How to disable Open GL in after effect CS6? I can’t export a transparent background! (RGB+Alpha)

[John Cuevas]

AE6 doesn’t have Open GL anymore, it cause more problems than it was worth.

How are you checking to see if you haven’t created an alpha, I’m asking cause if you are watching in quicktime player, transparency shows up as black? Have you brought the rendered file back into AE and checked if it has an alpha?

First step, double-check that you have transparency by checking the checkerboard beneath your comp window, if it reveals checkers-good. Next question, when you are rendering, what type of file did you choose and what codec? Will start there and see if we can figure this out.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[Esther Casas]

Hi J! thks for this.

Ok: so when i import the movie into AE again and press the transparency grid in the comp, it’s showing me black, never transparent.

Then: i wanted to export an apple pro res 422 (in the video output window of loseless): when i choose it, the option “RGB + Alpha” disappears.. so i went ahead (just for testing), and did not chose any option, left it as default (animation), and selected “rgb+alpha”. why is this happening? is this the reason?
tell me what you think the presets should be?
thank you!!!

[John Cuevas]

I don’t use Apple Pro Res 422, but I understand it does support an alpha channel, so you should be able to render to ProRes. If you need to work in prores, I really can’t offer much help. Perhaps one of the Mac users will stumble in here and lend a hand.

As an alternative, you could render to Quicktime, press “lossless”, change the format to Quicktime, then press the Codec button and choose “Animation” that supports RGB+Alpha. The drawback to QT_Animation is it creates really large files, so make sure you have the space first.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[Esther Casas]

I already did this, and i get the same issue…black background, no transparency..no idea why!!? thank you anyway..

[John Cuevas]

Just to double check, before you rendered, you clicked the checkerboard to make sure you actually do have transparency?

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

“I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
—THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

[Walter Soyka]

Either use the “Lossless with Alpha” output module preset, or use ProRes 4444 which does support alpha.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Esther Casas]

Hi! so i exported losslesss with alpha (preset) and quicktime(no pro res) and it worked!
🙂

no idea why apple pro res 422 doesn’t??? it used to work before…any idea why is not happening now? I normally work with pro res..thta’s why i need to figure this out with 422..CS5 was exporting alpha with 422..

thank you guys!!

[Walter Soyka]

[Esther Casas] “no idea why apple pro res 422 doesn’t??? it used to work before…any idea why is not happening now? I normally work with pro res..thta’s why i need to figure this out with 422..CS5 was exporting alpha with 422..”

ProRes 422 does not support alpha.

Are you sure you weren’t using QuickTime Animation codec, PNG codec, or ProRes 4444?

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Esther Casas]

mm..will definitely double check that….for now i am using pro res 444 then…thank you so much! you save me a lot of time doing research on this!

[Esther Casas]

i see…thank you Dave!