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ProRes 4444 Alpha Problems
I am having an issue when trying to use a ProRes 4444 QT in FCP.
The QT is animated text (generated in AE) that will be keyed over footage.What happens is this: I insert the QT into my sequence and the text shows up, but the video behind it goes black.
This ONLY happens if I have repositioned or cropped the background footage. It DOES NOT happen over footage that is simply placed in the timeline (no scaling, cropping, etc.)
Is this a bug that I have to work around?
Should I change my Sequence settings to ProRes 4444? Or is ProRes 422 ok?
I have tried both sequence settings and nothing has worked.
Any suggestions to this frustrating problem?
Robert Due
Editor / Colorist
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14 Replies
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Check the alpha status. How did you render the alpha out of AE? Premultiplied w/black or straight?
Right click on the clip in FCP, choose “item properties” then set the alpha to match how you rendered out of AE. AE usually defaults to “black” but that doesn’t mean much as it’s easily changed.
Jeremy
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Yes, I checked that as well. Rendered out of AE as Straight. Imported and shows up as straight in FCP.
Robert Due
Editor / Colorist
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have you rendered this and checked it? Sometimes the alpha doesn’t show up properly until rendered.
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Yes!!! That is it. Rendering solved the issue. It is frustrating, however.
Thanks Jeremy.
Robert Due
Editor / Colorist
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Just wondering if you ever found out why ProRes 444 does this in Final Cut 7. I am having the same exact problem, but don’t want to solve it by rendering everything in order to see it.
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It was intermittent. It displays fine most times, but every so often I have to render and it solves the issue.
Robert Due
Editor / Colorist
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[Robert Due] “It was intermittent. It displays fine most times, but every so often I have to render and it solves the issue.”
Same here. I don’t know what causes it. A render always sorts it.
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With me, it’s not intermittent. Every time I have more than 2 video tracks, with the top one having an alpha channel, one of the tracks below turns black. If I just move the x or y position even just 1 pixel on that bothersome clip, all tracks reappear…weird! If I move the x and y back to original position, it turns black again.
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[Amy Prouty] “With me, it’s not intermittent. Every time I have more than 2 video tracks, with the top one having an alpha channel, one of the tracks below turns black.”
Hmm. mine doesn’t turn black, it’s just that the full scope of the transparency doesn’t show up all the time. What alpha type are you using?
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I’ve tried all the possibilities between after effects and final cut (rendering out straight in AE and making sure it’s straight in FC. Then I’ve rendered out premultiplied in AE and changing it in FC to black or white).
Nothing seems to fix it unless I move the position a hair or render everything out.
I can bring all those same clips into AE and layer them on top of each other with no problem.
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