Hi, I've been experimenting segmented masking using some old cartoons. I finished the different segments of the mask and exported when I was getting the result in Motion that I wanted. Regardless of the export method and format, the end result seems to have completely different mask keyframes. What could potentially cause this?
Below I've attached two images taken at the same timecode from Motion and the exported .mov respectively:
The only way to determine you have the transparency you expect is to place your exported clip *over* another clip when it has been imported for compositing. Transparency always appears as solid black in Quicktime player or when played solo in FCPX, although in Motion you can set up for the checkerboard background to reveal "alpha".
Yeah - it *might* be the GIF. Motion might not be able to conform GIFs as well as video. If the GIF was animated and has a frame rate that doesn't match your Motion project frame rate, then you might get a few frames that go "off" here and there (from preview to rendering). Try Rendering your play range before exporting (Command-R).
Sorry - I was unclear about the issue. The transparency export wasn't the issue (I fixed this by exporting to an image sequence). The issue was that the mask lined up well with the character pre-export and then after export did not. You can see this especially where his head is.
The issue was resolved by closing and re-opening the file. Something about this caused the Motion editor preview to update to match the export. I had to redo the masks at this point, but when I exported again everything matched up finally. Seems like a bug - possibly caused by using a gif?
Just a quick note about FCP: although the default is black, you can also choose to display a checkerboard background.
I forgot about that -- I don't go into Preferences very often...LOL
Export of masked frames wildly different from preview
