Alpha help

I have Mac OSX, FCP 5. I want to export my footage (DV50) Alpha only. I set the compression for Quicktime to Animation Million Color +. I even have the Sequence set to the same. When I export my talking head, the head is cut off and I only see her upper torso. The whole image is moved to the top of my window. What step am I missing?

Are you using Export > Quicktime Conversion or are you trying to use Export > Quicktime Movie? It is interesting you are seeing part of the torso, you should be seeing a grayscale silhouette only. Try this:

I set my Canvas to view just the alpha with a checkerboard background so I could verify everything was good with the alpha channel first, this option is in the 3rd little pulldown bubble toward the top of the window.

Try setting your sequence settings back to native codec and resolution, and export using Quicktime Conversion. Go into the options and check the size is correct. Turn off audio and fast start checkboxes, and set the video to use the Animation codec. Drag the quality slider up to 'High', keep the framerate set to 'Current' and keyframes to 'Automatic' and export. I just tried this and I got a grayscale QT that is my alpha...

I wish you the same luck.

Michael Gossen
Pixel Dust Digital

Thank you for the suggestion Michael,
I have exported it using Quicktime Conversion. I tried what you have suggested but have the same problem. When I follow your steps and not render it, my talking head is just a white silohete. I would like her to be in color. I hope this makes it a little more clear on what I am doing wrong.

Animation settings...don't forget to set to Millions of Colors + (the "+" is the Alpha Channel). You can't export an Alpha Channel in DV50 because that codec does not support Alpha Channels.

Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Don't do this. Don't edit in an Animation codec sequence. Edit in DVCPRO50 like normal. Make your animation with transparency how you like. Export to a self-contained QuickTime Movie. Instead of current settings use Custom. Set the compressor to Animation. Click Advanced and set the colors to millions+.

That's what I meant, TW...not the whole sequence, just the clip with the alpha channel.

Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

thanks but still not working. I kept the sequence to DV50 NTSC, tried once with and then without the clip set to Alpha Travel, set to Quicktime conversion, animation, million +, framerate set to 'Current' and keyframes to 'Automatic', I've tried rendering before exporting and not rendering before exporting. When I render it come my talent comes out headless and torse on top of my window, not render she is where she is with a head but she is just a white silohete.
maybe there is a certain workflow order I am missing. I bet it's one simple step that is just not dawning on me.

"tried once with and then without the clip set to Alpha Travel,"

What's that mean? Could you tell us exactly what you're doing in the sequence?

are you exporting from your timeline or from the source clip? maybe the head clip isnt the same res as the sequence setting?

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When I render it come my talent comes out headless and torse on top of my window

Your problem is that your Sequence codec does not support Alpha Channels. BTW...what's an "alpha travel"? How about posting an example frame before & after?

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

I apologize for the late response, been out of the office.
The sequence is DVCPro50-NTSC, Pixel Aspect NTSC- CCIR 601. The clip is the same. Any changes I do to the clip I do in the timeline. One of the filters I use on the clip is DFTzMatte v2 Chroma. I am really not sure what travel matte alpha is but when I was trying different options and combinations I found it under Modify ? Composite mode ? (at the bottom) Travel Matte ? Alpha. I didn?t really use this option as it seemed not to make a difference.
The way I have been exporting it or changing the sequence or the clip has been all over the map because of the different combos I?ve been trying to make work. I can?t seem to post a pix of the before and after for you to see. It?s just my talking head get crunched on the top of my window without its head. I hope this helps.

Okay, most of you already know how to do this, but for the rest were who were stuck like me these are the step by step that I did.
Yes, I rendered everything and only have what I want to export as an Alpha channel in a timeline.
1. File > Export > Quicktime Movie (not using Quicktime Conversion) > went to settings > scrolled down to customize> Aspect Ratio = Multimedia Large > Pixel = NTSC- CCIR 60I/ DV > Compressor advance > Animation > Millions of Colors + then click OKAY. Now make sure that "make movie self- contained" is unchecked.

So hopefully this helps someone. I tried to type every nook and cranny I did to make it work.

Thanks again for everyone giving me their input. I wouldn't been able to figure it out without you!

Hmm...I remember our graphics experts saying in older posts that you're not supposed to render if you want to retain the alpha channel. Are you sure you did render? Also, if you're making an alpha-only movie file for effects people, are you sure it's a good idea to make the file not self-contained?


www.derekmok.com

Yep, we rendered it.
We exported it for our Flash graphics guy. He was working with it yesterday. He doesn't seem to have an issue with the file not being a self contained.

> We exported it for our Flash graphics guy. He was working with it yesterday. He doesn't seem to
> have an issue with the file not being a self contained.

If it works, it works...can somebody tell me why a non-self-contained file was okay in this instance when divorced from its media? Joe? Shane?


www.derekmok.com

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We exported it for our Flash graphics guy. He was working with it yesterday. He doesn't seem to have an issue with the file not being a self contained.

Nope...it is absolutely impossible to work with a non-self-contained file that is separate from the machine where the original media lives. Non-self-contained is a "reference" (pointer) that points to the original media and it MUST live on the same machine as the media or at least be able to see it via open network connection. What is the size of your clip? If it's not self-contained, it will be really small (less than 10 megs). When you change a compressor from "Current Settings" to anything else, you are compressing a new file...period.

You may have stumbled onto a little bug.

Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Thank you, Joe. Thought I was going off the deep end there.

On one Dual G5 at one workplace I've seen QuickTime export options go absolutely haywire (eg. in the drop-down menu where you're supposed to have "Audio and Video", we'd have something like "Compression Markers". A simple quit and restart fixed it. So maybe the self-contained box was playing tricks.


www.derekmok.com

When you recompress to a different format the "reference" movie has all the media built into it. It doesn't reference any render files on your hard drive.

Thank you for posting your solution. It has saved my kiester seriously on a project that I am working with currently. I'm compositing several layers and keying them on top of each other and I'm using Digital Anarchy's ToonIt Rototoon effect on several of the layers.

DA's ToonIt is outstanding for the look we're getting and it is perfect, but on a dual Quad-Core 3GHz system (with 4 Gigs of RAM) it takes forever to render. The good folks at DA say that by the end of October they'll have a new version of this filter that will work faster but our delivery date is 28 September.

In order to successfully work with this stuff all ready 'Tooned, I need to key the green screen stuff, apply spill suppression, do 8-point garbage matte work and usually apply a DVE layer to some of the footage. Then, something that would normally take a few hours (for a 5 minute piece) needs to be processed once you add DA's ToonIt for several days.

And then you can't change anything.

So, what I'm doing is an export of our selects with the effect so that we can cut the piece.

lhdor12's solution is perfect?but we're in HDV.

So his settings for export (for us) are wrong. We needed to use the Animation Codec, do millions of colors plus and take the same settings from the timeline and apply them to the export, so we're in HD (1440x1080 16:9)
Field Dominance Upper
29.97 FPS
Compression HDV 1080i 60
Audio 48K
Depth 16 bits.

So use his settings but adapt your export to what your timeline is set for.

Thanks guys!

OK, I'm exporting a 36-minute timeline with alpha.

And my Dual Quad-core Mac is claiming it will take 9 days to export!

That is unacceptable. Avids export very quickly, why is this very fast Mac so freaking slow!?!?

...because you are converting HDV (lossy) to a format that supports alpha channels (lossless). That's why most of us recommend ingesting HDV as a more compliant workable codec (DVCPROHD, ProRes, etc). Then exporting THAT takes much less time.

Joey

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.