Preserving black while exporting Alpha Channel

[Prema Ball]

Sorry I misspoke on the export/render. Go back and forth between so many programs that sometimes I use the wrong terminology.

It would be a movie. A quicktime animation codec. Millions of colors + (rgb+alpha) at best (100) quality.

but the problem I run into, is that if I have black as part of the graphic I’ve made, it comes out translucent, treats the black as part of the alpha. do I have to make the background something toher than black for it to differentiate it from the BG?

thanks for the response.

[John Cuevas]

It sounds to me that you used the “BKG color” as part of your graphic, rather than a solid. Test this out by hitting “shift+cntl+b” and change the color to red. If the black part of your graphic that you need changes to red, you don’t have anything there, there’s nothing to create an alpha channel.

Fixing this is as simple as creating a solid”shift+y” and modifying it so it fits your graphic correctly…ie masking it to fit into the lower third, track matte.

Also there is a turn background off button under the comp window–little checkboard icon. If you press that, you’ll see exactly what will be transparent or not. Push the green-red-blue circle pulldown and you can also switch to the alpha channel to see what you’re exporting.

Good luck

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
http://www.ckandco.net

[Prema Ball]

I didn’t have to key any part of it, but that is definitely something that I will keep in mind on other projects I’m working on.

Both John’s and your suggestions have been very helpful.

Thank you.