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Activity Forums VEGAS Pro Making black transparent. (no alpha channel)

  • Making black transparent. (no alpha channel)

    Posted by Frank Manno on June 25, 2007 at 4:48 am

    I have a clip that’s a graphic on a black background and want to make the background transparent. (No alpha channel on the image) The way I did it is like this:

    Track 1 Track with black background – Multiply (mask) mode
    and mask generator set to ‘red channel mask’
    (The graphic is red)
    Track 2 Copy of above and track is compositing child
    Track 3 My background footage.

    Now I’m thinking there’s got to be an easier and better way. The only reason the above is working if because I used the red channel mask and that’s ok in this instance but what if my graphic isn’t red but multicoloured?

    So the question is, what’s the proper way for me to remove the black background from an image? (Assuming that there’s no saved alpha channel)

    -Frankie

    Mike Kujbida replied 18 years, 11 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
  • 1 Reply
  • Mike Kujbida

    June 25, 2007 at 9:37 am

    This is the kind of thing I normally do in Photoshop.
    You can also try using the ChromaKey tool in Vegas.
    Use the color picker tool and select your black background.
    If the background isn’t 100% black, you may need to do some minor tweaks to it but these methods have been covered here before.

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