exporting with alpha for transparent background

Look carefully. The lossless with alpha preset has been with Motion since the beginning. There are a lot of presets. In the export dialog box, make sure the Export drop down is set to Quicktime Movie. Then look under the Use drop down for the preset. On mine its's right beneath the HDV presets (but may be different if you have different codecs installed other than the basics).

If you don't see the "Lossless + Alpha Movie" preset, then you have a bigger problem. You might need to reinstall to get it back.

Still, you can create your own preset if you want. The key for alpha export is using the Animation codec. Click the Option button next to the Export drop down box. From the Video/Audio settings choose Animation for the compressor, and quality at 100%. Then you can SAVE AS and give it a preset name.

Andy

To add to Andy's great advice:
The Animation codec is one of only a few that will support alpha. It is the default for Motion and LiveType. You may have the alpha but don't know it because you're looking at the movie in a player, not in FCP. But you may have changed your default or you may have turned off the subtle "Millions of colors +" switch The + is the alpha.

bogiesan

I will try reinstalling motion and see what happens.

Thanks.

Total waste of time. The Animation codec is available from QT, it's not part of Motion. The preset is meaningless, just change the output settings to Animation.

I'm still betting your movie is transparent, you're just viewing it improperly.

bogiesan

Sorry to hijack, but there are a billion other threads on this and I didn't want to annoy everyone with another...

I've researched through these forums for an hour now and still can't seem to find a solution to my problem. To make this a whole lot easier, I have almost the EXACT same problem as asked in this thread:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=5532913&#5532913

I would reply to that thread but it's archived.

In short, I still can't get the lens flare to stand alone despite the fact that I have saved it as its own element in favorites, changed the 'Blend Mode' on the flare to 'Add', and exported using "Lossless + Alpha Movie" and "Animation".

I also tried importing the actual Motion file into Final Cut as well as attempting to chroma key the black (I changed it to green for keying) to help it stand alone. I have isolated the flare to assure that it is the problem for the black background, and it is. This wouldn't be too much of an issue as I could just import the video I want to show into Motion, but I will be using this as a template for future use.

Thank you so much in advance!

I should mention that the Lens Flare comes from the 'Tech Blue Lower Third HD' template. Thanks!

i just (comand+J) project settings, set my project to transparent background and use export-movie-current project and canvas settings....

Thanks for the quick response! I hadn't tried that yet, but when I went into Project Properties the setting was already on Transparent. Any other ideas?

anything blocking the background? and if not your export settings... is it on current project and canvas settings?

Sure is. I've started a new method. I completely removed the lens flare from the old project, opened the new Tech Blue template with the flare, deleted all of the elements except the flare, unchecked the 'Fill' option from Shape>Style>Fill (which I believe removed the background). Now when I export just the Lens Flare by itself, it isn't visible. It will export and play in QuickTime correctly but not in FCP. Weird...

Anybody?

I think you're thinking about this the wrong way. I looked at that template and deconstructed the lens flare. The reason it's not working is because the lens flare is produced on a black bkg which only appears transparent because of the ADD blend mode applied to the layer. When you export it, it won't export the blend mode as a transparency because the blend mode is CREATING the transparency in an otherwise opaque clip.

The solution is to export the clip normally as you have been doing so that you get a lens flare against a black bkg. Then in FCP place the lens flare above your video footage and apply the ADD composite mode to the lens flare. Then it'll be doing in FCP what the layer in Motion is doing.

Andy

Andy,

YOU ARE AWESOME. Thank you so much! That did it!!

For anyone who has the same problem, here is the easiest way (in my opinion):

1. Design your project without the Lens Flare.
2. Open a new project with the template "Tech Blue HD Lower Third"
3. Delete all of the elements except the Lens Flare.
4. Change the "Blend Mode" to "Add" (also make sure you have "Fill" selected with black)
5. Export using Quicktime Movie and Current Project and Canvas Settings.
6. Open the .mov file in Final Cut Pro.
7. Lay the Lens Flare .mov on top of the video and/or graphic you want.
8. Right click>Composite Mode>Add
9. Voila!
10. Thank Andy Neil for being awesome (see above).

Thanks Alex. Actually, this is a problem common to people all the time who are trying to make lens flares. The first time I actually had this problem was in After Effects, but the principle is the same. However, in your suggestions, you have some unnecessary steps. To amend:

You don't need the Tech Blue HD Lower Third template. Lens flare is a filter in the Glow category and can be applied to any clip. To create a stand alone lens flare you simply need to create a black rectangle the size of the composition. You can then apply behaviors or keyframe movement to get the flare you want.

It's also unnecessary to change the blend mode in Motion. This doesn't carry over when you export it; it's only for use in that specific program. Simply export your flare over black in your settings of choice. The resulting clip will not have an alpha.

The real key is applying the blend mode in FCP. ADD mode will knock out the black allowing you to see the video beneath. SCREEN mode also works I believe.

Anyway, I'm glad it works for you. Once you get your head around blend modes, a whole new world of possibilities opens up for you. It did for me anyway.

Andy

^^^ What he said...haha.

Just overcoming that hurdle has helped me learn a lot more about Motion. Thanks again!