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Alpha channel
Hi guys, I have a logo saved as tga 32bit with an apha channel so I can see the logo superimposed on the images that I’ve on track beneath the tga. The question is… how can I see the logo not in superimpose but with its original background? How can I exclude the alpha channel? Thanks a lot
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7 Replies
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There is no way to do this within FCPX – or even within Motion 5 – as far as I know. Apple seem to think alpha channels are a bit too complicated for the user to have to think about or manipulate 😉
Your best bet is to save a copy of the file with some other application (ideally in Photoshop but you could even use Preview) in such a way that you throw away the alpha channel and then import it back into FCPX.
The ability to manipulate the alpha channel – and indeed the RGB channels come to that – is something Apple really need to address if they want us to take this application seriously. It’s a disgrace that a supposed compositing app like Motion has no way of getting at the channel information in any meaningful way.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Simon Ubsdell]“It’s a disgrace that a supposed compositing app like Motion has no way of getting at the channel information in any meaningful way.”
What do you mean? You can easily get to and manipulate the alpha info in Motion. Just select the layer and hit SHIFT+F to bring up the Media tab in the inspector. There you can set alpha interpretation or even invert the alpha channel.
For the OP, you can also do this in FCPX. Select your image in the event browser. Go to the inspector and click the info tab. At the bottom, choose Settings View. Change the Alpha Handling to None.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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My mistake, Andy, sorry – thanks for correcting me.
But the quote you have highlighted still stands, I think, though now you’ve got me doubting myself. There really should be some way in Motion of splitting out the individual RGBA channels, performing operations on them individually and then recombining them – this is compositing 101 and I haven’t been able to find any way of ever doing that in Motion.
And now you’re going to tell me I’ve been missing an obvious trick all these years …
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Simon Ubsdell] ” There really should be some way in Motion of splitting out the individual RGBA channels, performing operations on them individually and then recombining them – this is compositing 101″
Can you give me an example of this? Something that you would do in AE so I can be sure I understand? I might not understand the limitation you’re describing.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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I’m talking about all the things you can do with channels in AE under the Effect/Channels menu for example. Or in a real compositing app like Shake, Nuke, Fusion or even the humble (but very clever) Conduit.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
Well, Motion’s never been able to do all the things AE can, that’s true. But you can make adjustments to individual channels in Motion with the Channel Mixer, and Levels filters found in the Color Correction menu. And there is a channel blur which allows you to blur specific channels as well.
Motion 4 even had a channel swap filter. Motion 5 got rid of that, but perhaps that is because the same thing can be accomplished with the channel mixer.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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Channel swap is one of the things I’d really like to have back in Motion 5 – along with the Chroma Keyer.
We did lose quite a lot with the new version – along with all the good stuff we gained. I’m sure it will find it’s way back eventually.
But it would also be nice to think that Apple could manage to take Motion “to the next level” as in many ways it’s a really brilliant tool that can often be very much quicker to get results from than AE.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com
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