Moho Forum

I've browsed the boards in search of how to export an animation with a transparent background. I've found some explanations, but I'm still having problems.
FIRST, let me state, I will NOT be exporting as PNG image sequences. I don't have a way to string the PNG image sequence together. I want this to render as a movie.

I've tried rendering in QT/PNG/Millions of Colors+, but the background ALWAYS shows up, even when I set it to the default.

Anyone have any suggestions?

I'm using AS10 on Windows 7

1. Do you have an area of the output area that is not covered by any shape or image?
2. Have you imported the QT MOV back into AS to verify it doesn't have transparency
3. Have you tried with premultiply alpha disabled & enabled?

synthsin75 wrote:1. Do you have an area of the output area that is not covered by any shape or image?
2. Have you imported the QT MOV back into AS to verify it doesn't have transparency
3. Have you tried with premultiply alpha disabled & enabled?

1. There isn't any background image I'm using. Just a character on the default background.
2. No. Haven't tried that. But, when I import the QT MOV into another program and overlay it on another video, the background is there.
3. Yes. BOTH.

2. What program? I think some require certain settings to import video with transparency.

synthsin75 wrote:2. What program? I think some require certain settings to import video with transparency.

I'm using Sony Movie Studio Platinum 12

Blackhawk1 wrote:FIRST, let me state, I will NOT be exporting as PNG image sequences. I don't have a way to string the PNG image sequence together...
I'm using Sony Movie Studio Platinum 12

Sony Movie Studio should be able to import a 32-bit PNG image sequence. You can write out a movie file from there after importing it. I know I can do this in Sony Vegas but I wasn't sure if Movie Studio could also, so I did a quick search and this answer popped up:



I'm not sure it's really necessary to enter the duration of a frame as shown in the video--at least, I don't recall ever having to do that in Vegas, which is mostly the same program.

Hope this helps.

G

Don't know about Movie Studio, but Vegas has specific settings:

Greenlaw wrote:

Blackhawk1 wrote:FIRST, let me state, I will NOT be exporting as PNG image sequences. I don't have a way to string the PNG image sequence together...
I'm using Sony Movie Studio Platinum 12

Sony Movie Studio should be able to import a 32-bit PNG image sequence. You can write out a movie file from there after importing it. I know I can do this in Sony Vegas but I wasn't sure if Movie Studio could also, so I did a quick search and this answer popped up:



I'm not sure it's really necessary to enter the duration of a frame as shown in the video--at least, I don't recall ever having to do that in Vegas, which is mostly the same program.

Hope this helps.

G

THANKS! That TOTALLY helped!

I didn't want to have to export a PNG image sequence, because they usually are so large in file size (and because I didn't know how to do it), BUT this worked out GREAT!

A MILLION THANKS to EVERYONE!

So the transparent background was rendering in AS?

Just some info about PNG output:

As a lossless format, PNG is actually one of the more compact image formats around. I render all ASP animations to this format.

There are other advantages to rendering to PNG image sequences too. For example, when rendering to image sequences, you have greater flexibility when working with the output in compositing or paint programs. Image sequences tend to render quicker since fewer computer resources are needed than when rendering to a movie file. Basically, a movie file needs to keep all of the frames in RAM before it outputs the file, but when rendering to an image sequence only the frames currently being rendered are kept in RAM and then it's purged to make room for the next frames. This is especially important if you don't have a lot of RAM in your computer.

Another advantage is when you crash a render or you just want to render a few 'fix' frames. With images sequences, you can pick up the render task from where you crashed, or you can render overwrite only the 'bad' frames--no need to re-render the entire sequences from frame 1. You can't do that with a movie file as it's pretty much all or nothing--unless you plan to render small clips to patch the render in your editor, in which case you may as well be rendering to frames.

Finally, if you have a render farm, rendering to image sequences also allow you to distribute your rendering task to multiple computers.

That said, I do prefer movie files for editorial. I usually render the animation to frames first because I tend to do a lot of work in compositing, and then I'll render a movie file from my compositing program. But even when I'm not compositing the animations, I'll render to frames and then batch process the frames to movie files for editing. Typically, I like to output a proxy version of my animations for editing and a high res version for final output. For batching files like this, I like to use the free Virtual Dub program--this program can output both files at the same time.