Transparent image overlay

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Level 1

40 points

Transparent image overlay

To start, I will tell you what I am trying to do. For a Children's Christmas skit that is going on at my church, the setting of the skit is supposed to take place in an attic. What I have done is taken a picture in my own attic, looking out the window. Using Pixelmator, I made the panes of glass transparent and exported the image with the hopes of overlaying it on a video loop of snow that I have (that way it will be snowing outside the attic, more or less).

It seems however that FCE is not being cooperative on the video side of this, however, since all I get is white where the transparency is supposed to be. Does FCE support transparent layers in images?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Dec 18, 2010 3:12 PM

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Answer 1

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Dec 18, 2010 3:19 PM in response to missileboat

Yes, FCE supports transparency. What format is the image? How is the transparency channel being saved?

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Answer 2

missileboat Author

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40 points

Dec 18, 2010 3:24 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

It is being saved as a PNG. The transparency layer itself is exported with the image. I just finished testing the image to see if the issue with was the opacity so I imported the image into Pro Presenter 4 (my church's presentation software) and then played the looping background with the image on the foreground and it worked exactly as I wanted it to. While that is a viable workaround for now, I am still curious to find a FCE solution so I can do this in the future with other projects.

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Answer 3

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Dec 18, 2010 4:03 PM in response to missileboat

Can you send me the image or post it on the web somewhere? Images with transparency are normally not against white, but against black.

I'm assuming both the products you mentioned are PC products. I've never heard of them on the Mac and don't know what they do.

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Answer 4

missileboat Author

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Dec 18, 2010 4:30 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

You would be wrong on both accounts. Pro Presenter 4 and Pixelmator are Mac only (actually, I think PP4 released a PC version a month or two ago but I am not sure).

But, if you want to look at the image, you can access my iDisk public folder (username: missileboat). I have created a folder called 'Apple Discussion Forum.' In it, I put the original image, the PNG I exported and also the PXM project file (the format Pixelmator saves its project files in) and, just for good measure, I included a copy of Pixelmator as well (it has a 30-day trial if you want to play with it).

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Answer 5

Tom Wolsky

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152,809 points

Dec 18, 2010 4:33 PM in response to missileboat

Your public folder does not allow guest access.

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Answer 6

missileboat Author

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Dec 18, 2010 4:36 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Really? My settings are set up to allow it. Try the web link instead:

https://public.me.com/missileboat

Let me know if that doesn't work for you.

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Answer 7

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Dec 18, 2010 4:43 PM in response to missileboat

Works for me

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Answer 8

missileboat Author

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40 points

Dec 18, 2010 4:45 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

huh... I tried again but didn't get it to work. Would you mind telling me what you did? Maybe I am missing a step?

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Answer 9

Tom Wolsky

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152,809 points

Dec 18, 2010 4:49 PM in response to missileboat

The image is imported and placed on V2. The underlying image is on V1.

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Answer 10

missileboat Author

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40 points

Dec 18, 2010 4:52 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Now that is just screwy. Why does it work for you? Oh well, I am pleased to know that it works, or at least SHOULD work. I will keep playing with it. I am sure I will figure it out eventually. Thanks a bunch for hanging in there with me!

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Answer 11

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Dec 18, 2010 5:01 PM in response to missileboat

Open the image from the browser into the viewer. With the viewer active go to View>Background>Checkerboard. Do you see the transparency checkerboard in the window?

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Answer 12

missileboat Author

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Dec 18, 2010 5:05 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Negative

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Answer 13

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Dec 18, 2010 5:06 PM in response to missileboat

You are using Attic.png, right?

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Answer 14

missileboat Author

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Dec 18, 2010 5:09 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

The very same, even pulled it back off of my iDisk just to make sure I wasn't going crazy. For some odd reason, all I get is white. Just for the sake of being thorough, you are using FCE 4.0.1, right?

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Answer 15

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,809 points

Dec 18, 2010 5:13 PM in response to missileboat

Yes. You're not doing this through some network, on a network server or something?

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