-
Alpha Channel help
Hey, sorry if I sound un-techy. I’m 19 and have been video editting on Premiere 6.0 for about a hard-core year now and I feel VERY experienced with the program. Anywhos, I was wondering if there was any way to import a picture that already had a transparent layer prepared, such as a PNG. I only ask because I have noticed that I lose a considerable amount of quality when I achieve the same affect using the alpha key. (ex. Digitally editing a picture with an outside program adding a solid green, blue, red, etc. background, and then removing this color with the alpha key inside of Adobe) I’m not sure if other users have experienced this same issue, or if I’m just overlooking some simple setting, but I’m sure there must be a way to achieve transparency apart from the pixealting monster known as alpha key. Any help would be awesomeness.
Thanks -
8 Replies
-
Premiere 6 eh? Well, its been a long time since I used that version, but of what I remember you’re stuck with the good ole’ Alpha Key effect or whatever it was. Premiere Pro 2 does recognize alpha channels, maybe time to upgrade?
-
Sorry. Meant version 6.5, but I have a feeling that doesn’t solve my problem eh? But if an upgrade is my only option, that answers my question. Thank you very much. HAHA, I didn’t expect to get an answer in
2 hours? Thank you very much for your time! -
I don’t know for a fact that upgrading is the only option, its just that I don’t have the 6.5 software any more, so I can’t test things out, but from what I remember using the Alpha Key was how I used to do it. Hey, if at all possible start getting into After Effects. Its a much better way to produce graphics and titles, and far more flexible for compositing. I use it a lot. In fact, one of my past “editing” projects in Premiere was just dropping 9 mov’s into the timeline, and adding some music. The mov’s were all composited in After Effects. Great program.
-
After Effects huh? Thanks, I’ll look into that. See, the original purpose of this post was: I’m attempting to place high quality pictures of faces on top of animated sequences. So, as far as I can tell, I have two options: import a PNG with an opaque background around the faces (which Premiere 6.5 cannot), OR import pictures with a solid green, blue, red, whatever background and remove it with the alpha key. But now that you know what I’m after, my question is: Is there a CLEANER way to remove a background from a high quality pic? This project will be used in a commercial, which is a first for me, so I’m after the highest quality possible with what I’m using. Are there different transparency settings that more effectively achieve what I’m after, or picture file types that are more effecient in Adobe? Any help in this matter would be awesome. Thanks again.
-
do Targa files work? they have alpha channels.
I tend to use stills a lot and it is easy to set-up alpha channel or block filling by editing in Photoshop. I use R=147,G=255,B=183 a lot because it is such a yukky green and provided you force the chroma key to be precise there is not much chance you will find that colour in clothes or even in vegetation – even if you did it would be a very small pixel cluster.
Having said that – Photoshop and Premiere don’t see the colour with the same mix of primaries so using the eye-dropper (in Premiere) to find the colour is essential.
-
Targa files are a no-go. As far as I have been able to find, NO FILE type with a transparent layer will hold its transparency in Premiere 6.5. Premiere substitutes the transparent layer with white. My question is, if I CANNOT import a pre-made transparent layer and I have my choice of color, what is the cleanest way of removing a certain color inside of Premiere? What is the most effective key type for removing a set color? (Chroma key? RGB Difference? Blue Screen? Green screen? etc) If I have my choice of key type, what would most effectively remove whatever color I chose?
-
Ah – not enough experience to advise.
Chroma key always works for me. I also “Fill” in the motion set-up dialog using set RGB numbers.
But in the Transparency dialog I usually use the eye dropper from a particular point in the scene to find the colour/shade that works the best. Then note the numbers for above.Chroma is for removing areas of set colour eg putting one object in another background (blue screen)- the others look to alter one colour or grade the original – one application would seem to be the hiding of faces we see in “criminal” videos where the area needs pixelation or dimming. Or we want to “lighten” a face. The provided filters seem to offer these kind of things
I have experimented with the matte box and what I found there, was, that the matte applies to the normal area of the clip, such that if you apply motion the matte will cut parts of the moving image that are not in the “include” area. Wiered – but only because my expectations were different.
-
Awesome! Thank you so much for your help and patience! I was worried I’d have to find another program or some kind of update to achieve the effect I’m after but you changed my mind! =) Thanks again!
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up