Problems with Alpha Channels –

[Jim Scott]

Can you share your C4D project file?

[Jim Scott]

I am able to render a TurbulenceFD project with smoke as a QT movie file using Animation and Straight Alpha which can be composited in AE. When you bring it into AE how does your movie look when toggling the Transparency Grid on?

Here’s what mine looks like by itself and with the Transparency Grid:

normal.png

transparencygrid.png

[Carlos Arreola]

Sorry for taking so long. I tried to do the research by myself but after so many hours I haven’t been able to find the solution.

I rendered the file again as QT/Animation/Millions of Collors+/ Alpha Channel / Straight Alpha. And even though the file becomes a little bit more visible, it still missing color and becomes transparent.

This is the file already placed on a composition in Ae.

Now this is the same file when I toggle the transparency grid

It’s almost impossible to see, but it’s there. It’s like the opacity it’s being pull down to 1%

Now funny thing, this is the same file if I open it from QT player

Now this is a screenshot taken from C4

I’m still doing my research and trying different rendering options, but most of the time the outcome is the same…Here are some ss of my settings.

[Carlos Arreola]

Yeah sure! Here’s the file.

9933_firewalltest.c4d.zip

[Jim Scott]

Carlos,

I got the same results you did when rendering your project and am experimenting as well with different render and TurbulenceFD settings. There is definitely a difference between how the TurbulenceFD renders look in C4D and how an exported movie comes out. While I love its capabilities, I have found that its use is certainly not intuitive. The number of variables are staggering, and trying to tune them for a desired result can be difficult.

In working with the project from which I supplied the images above, I added some glow in AE to avoid an image that was overly thin or transparent. In experimenting with your project I have had some success with activating the Burn channel in the Simulation settings of the container but still have not created an exported render which approximates the image inside C4D. I’ll let you know if I find some settings that work.

[Carlos Arreola]

Jim,

Thank you so much!

I’ll keep tunning the settings, I’ll let you know if there’s an improvement.

[Jim Scott]

Carlos,

Here’s your original project with an additional modified TurbulenceFD container to compare with your own. The fire remains vibrant when compositing in AE and there is more visible smoke. Run simulations with each container deactivated while the other is active and compare the results. I have included some screen grabs from AE of the rendered movies. I did modify the render size and frame rate of your project just to speed up renders.

9936_firewalltestmodified.c4d.zip

[Jim Scott]

To me this seems to be an issue with how TurbulenceFD deals with rendering the different types of fire, rather than how AE deals with the resulting movies. Perhaps an expert TurbulenceFD user would know what settings to modify in order to create an exported movie that matched what you see in C4D, but I am just a hobbyist and so far have not found a way to modify your own project to get that result. I was able to create an example which gave similar results in C4D and AE, but that look may not be what you are going for. Perhaps you should try contacting Jawset for support, or hopefully someone else with more experience with the plug-in can offer help.

Good luck.