FCP alpha channel exporting with black outline

How are you interpreting your footage?

With your imported from FCP file selected in the project window, press Command-F (or, from the menubar, File > Interpret Footage > Main) and confirm that your alpha channel is premultiplied with Black.

If that's something that you've done already, or done to no avail, I got nothing.

Premultiplied with black, to really simplify it, tells AE to detect and remove the fringe around the image (in this case, it's a black fringe because you had no background) that is created when you make alpha channels in most programs. (Or was your question something else?)

Having said that, have you tried choking your mask a little bit more in FCP? That is, zoom into the Canvas at 400% (or whatever) and see how crisp you can get your mask's edge.

Edit: wow, I'm showing my rust when it comes to this stuff. One second thought, I believe you actually need to tweak your key and not the mask.

Message was edited by hanumang

If your source was conventional DV, that may be as good as you can possibly hope for. It's better than most of my DV keys!

bogiesan

Have you tried pulling your key in after effects? The results would probably be better. If you have access to shake you can probably do a lot better using keylight.
Good luck!
Sam

Thanks for completing the thread by telling us how you made out, this will be helpful to others seeking keying and alpha advice.

Please mark the question answered and hand out your points.

bogiesan