[Dave Johnson]

I’ve heard the hand from the Adam’s Family is looking for work.

[Dave Johnson]

I have an idea … maybe the COW’s tech team can find a way to send an electric shock through a poster’s mouse every time we try to post another speculative FCPX message in the regular FCP forum? Nothing too Frankensteinish … just a harmless tiny jolt as a reminder? ;~)

[Dave Johnson]

I don’t think you’re understanding what I’m saying … QuickTime, nor any other media player I know of, displays alpha channels as “transparent” and QT doesn’t choose to display alpha channels as black … it displays alpha channels whatever color the user tells it to, which defaults to black in most media generation software. Again, if video is rendered with a grey background to represent its alpha channel, QT will display it as grey …. unless of course the software it’s rendered from doesn’t allow rendering with alpha channels represented by any color other than black and forces alpha channels to always display black. As I mentioned, After Effects will represent an alpha channel with any color the user chooses … I don’t know that Motion will as I haven’t tried it. That’s all the help I can offer. Good luck.

[Dave Johnson]

Yes, QT allows any color, but it’s a function of the program you’re using to generate the MOV … in other words, you have to render MOVs that way, rather than change them in QT. I’m not sure if Motion allows it, but I’m sure someone else will chime in with that info. In the meantime, I thought it might also be helpful to know that some software or versions of software that you might be bringing your animations into may not recognize or interpret correctly an alpha channel that’s represented by anything other than true black … most nowadays will, but some won’t so don’t do a 12-hour render on grey until you’ve tested with the other applications in your workflow.

[Dave Johnson]

I’m with the other guys … thumb drives all the way …

much harder to break
much cheaper to ship
avoids the power conversion issue altogether

By the way, yes Blu-Ray data discs do exists … easier to get broken during shipping than a thumb drive though … and assumes the recipient will be able to read the discs.

[Dave Johnson]

This is basically the same as the Method Dave L. suggests and, therefore, has the same limitations (if there’s no black in the butterfly, which seems unlikely) … you can also an UnMult filter (like the free one from Red Giant that’s primarily intended for use with older Lens Flares that don;t have premult capability built in).

It’s hard to to day without seeing the image or the background you want it on, as well as the quality level you need, but in some instances a blend mode might even be sufficient for a quick shot.

[Dave Johnson]

Not sure I understand the question, but perhaps it’ll help to say that the only reason I can think of to render a single file through AE is if it’s been altered in some way within AE … the only way to alter a file in AE is inside of a comp so there’s effectively no difference between rendering that comp and rendering the altered “file”.

Now, if you already have other files/layers in the same comp used to alter the file you want to render, you would need to pre-compose the layer that represents the file you want to render, then render that precomp. I hope that helps.

[Dave Johnson]

Perhaps just duplicate the project file three times, rename each one and delete the parts you don’t want from each one … it might be a good idea to also keep the original unaltered project file that you purchased.

[Dave Johnson]

Very well said, Scott. It seems that practical implications are often overlooked for the more intriguing cool factor so it’s nice to see someone make a well-stated case to at least consider the flip side of the coin … the cutting edge versus bleeding edge question, I suppose.

[Dave Johnson]

I don’t necessarily disagree with anything Nick or Chris said … just worded my reply the way I did because if, for example, you send out hundreds of discs every month and have many dozens of clients, once the precedent of replacing every one of those discs for free after clients have tossed them around for a few years is established, it’s difficult for me to understand how you and/or your staff would be able to do anything other than print discs all day every day … for free. Seems to me that would no longer be a “business”.