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Activity Forums Adobe After Effects AFX CS4 Alpha Channel Problem

  • AFX CS4 Alpha Channel Problem

    Posted by Jeff Klein on March 6, 2009 at 4:18 pm

    Hi, I’m having a problem rendering Quicktimes with an alpha channel in CS4. In CS3 I used to render QT’s with the animation codec and there was a check box for “encode alpha channel,” if I’m not mistaken that check box has disappeared in CS4. Instead, I tried using the PNG codec (which I thought would automatically encode alpha channel), but there is still no alpha channel being encoded.

    I tried loading the AFX comp into Adobe Media Encoder, hoping I could encode with the alpha channel there, but Encoder crashes every time I try to import an AFX comp (In what I’m guessing is a related problem, I am not able to render movies from Premiere/Encoder, I get a “Encoding Failed. Could not read from the source” message. I looked up this problem and found a possible solution, but it didn’t work.)

    Any help would be greatly appreciated. Again in summary, I can’t render with alpha channel in AFX CS4. Thanks.

    Jeff Klein replied 17 years, 2 months ago 27,094 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • Jeff Klein

    March 6, 2009 at 4:32 pm

    I figured out how to encode the alpha channel out of AFX and I’m feeling pretty dumb, you just select RGB+Alpha from the drop down list. I don’t know why I was thinking there was a checkbox b/c I don’t think there was one in CS3 (maybe I was picturing Encoder).

    So my first issue is resolved, but I’d still like to know how to solve the Media Encoder problem if anyone has any suggestions. Again, the problem is I can’t import AFX comps into Encoder (crashes) and I can’t export Premiere sequences at all (Encoder tells me “Encoding Failed. Could not read from the source”).

    I tried the following possible solution but it didn’t work. The next possible solution is to reinstall CS4, but I’d like to avoid that if any one has any suggestions. Thanks.

    Solution 1: Create a shortcut to the Premiere Pro executable file, rename the shortcut to Premiere, and move the shortcut to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\dynamiclink.

    1. Close all Adobe applications.
    2. In Windows Explorer, navigate to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Premiere Pro CS4. (If you installed Premiere Pro CS4 in a location other than the default of C:\Program Files\Adobe, then navigate to your custom installation location.)
    3. Right-click on Adobe Premiere Pro.exe (which might appear without the .exe extension) and choose Create Shortcut.
    4. Rename the newly created shortcut to just Premiere.

    Important: The name of the shortcut must be exactly Premiere with no other characters.
    5. Open a second Windows Explorer window, and navigate to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\dynamiclink.
    6. Move the Premiere shortcut that you created into the dynamiclink folder.

    Thanks.

  • Jeff Klein

    March 6, 2009 at 4:34 pm

    Thanks Dave, you beat me to a response by a couple seconds. If you have any Media Encoder suggestions it’d be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

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