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Transparency in PI 3
I want to make a new project which has a transparent layer on which I can place emitters and manipulate them…in front of a background image and behind a cartoon character. I can’t for the life of me see how I can create a transparent layer to work on. I have read threads related to this and experimented somewhat but find that I can only get transparency immediately before rendering which is not what I want. I want to be able to form a transparent layer which I work on until I am satisfied with what I have created…seeing the effects over the background and behind the foreground images…and then render it out.
So…how do I set the parameters for a project so that I can have a transparent layer to work on?
I am an owner of PI SE and am evaluating PI 3, but if I can’t do this simple thing, then I may flag away the thought of upgrading…
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16 Replies
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SE is limited to a single layer, so you can’t do it there. Download the pI3 trial, then:
1) load your background image/clip, place particles on it.
2) create a new layer on top of this, load your cartoon character (with existing alpha channel) on it.Alan.
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Alan Lorence
Product Manager
GenArts, Inc.
http://www.genarts.com
http://www.wondertouch.com -
Thanks Alan. I’ll try that tonight.
Is there anyway to have the particles on a separate transparent layer…which can be inserted at any layer level you want?
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Sure, just create a layer and put emitters into it.
Alan.
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Alan Lorence
Product Manager
GenArts, Inc.
http://www.genarts.com
http://www.wondertouch.com -
Hmmm…Ok…now I see…duh…Thanks so much.
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OK…I got all that to work, thanks so much.
Now. Is there anyway to turn off particular layers when I want to ‘Save Output’? I put some images on layers so that I could see where I needed to place the paths for the smoke emitter I was using, but now I only want to render out the smoke. I guess I could remove the layers I don’t want…but can I just turn them off?
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Yep. Use the little icons in the layer window. BG to turn off image.
Alan.
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Alan Lorence
Product Manager
GenArts, Inc.
http://www.genarts.com
http://www.wondertouch.com -
Thanks so much. As you can guess I’m new to this. 🙂 Appreciated.
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Hi again Alan…another question…sorry to bother you…I’m getting there!!
So…I come to Save Output. My production is going to be used as a layer in a video. So when I output it, I’m faced with the transparency question again.
In Tutorial 5>Output Options I’m told I can output in avi and then am given a list of codecs which support alpha channel. No where that I can see do the codecs listed appear and when I select avi, transparency is greyed out. I’m aware that I could output as png then import images as a sequence into my video (using Sony Vegas Pro) but I wonder if I can output as a video and thus import into Vegas as a video.
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One other question. I have my smoke looking quite good – coming out from behind a car. The car stops and the cloud ceases moving because the car has stopped.
But then the engine stops so I want the emitter to stop but the cloud of smoke to carry on. I can’t see how to stop the emitter with its emission of new smoke.
Sorry if I’m being a pain…
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Have found that by exporting as a png with transparency and then importing into Vegas as a sequence is simple…I’m just about there…
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