FCP and After Effects

I have a lame question.......but if I was constructing motion lower 3rds and Graphics in After Effects, Is there any way to import the AE graphics into FCP WITHOUT a background. If not what would be the typical method to include after effects. My concern is that I don't want to us AE as my editing program I would rather include my AE stuff into my FCP edits. Thanks for your time and comments.

Dan (fuzzmastaflex)

yeah man, thats a pretty lame question!

HA! just kidding! not lame at all, just really easilly solved.

the easiest and most fool-proof is to just render out your after effects movie
as an animation compressed movie at highest quality at "millions +" (millions with an alpha). then once you bring it into FCP lay it over your video and go to modify>alpha type>black.

this takes for granted that the upper 2/3 in your AE file is indeed empty checkered or black background.

you could also use compostie modes, or chroma keying in FCP, but that adds some constraints to your designs in AE. so i rarely choose this option.

if you're compositing the lower 3rds in AE, where are you building them? illustrator? photoshop?

oh, i almost forgot - and this part is a drag... i wish there was a way around it, but to my knowldge there isnt. any alpha channel graphics you bring into FCP will have to be rendered once (and any time they are moved) on the fcp timeline...

i prefer AE for these kinda things myself as well, BUT you could build your lower thirds as a seperate full screen sequence in FCP. then nest that sequence over your main sequence and add a crop or mask shape to get the lower 3rd effect.

sad part is that even here, you'll have the same timeline render woes

Use Motion.

What wayne didn't mention is you need to set your AE Alpha Channel render to "Straight (Unmatted)" and not "Premulitplied" or you will get a hideous color halo around your graphics (it will be premultiplied with the background - and you do not want this).

- Joey



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

i didnt mention it because i always just use the black background in AE and bring things into FCP (and assign) accordingly and it all looks as i planned it to...

but good point joe, maybe you can school me as to why yours is a better aporach

I didn't say mine was a better approach...I merely pointed out some information that wasn't included that should have been when instructing on an Alpha Channel.

With a straight alpha channel, a footage item keeps the transparency information in a separate channel (the alpha channel only), not in any of the visible color channels. This kind of alpha channel is also known as unmatted alpha. With a straight alpha channel, the effects of transparency are not visible until the image is displayed in an application that supports straight alpha.

With a premultiplied alpha channel, a footage item keeps the transparency information in the alpha channel and also keeps the same information in the visible RGB channels, which are modified, or multiplied, with a background color. A premultiplied alpha channel is known as matted alpha with a background color. The colors of semitransparent areas, such as feathered edges, are shifted toward the background color in proportion to their degree of transparency.

Do a test:

Render 2 motion graphics (add a glow and / or drop shadow so there's a gradual fade to the background) w/alpha (1 - Premultiplied, and 1 - Straight - Unmatted).

Bet you a beer the Straight (Unmatted) render will be perfectly clean. If you want the premultiplied halo around your graphics, then yours is the right approach for your project and mine isn't.

- Joey



When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

super info joe - thanks! i'll try the test and see what happens.