FCP not recognizing alpha channel in GIFs

[Kevin Monahan]

Are you in Safe RT? High Quality?

BTW, I wouldn’t expect animated GIFS to work no matter what.
GIF is a very, very poor lossy format for your graphics. Stay with lossless PNG, PICT, PSD, etc.
If you can….

Kevin Monahan
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fcpworld.com

[Steve Hontz]

(I’m not at the FCP machine right now – it’s a friend’s computer.)
Does it make a difference if it’s in Safe RT or High Quality, if PNG files with transparency work ok but the GIFs don’t? (The PNG files apparently use “Straight” mode and the GIFs use “Pre-multiplied”). Does changing those settings (Safe RT and HQ) affect whether transparency shows or not?

The animated GIFs display properly (i.e, the animation, uh, “animates”) but the backgrounds don’t go transparent. The GIFs were purchased so we can’t do them in a different format. I know the GIFs have transparent backgrounds because I can drop them into Vegas and they show as transparent.

[Loren Hillebrand]

Correct me if I’m wrong anyone, but it’s my understanding that the GIF format does not support transparency. Perhaps you could open the files in Photoshop and export in another format (PNG,JPEG,PICT,PSD).

[Steve Hontz]

Yes, GIF supports transparency. The transparency works fine in Photoshop and Vegas, for example. It’s FCP that’s not working right.

[Jp Driscoll]

I would try opening the GIF in Adobe Imageready. Then you can take each cell of the animation and save that as a png with alpha channel in sequential order. Then I believe you can import the sequential image files in FCP and you’ll have the alpha channels. I’ve never tried this myself, but it’s worth a shot.

Good luck!

JP Driscoll

WDAY TV
Fargo, ND

“Television! Teacher, mother, secret lover.” ~Homer Simpson