Quicktime ProRes 4444 Videos No Longer Playing With Transparency

pm_guy1987, was your original file created from scratch in After Effects, or did you import a file from somewhere else and modify it in AE?

If the initial version of the file originated from FFmpeg, it could be the same problem. If it originated from AE, it could be a different problem. It's important to know this detail.

If it originated from FFmpeg, no matter what app transcodes it on Sonoma 14.4.0, 14.4.1 or later, the "opaque alpha" behavior will be burned into the file. To my knowledge the only way to fix that is transcoding the file on an Intel Mac or an Apple Silicon Mac running a MacOS version before (probably) Sonoma 14.4.0.

The known problem is apparently a MacOS issue which happens on Apple Silicon. It is not an application problem and cannot be fixed at the application level. It affects Resolve, Premiere Pro, EditReady and likely many other apps and utilities.

We want to investigate any report of this which claims to originate from a non-FFmpeg source.

pm_guy1987, can you please verify the ultimate origin of the file you exported from After Effects? If it came from somewhere else, please use the third-party Invisor or MediaInfo utility to show the metadata. What does it show for "Writing application?" (See attached example).

MediaInfo shows the ProRes 4444 file was created with FFmpeg and the associated Lavf library, version Lavf58.29.100. Note the following statement from Apple's page on what ProRes versions are supported:

Apple ProRes and ProRes RAW Authorized Products - Apple Support

"Using any unauthorized implementation (such as the FFmpeg and derivative implementations) might lead to decoding errors, performance degradation, incompatibility, and instability."

This problem has been reported before by a customer using Ross Video XPression INcoder version 10.5, which also used a non-supported version of ProRes 4444 encoded by FFmpeg. In that case it appeared if that product used a more recent version of the FFmpeg library such as FFmpeg 7.00, Lavf61.3.103 or newer, the problem did not happen.

If the file shows initially correctly but loses transparency after rendering, it may be because the render format selected for your FCP project is ProRes 422 (the default). Press Command-J, then click Modify, and change the render to ProRes 4444.

I remember having to this in order to be able to (render and) export with transparency; though I think Tom has said that the above change should not be necessary.

I just tested on M1 Max in latest FCP, Compressor, Motion and it all works perfectly fine. That's not to say there isn't a bug. Not everyone gets every bug.

Some apps you have to specify to retain alpha when exporting. ProRes 4x4 doesn't do this automatically. You can export without alpha channel and lose it.

My files were exported from After Effects so I'm guessing my files are part of the Authorized Products for Apple Pro Res 4444 render output etc. So my files worked fine before it was when I updated Mac OS software that the issue was caused. I do use the files on my work Mac Studio M1 Ultra high spec and works all good, granted the OS is Ventura so don't want to update the operating system on it in case if the issue pops up again.

I exported the Envato file from Ventura with 4x4 alpha and it works correctly in Sonoma.

I'm having the exact same issue as well, same specs.

Have you figured out this issue by the way?

I tested with your file and what happens is that it seems to work on the timeline in FCP but after rendering it the transparency becomes lost.

I don't know how Envato created the files. I can't see anything different in the Envato file from other 4x4 alpha files except that the QT ID code is different. Files in 4x4 alpha created in Monterey are working in that OS and later versions of macOS, Ventura and Sonoma. 

I stopped using FFMPEG because of bad encodes, especially 4x4. macOS Sonoma has no known issues with 4x4 transparency. So I'm going to simply conclude it is Envato encoding with FFMPEG that is the problem.

It’s not necessary in v8. Even if the file has been rendered in 422 transparency still works in 4x4 export.

Delete

I used 7.1 in Ventura to convert the Envato file to a functional 4x4 alpha file.

Would it be possible to share one short sample file exhibiting the problem?