importing files that preserve transparency / alpha channel

[Tim Kurkoski]

TIFF and Targa support alpha. Some QuickTime or AVI codecs do, too. 32-bit PNG files do, I believe.

What specifically are you trying to do?

[Jeff Blasczyk]

I just want to be able to bring still images into ae and animate them or have them stay static without the burden of a white background where a transparency used to be. with the psd. files I am having to create an alpha channel in photoshop 7. I’m also curious as to which video formats do that as well too. So thank you for the info.

[Tim Kurkoski]

If you’re coming from Photoshop, creating an alpha channel works, but all you really need to do is make sure that your background is transparent. If you’re starting a new doc, choose Transparent instead of White for the background. If you have an existing doc witha Background layer, double-click on the layer and name it, then delete it. Or, if you have content on that layer, use the magic wand tool to select the white and delete that. In the end, you should have the transparency checkerboard showing through where you want transparency.

PSD files really are the easiest way to get alpha, because where that transparency checkboard shows, AE will automatically apply an alpha channel.

Oh, also, if you import an individual PSD layer into AE instead of the whole doc, AE will use the transparent areas on that layer to generate the alpha channel.