Glint not rendered to frames

I could not reproduce this problem. I remember hearing about this in the past (quite a while ago), and I believe at the time my experience confirmed it.

You profile says you are running the most recent version of Motion (5.2.3).

Only difference for me is that I am on Sierra. I can't say if this has anything to do with it or not.

I suggest that you try this on a new admin account and see if the problem persists there. Let us know.

I cannot reproduce your results either but here are some PNGs anyway.

Motion image on top, saved PNG underneath. The Motion project includes a black rectangle shape layer under or behind the text layer. Without the black shape the rendered image is quite unremarkable.

See the third and forth images, PNGs from similar project but the top includes the alpha on a default Preview background and the bottom has a black shape behind the text.

I'm with Luis - works like charm here (admitting, I'm using macOS Sierra too):

Example I:

title with a color solid, published with some parameters = fully functional

Example II:

title on 'nix'/alpha - identical result …

Have you tried trashing the prefs of M5?

~/Library/Preferences/by Host/com.apple.motionapp.plist ?

Possibly useless information: A similar phenomenon used to be cured by a process known as unmultiplying. John Knoll, creator of Photoshop, had a free filter for early versions of After Effects called "Unmult" that created an alpha channel where there was none. Using Unmult changed, say, a lens flare (a generator effect applied to a black solid layer) from a ghostly overlay apparition into an intensely vibrant, in-your-face presence by removing the black background.

Without seeing your project and your export settings, that's what appears to me to be happening to you. You're losing the vibrancy of your effects in the subtlety of your output file. Without looking over your shoulder, I'm not sure what to suggest to solve it other than to say, regrettably, this is going to turn out to be a minor user error.

3DTOPO wrote:

The issue only occurs with the exported images when using no background. It looks fine in Motion regardless.

When setting the background as transparent, I get the same thing you do.

So this is an issue caused by what? Motion's rendering engine, the export settings? Not enough data in the image? Needs to be 32 bit? (I don't really know what that means.)

The image seems to be lacking all of the alpha information and is being displayed with a blend setting like Screen. That's one of the things Unmult used to take care of in After Effects, it created a fully functional 8 bit alpha channel making the RGB+Alph file 32 bit, 8 per channel.

However, if I export my AWESOME images with alpha only and reimport them back into Motion and place them over a black background (or any background, as Karsten did with his curtains) inside Motion, all effects display fine.

I still cannot reproduce these results.

Did you try importing such an AWESOME image into another program, like Pixelmator, and add a black background? I did and the results are different...

Export with transparency, import back to Motion, put a black background: looks like the original.

Do the same in Pixelmator, no glint...

Luis Sequeira1 wrote:

Did you try importing such an AWESOME image into another program, like Pixelmator, and add a black background? I did and the results are different...

Export with transparency, import back to Motion, put a black background: looks like the original.

Do the same in Pixelmator, no glint...

Never heard of Pixelthingy but I'll take your word for it. Photoshop works fine, though. So do After Effects and Illustrator; they all see the alpha correctly and display all effects as expected. Even apple photos imports and displays the image correctly.

So, there is no problem, right? The exported file from Motion is fine. It's the external program that is not interpreting the alpha information correctly. The statements from the original post, "but I cannot get the exported frames to look remotely like it does in the application…For professional software, I can't believe the output is so different than what is shown in the application." do not apply.

okay, from scratch, 'cause I misunderstood the initial situation…

Made me in Pixelmator a graphic WITH alpha …

lot so transparencies, lots of opaque…

dropped that into M5, applied naughty Glint, published to FCPX:

This is WITH a color solid within M5… this is…

… without bg/with an empty bg, curtain applied in FCPX…

And an export from within M5…

… shows the same result.

summary;

Works like charm. Here.

… your source file is a 'normal' 8bit png?

and, David, me too puzzled, but aside unmult … there was something with effects and layers and backgrounds and not affected drop zones <scratching head> … no, sorry, my brains firmware is still vers. 0.5, and its manufacturer stopped support long time ago… 😉 ...

The problem the OP described is what happens with that exported glinted file in other programs, such as Preview and Pixelmator. Karsten, did you try opening that file exported from Motion in one of those programs?

So far, we have established that everything works fine in the Motion/FCP X ecosystem; and David has tried it sucessfully in Photoshop (which I do not own, but have heard about 😉).

It is quite possible that the error is not Motion's fault and lies in a bad rendering of the alpha in Preview and Pixelmator, as David suggests.

3DTOPO wrote:

…How did you add the black background - in Motion or something like Photoshop?

…

tried both:

in Motion, by applying a color-solid

and in a paint.app (Pixelmator), as a separate layer, saved as .psd = Photoshop format; on import to M5, when asked, layers ...

3DTOPO wrote:

My source is an Adobe Illustrator (PDF) file. Motion is creating the alpha when it rasterizes it.

as pdf?? Never tried that, for me that's no 'working' format, just end of delivery chain…

hold the line, please...

No, my test file, two layers, #1 with opaque elements, layer#2 all black, saved as pdf, does not import as separate layers and Glint has no effect at all .....

Karsten, did you try opening that file exported from Motion in one of those programs?

exported as png nd jpg, opened in Pixelmator and Preview - all same.

honestly? I get a bit lost 😝

So, please help the old man over the road:

the OP uses pdf as. source.

that source contains transparencies => when I export a graphic WITH transparencies as .pdf, the resulting file does NOT transport/keep transparency!!

any file in png or layered psd format contains transparency, works with the glint filter, and glint is kept on export in any format.

=> my conclusion: that pdf is the culprit.

Try in Photoshop or any other suitable paint.app to convert into layers ...

final Q: pdf, cause you like to handle vector graphics in M5??