[Craig Seeman]

In LIve Type you’ll see Collectors Edition and Pro Series under Category. Salue is under the Pro Series.
In Motion, when you select LiveFonts, you’ll see folders on the right that says All (52 items), Collectors Edition, Pro Series. All LiveFonts are there in All or you’ll Salue in the Pro Series too.

[Craig Seeman]

Thanks. The odd thing is it only loses the alpha type when I drag from Browser to Timeline. In other words when I first open it in the File Browser and look at it in the Inspector Media Tab the Alpha Channel is correct so there’s no reason to change it.

The giveaway for me was I was using the same psd in two places. The first time I dragged it to Canvas. That worked. Later in the project I dragged it to the timeline and the alpha seemed gone.

When I went to the Media Tab (Layers area) I noticed one iteration had the expected checkerboard background and the 2nd one had white. Selecting THAT one (slightly different fix than yours because the original version in the Browser does show the alpha correctly) and changing that in the Inspector fixed it. In this case the alpha showed as NONE.

In other words, in my case ONLY dragging into Timeline created the alpha issue and only with that use of the original source file. The very same source dragged from Browser to Canvas worked.

Odd and bug and very awkward bug for sure. Once again thanks for pointing me where to look to fix it.

[Craig Seeman]

To clarify, It only fails when I drag the Photoshop file with alpha channel from Browser to Timeline directly.

[Craig Seeman]

Some additional comments –

Some argue it’s “personal” use but you’re getting paid to use the music.

Note if you download a song from iTunes you can use it in iMovie but not Final Cut Pro. Interesting part of that particular license.

And I’ve always felt posting such clips on the web compounds the problem. You’re no longer just handing it to the couple (and whoever they distribute it to). You’re posting on the web for the general public. You’re advertising that you will use copyrighted music and accept payment for it.

It’s a risk not worth taking. You can cross the street millions of times while the light’s red without issue. You only need to get hit by a car once to be killed.

I use Smart Sound. There’s other great libraries though.

I’ve always found brides understanding when I explain the copyright issue. Ironically I found the corporate jobs much more difficult where producers INSIST that a given scene be got to a pop tune or movie soundtrack.

[Craig Seeman]

I use(d) Cleaner, Squeeze, Episode Pro, Compressor. Get Episode if you want deep control. Get Squeeze for simplicity. Use Cleaner if you like to groan. Compressor isn’t bad for free but it’s missing lots of stuff.

[Craig Seeman]

Sadly I’ve seen nothing like it since. Focal Press has some books on compression though. Cliff Wootton, “A Practical Guide to Video and Audio Compression from Sprockets and Rasters to Macro Blocks.” Published in 2005.

[Craig Seeman]

Unfortunately getting out of date but still useful book by Ben Waggoner “Compression For Great Digital Video”

[Craig Seeman]

$49 version is presets only and 1 pass encode only.
$99 version is still 1 pass encoding but allows the user to create their own settings. CBR encoding can target data rate but 1 pass VBR is “quality” based (as defined by Microsoft).
$179 version allows 2 pass encoding (only way to target a data rate in VBR encoding since 1 pass VBR is “quality” based rather than data rate based). It also allows full HD frame sizes such as encoding to WMV HD for playback on HD monitor at full size as well as surround sound and lossless audio encoding.

[Craig Seeman]

And from my experience Flip4Mac is slowest in Cleaner. It’s faster in Compressor and Squeeze but still nowhere near as fast as Episode and WME on XP is faster still.

[Craig Seeman]

You should update to 4.5 which is free and far less buggy than 4.1 was.
You might also consider upgrading to 5.1 since the entire Studio upgrade is very inexpensive if you already have 4.x.