• Maxon Cinema 4D

  Alpha channel is driving me insane!

  Posted by Dolphbean on October 31, 2007 at 2:11 pm

  Hi There,

  Many thanks to all who have answered my questions thus far.

  I have a problem. I am wanting to render a still image out of cinema 4d and bring in into photoshop.

  My question is this:

  What render settings will allow me to eliminate the background in c4d when i bring the image into photoshop?

  and

  Once I have opened the image in photoshop how to remove the background?

  I have looked at many articles on how this is done and i cannot for the life of me figure what my problem is.

  People talk of seeing the alpha channel in the channels of photoshop as showing a black background and a wjiote image but all i see is white in the alpha channel. Is this due to my render settings?

  Thanks in advance for your time.

  Jethro.

  Brian Jones replied 18 years, 6 months ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Randy Johnson

  October 31, 2007 at 3:25 pm

  In save tab of the the render settings check the “Alpha Channel” box
  leave straight alpha and seperate alpha UNchecked.
  Disable mutli render

  Render… What ever was space was empty in C4D will remain empty.
  Use a PSD, Tiff, or Targa

  Alpha channels work so that Black is 100% transparent and White is the opisite and the gray tones are semi transparent. So while you render you can switch the Pictures Channel to Alpha and it will show you the opacity using the the black and white thing…the colors in your scene do NOT effect the alpha channel.
• 

  Dolphbean

  October 31, 2007 at 3:54 pm

  I have done the settings as you specified and the once i open the psd in photoshop the white background still appears in the channels palette next to alpha.

  Am i missing a step somewhere?

  Many Thanks,

  Jethro
• 

  Brian Jones

  October 31, 2007 at 11:57 pm

  alpha channel sees everything in your scene and makes a mask for it – white for ‘object there’ black for no object, it sounds like you have nothing but ‘object there’. Assuming there are things behind the object you are trying to separate you have to either

  – turn them off and render only the object you want with alpha

  – use an Object Buffer – to the object you want to separate out add a Compositing tag and in it’s Object Buffer tab check one of the Enable Buffer’s. Render as a Multi-Pass and whatever channels you want for the image but be sure to enable the Object Buffer channel. Save as a Photoshop (PSD). The object buffer should show in the Channels tab in Photoshop where it has the name ‘Object Buffer (x)’ not ‘Alpha’ but it can be used the same way

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