot showing the render settings used in AE. Also attached is the MediaInfo report from the AE rendered video.

This PC has the full QT installed, plus K-Lite codec pack, just so you know. Hope that helps - at least there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Cheers - Tony
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Thanks Tony
Well I have at least now been able to open the animations in both PD16 & SVP10 (plus QT). I have tried your settings exactly but not getting a transparent background in any of thes apps. I've also viewed in the GraphStudioNext which came with the K-Lite codec pack but again background showing.
In particular I have used the animation codec in format options which allows RGB plus alpha (but doesn't give transparency) and also when I've used MPEG4 video as per your text file the RGB and alpha are greyed out.
The other difference I noticed was that you 'log' was set to 'plus settings' (which I used) whereas the default seems to be 'errors only'.

Regards
Phil

Phil -

Could you upload your AE project to a shared file site, like Google Drive? Maybe I (or someone else) can stumble on something if I can play with it.

Cheers - Tony
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Here it is. I have only been using AE for a week or so am only just getting into the application. Quite a simple animation using one of their standard effects.

Thanks for your help
Phil

Hi Phil -

You've been using AE for almost a week longer than me Talk about the blind leading the blind!

I think I may have found the issue. When I first rendered, I got the same blue background you mentioned earlier. In your project, when I right clicked on the preview screen & selected Composition Settings I noticed the background colour was blue. After checking some other AE templates, I saw that the alpha templates used black backgrounds.

After switching the background in your project to black, and setting up the render profile, it produced an alpha channel video... which plays back in PDR just as you'd expect.

The modified project & rendered file were going to be attached, but the forum objected. Here's the modified project and here's the rendered file.

Cheers - Tony
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Thanks Tony
Back to work today so I'll take a look this evening. Thanks for your help on this - happy new year!
Phil

Hi Tony
I'm obviously still doing something wrong! I have used your 'black' file to render a new .mov file and also your render but whichever,
they still do not appear with transparent backgrounds in PDR16. Yes the background is now black but it still remains!

Not sure where I'm going wrong!
Phil

Hi Phil -

I don't know what the problem is either (now). All I can do is show you what I did here...



Maybe something in the screen capture will trigger something.

Cheers - Tony
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Thanks for producing this! I have followed it completely (and I've tried a few variations thereon) but whichever way I just can't get a transparent background like you have. This is really mystifying as I've tried your way and with various changes to the format/settings etc so I thought I might have stumbled upon the error one way or other!

Really bugging me as clearly you have done it! I'll have to leave until tomorrow and keep trying!

Thanks for your time and effort.
Phil

Phil -

Just a couple of thoughts (not mine - a friend of mine had to tap me on the shoulder)...

Do you have the most recent patch for PDR16 installed? 2313? It contains fixes for .MOV compatibility, introduced in a previous beta patch.

Thought #2: If you have shadow files enabled, that would cause the issue you're having. Shadow files are MPEG2, which do not have an alpha channel.

Cheers - Tony
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Well Tony! I have finally got it to work!!

I'm still not quite sure how but all of a sudden it does. I downloaded the latest patch and also turned off shadow files and manually deleted all those in the folder just to make sure. This didn't seem to make any difference initially and my attempts to lay the transparency over the video file still created a totally black background.

I went back to your Youtube video. I still couldn't see anything that was obviously different between what you had done and what I was copying. The only thing I noticed was that you renamed the composition when you opened the settings to make sure there was a black background. I think I left the composition as it was (i.e. Comp 1) and only changed the .mov file name as I tried each time.

I'm not sure I understand why this would make the difference but I've replicated this in a second transparency attempt which also worked!

So thanks for all your help!! I'm going to produce a few more just to make sure this wasn't a fluke!

Cheers
Phil

Good job Phil!

You're right - renaming of the comp would have made no difference at all. It would have been the combination of the other changes you made.

Whatever it was, save those settings as a render profile. Call it Alpha Render or something. That way you won't have to check your settings each time for similar projects.

Keep up the good work.

Cheers - Tony
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