• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  Video with Alpha Channels

  Posted by Greg Ball on March 10, 2017 at 8:47 pm

  My graphic artist gave me several animations of an iPhone and iPad He gave them to me with alpha channels. I’m trying to key these over a matte background, and no matter what composite mode I try, I can’t seem to get it to work. I still get a black background, and never get to the matte colored background I want.

  Is there a suggestion on how to do this? What combo do I use in composite mode and alpha channel?

  Thanks so much.

  Greg Ball, President
  Ball Media Innovations, Inc.
  https://www.ballmediainnovations.com

  Roger Poole replied 9 years, 5 months ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Shane Ross

  March 11, 2017 at 1:00 am

  No mode…you KEY it. Luma key most likely. Actually, if this is a file with a built in alpha, it should just DO it. What codec is this? ProRes 4444 allows embedded alphas

  Shane
  Little Frog Post
  Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def
• 

  Greg Ball

  March 11, 2017 at 3:27 am

  Hi Shane,

  The video as given to me keys perfectly. But it’s an .h264 with an animation codec. I’m editing this on a 720p prores sequence.

  I tried converting the videos to prores444 but it didn’t key. Thoughts?

  Greg Ball, President
  Ball Media Innovations, Inc.
  https://www.ballmediainnovations.com
• 

  Shane Ross

  March 11, 2017 at 5:16 am

  [Greg Ball] “But it’s an .h264 with an animation codec. “

  Sorry, that makes no sense. H.264 is a codec…Animation is a codec. It can be a MOV with the Animation codec.

  [Greg Ball] “The video as given to me keys perfectly.”

  Wait….but I thought you said it doesn’t key. You said:

  [Greg Ball] “I’m trying to key these over a matte background, and no matter what composite mode I try, I can’t seem to get it to work. I still get a black background, and never get to the matte colored background I want.”

  Shane
  Little Frog Post
  Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def
• 

  Roger Poole

  March 12, 2017 at 12:50 pm

  Sometimes fcp doesn’t interpret the alpha channel correctly. If you right click on the clip in the browser then click on “Item properties” you will see all the info about that clip. If you go down to Alpha it will most likely display as “none/ignore. If you click on none you should get a drop down to “straight” , choose that. If it doesn’t show that then the clip has no alpha channel. As already pointed out, the only codecs which support transparency are the animation and/or ProRes 4444 for video, and tiff or PNG in the case of still images.

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