Alpha Channels FCP7?

[Shane Ross]

They’d need to throw me a bone too…I have no idea. The titles inside FCP already have built in Alphas…That’s where you’d use the “fonts.” Images…what sort of images? Text from photoshop? Stills? What?

This sounds like that old theater joke…get the new guy to wash the gels. (Hint, the gels are made out of GEL, similar to jello…so it’ll fall apart in your hands).

Shane
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[Shawn Harrison]

Ha. True. I am almost positive the titles will be from Photoshop or AFX. Def not FCP titles.So I guess a better way to phrase the question is how do you set title assets you import to the alpha Chanel. I always thought everything is alpha by default no?

[Shane Ross]

Make sure that your Photoshop files are set up right, so you see the checkerboard…meaning there is no background. Then export/save the files as a format that supports Alphas, like PNG.

Shane
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[Roger Poole]

To create images with Alpha channels in Photoshop. To give yourself an idea of the workflow open an image in Photoshop. In the layers pallate on the RH side double click in the image thumbnail. A dialogue box will open, in the color menu choose none, close the box. Now from the toolbox select the marquee tool, click and drag anywhere on the image then hit the backspace key. The section you selected will be removed revealing the transparency underneath.

Now the vital bit, save the image as a Tiff – include layers. in the second dialogue box which opens during the save process you will see a tick box, Preserve transparency, check that and complete the save, ignoring any warnings about layers and transparency

Import the image into FCP. Place it over the top of a video track and you will see that the hole you cut in the image in Photoshop is there revealing the video underneath.

This is just a demonstration so If for instance you were creating text with an alpha channel, start with a blank sheet with the content black. Create your text in your chosen color. Take the magic wand then click on the background to select it then hit the backspace key to delete it leaving the text on transparency. Save as before and your’e done.

[Mark Suszko]

You need to save in 32-bit to preserve alpha channels. Many like .png but I cling to 32-bit Targa, Tiff, and photoshop files with the layers preserved .