Transparency in video

hydrax · Post by **hydrax** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 3:58 pm

Ok I posted this here because I'm guessing this will be doable with AE, so...

I want to have a transparent area in project I'm trying to export so when I put it on a timeline it can be overlayed on something else ( i.e. video can be seen through the transparent area). I hope that makes sense.

Szwagier · Post by **Szwagier** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 4:16 pm

I'm not sure if I understand you right, but if you want some fragment of the video cutted off from the scene then I suggest readin this

hydrax · Post by **hydrax** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 5:14 pm

No you misunderstood me, I'm not talking about masking/rotoscoping 'objects' and placing them in other scenes.

What I'm saying is in the same way you can have transparent areas in .png and .gif formats (which are images and I want it in video), can you do that with motion video?

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 5:24 pm

Yes, as long as you save it with a format/codec that supports an alpha (transparency) channel. In other words, uncompressed RGBA, or a lossless codec such as HuffYUV or Lagarith in RGB32 mode.

hydrax · Post by **hydrax** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 10:17 am

Yes, as long as you save it with a format/codec that supports an alpha (transparency) channel. In other words, uncompressed RGBA, or a lossless codec such as HuffYUV or Lagarith in RGB32 mode.

I tried every format and codec you suggested set to RGBA ( i.e. with alpha) and when I import it into vegas the transparent section is black, am I doing something wrong?

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 12:54 pm

hydrax wrote:
Yes, as long as you save it with a format/codec that supports an alpha (transparency) channel. In other words, uncompressed RGBA, or a lossless codec such as HuffYUV or Lagarith in RGB32 mode.
I tried every format and codec you suggested set to RGBA ( i.e. with alpha) and when I import it into vegas the transparent section is black, am I doing something wrong?

Is there nothing under (track-wise) the video? If so, black is the default. Are you layering the clips properly?

Szwagier · Post by **Szwagier** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 1:55 pm

If (for some reason) you cannot export it like that, you can try going around it. Time it in vegas, then export the background clip from vegas, and put it as bottom layer in AE , then export it as another clip, and put it again in vegas. It's a bit of additional work, but hey - at least you will achieve what you need :>

BauziOLD · Post by **BauziOLD** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 3:34 pm

I was wondering for over years if there is a way to save the alpha channel in a video.
So I was happy when I saw this thread.

So I exported my RGBA Lagarith out of AE and I have the same problem as hydrax, but it´s just in Premiere. Adding the Alpha Adjust Keying effect onto the clip in Premiere didn´t helped either. =/

hydrax · Post by **hydrax** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 6:11 pm

Is there nothing under (track-wise) the video? If so, black is the default. Are you layering the clips properly?

Theres nothing underneath but the composition is set to show the transparency grid so I don't think that should be a problem.