Exporting alpha intact to Photoshop

[Noah Kadner]

Export with the lossless preset and make sure background color is set to 0% in both preferences and the project settings.

Naoh

[Scott Gerst]

Thanks Noah-

I think most of my problem was in Photoshop-

I am now able to export a TIFF or PNG with alpha intact as a screen shot-
then I layer it in photoshop with proper blending and a mask to get the effect I want-

it isn’t exact, but with color dodge, for example, it makes very little effect, if any, on the image I am merging into (I am guessing becasue the alpha channel is transparent- although, why the other blending modes do effect the image I am merging into is beyond me).

Thanks again-
if anyone has any (off topic) insight into Photoshop with Motion and preserving alpha channels, feel free to pipe in.

Scott

[Noah Kadner]

Have you tried exporting as a Photoshop file from Motion? Key is making sure there is truly no BG color on your Motion project.

Noah

[Scott Gerst]

Yes-
but regardless- I have finally learne din Photoshop you must only select out alpha-
then double click and set to masked areas- and color 0% transparency in Photoshop-

this seems to work- so I will export as Photoshop with BG st to 0 in Motion- then select alpha and work in PS- and then I am able to do what I want to do.

Thanks so much- your help sent me int he right direction and got me going on this.

Cheers,
Scott

[Jim Kanter]

1. Check opacity in the Motion canvas by turning on the Transparency view (checkerboard pattern will appear where BG is transparent).

2. Export the current frame as a Still Image and select the Photoshop file format.

3. Open the exported file in Photoshop. The background will be the same color as the Canvas color in Motion, but you will find an Alpha Channel in the Channels palette.

Jim Kanter,
Digital Film Institute
http://www.dfilminst.com