Render Settings for Particular+Alpha Comp

[Irene Vega]

Sorry for the late response. I should have explained the screen cap a little bit better.

The image shows one of the many pre-comps I created for the main composition. The selected layer is the solid I’ve been having trouble with. Every pre-comp I created (about 20 more or less) needs it for the glow (created with fast blurs) to show up. When I turn them off (in every pre-comp I have), I finally get the transparency I need, but in my main comp the particulars stop showing.

I hope I can explain myself better with these screen caps.

Here’s an image of the main comp:

Every pre-comp looks like this:

Each solid in the pre-comp creates the black background that blocks the alpha/transparency I need. But when I hide them, the Particulars disappear:

And when I go back to my main comp, they are also no longer visible:

When the solids are not hidden, the Particulars show but there is no transparency.

I hope it’s clearer this time.
So does anyone know a possible solution that might prevent the Particulars to disappear when I hide the solids so AE can render an alpha channel?

[Joey Foreman]

Okay, so it looks like you’re creating your particles as inverted luma mattes, and I don’t really understand why.
Why not turn off the solid at the bottom, set the Track Matte on the particular layer to None, and turn off the blue solid above it?

I’m just not following the logic behind the track matte scheme you’ve set up.

Joey Foreman
Editor/Compositor/VFX Artist