Exporting a file from photoshop with a transparent background for FCP

[Andrew Rendell]

I usually just disable the background layer and save it as a .psd or .png (without flattening the layers) then when it’s imported into FCP the background is transparent and the higher layers come through.

[Mark Laslo]

HI Austin,

Your best bet as far as I know is to create an alpha channel through the actions tab in photoshop. The steps are as follows

1) Create your graphic with a transparent background in photoshop
2) Hide all layers you don’t want visible in the final graphic
3) In the Actions tab navigate to “Video Actions” and select “Alpha Channel from Visible Layers” (use inverted if working in Avid) – If you don’t have the action tab go to Window –> Actions
4) Save your image as a PNG, TIF, or you can import the PSD file into FCP (though all the layers will follow). JPG does not support transparency.

You should be all set. Just note that if you change something in your graphic you have to delete the Alpha Channel and run the action again.

[Tom Matthies]

-Compose your graphic as usual
-Put a blank layer on the bottom
-Select the blank layer
-Merge Visible and save in a format that supports an alpha channel. I usually save as a .png.
That’s it.
Tom

E=MC2+/-2db

[Austin Steele]

Thank you all!