AE PNG Alpha to FCP

[Walter Soyka]

Are you looking at this footage in AE or in your editor?

In AE, if you can change the alpha interpretation, then the file does in fact have an alpha channel. It’s possible your compatriot has rendered the chroma key with alpha, but over a black solid. Oops.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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[Andrew Hecker]

I’ve looked at it from every direction I can imagine, OK I don’t know where the hidden stuff is . . .
I don’t know how to see the alpha channel independently, or even if it is there.

I need it to key, to alpha in FCP 7.
In everything I look at, I see black: QT, FCP, AE4, Bridge
When I place it over another image in FCP or AE is still see black.

[Andrew Hecker]

I gave him footage (H.264 shot in a Canon camera), chopped up in FCP, of certain long takes and our select segments to key.
He did the work in AE and gave it back to me, to place our scenes over the background I am editing in FCP.
When I place his product over anything in FCP I get no alpha. In PNG, I don’t even know if it is a viable alpha containing codec. I’ve never seen that one work. So that’s the first question, is it viable to transport alpha. If it is, how do I know he put an alpha on it? How do I see the alpha channel, or possibly extract it to use the thing? Its not working at all now. I have a couple of hours of totally useless footage of our subject, that was shot on a green background, now on a black background.