Exporting QT with alpha

[Walter Biscardi]

FCP does not export an alpha channel.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Michael Andrews]

Does Motion?

[Alex Elkins]

I don’t think you can export a normal quicktime movie with an alpha channel (someone correct me if I’m wrong!)

What you can do is go to File>Export>Using Quicktime Conversion and change the compressor settings to ‘Animation’ with Millions of Colours+ (the ‘+’ meaning plus alpha). This should export a file with an alpha channel which will still open in Quicktime. You’ll just have to render when you put it back onto a timeline.

Forgive me if any of this information isn’t correct as I’m just going off the top of my head here as FCP is busy capturing some stuff.

Good luck,
Alex

[Rafael Amador]

You need to export with a codec that supports Alpha channel. You can use Animation or PNG and set” Colors Millions+”.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Alex,
We where posting at the same time.
You can set your sequence codec as Animation Colors+ and export a QT movie. No necessary QT conversion.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Tom Matthies]

The trick is to output as Animation+ and DO NOT RENDER the sequence. If you render, the alpha will not work.
Tom

[Mark Suszko]

What I have done for this is export>using quicktime conversion to save as a folder full of sequential targas. But I like this other method better. Though I thought PNG was a lesser quality in terms of compression and quality?

[Michael Andrews]

Thanks to all who offered solutions!
PNG, millions+, not rendered in the timeline is working just fine for this project.
I will experiment with the Animation setting when I have the time.
Thanks again!

[Todd Reid]

As mentioned…the key for this is to make sure your footage is NOT rendered. If rendered, the same codec/setting will not work.

took many trials and errors for me to get this to work, but it can happen. I’ve had the best results with PNG.

Walter-
I know you are very experienced, so there must be a reason that you said it wasn’t possible with FCP.
Are you not happy with the quality?
I find it hard to believe that this would be a function you were not aware of.
If so, it gives the rest of us comfort that NO ONE knows everything about FCP, I too consider myself a seasoned veteran (almost 20 years editing-started in the linear world), and I still learn stuff on a regular basis (mostly from the cow!).

This is why I think the cow is THE SINGLE GREATEST RESOURCE for ANY editor.
Keep it up cowboys!

[Rafael Amador]

[todd reid] “As mentioned…the key for this is to make sure your footage is NOT rendered. If rendered, the same codec/setting will not work. “
Hi Tod,
Sorry to disagree with you. if you render you still exporting with Alpha channel. If you lose the Alpha, you may have something set wrong.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com