Motion - not exporting alpha channel

Question

Motion - not exporting alpha channel

I have a file I've been exporting with an alpha, but this last time I exported, and import into finalcut... The alpha doesn't work...

I checked my project settings, and it is set to Transparent.... And export settings have not changed... ProRes4444....

I know I can simply import the motion project into Finalcut, but that slows me down and the file is so short that it quickly exports as Movie, and it doesn't need rendering for me to preview in Finalcut.

Any body have any suggestions? Thanks

iMac 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7, Mac OS X (10.6.3), 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR

Posted on Nov 3, 2010 11:24 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Adam - Trigger Studios

Level 2

200 points

Nov 3, 2010 2:35 PM in response to Christina Rodriguez

A couple things to check.

1: Make absolutely sure you're export from motion is Color + Alpha, even if you've got it set to ProRes4444. You need to make sure you're actually exporting the alpha channel. Sometimes it'll reset itself of you switch settings. Just a good thing to double check.

2: When you import into FCP, for some reason I can't quite figure out yet, you have to tell FCP to acknowledge the alpha channel. That's in the Modify>Alpha Type menu.

See if that does anything for ya.

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Answer 2

Nov 3, 2010 2:42 PM in response to Adam - Trigger Studios

Yes i made sure about the plus sign ...

But it was #2 that did it... for some reason the alpha was set to ignore... It was recognizing it before... then all of a sudden it wasn't....

Great! THanks so much!

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Answer 3

Nov 6, 2010 2:27 AM in response to Christina Rodriguez

Because FCP ignores empty alpha channels, it does a sample to see if the alpha channel is empty. If it doesn't find anything on the test frame (maybe the first frame?), it ignores the alpha channel unless you tell it otherwise...

Patrick

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Answer 4

Nov 7, 2010 12:35 AM in response to Patrick Sheffield

maybe there's something broken. I've never had it recognize footage with alpha channel.

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