White Background in Modul8? + Transparency
  • aletheia
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    White Background in Modul8? + Transparency

    by aletheia » Wed Aug 27, 2008 4:09 am

    Hi guys, I've been having some difficulty getting a a quicktime movie that I made in After Effects to look the way that I want it to in Modul8. I know that there has been a lot of discussion about transparency on this forum, but I cannot seem to find the answer that I'm looking for...

    Here's the problem:

    Using After Effects, I have successfully created a quicktime movie of an animation with a transparent background. The problem is that my animation is black, so it will not show up in Modul8 (as Modul8's background - to my knowledge - is always black). I need the animation to be black as I want to overlay the animation on a film of a person (in Modul8) (I also want the animation to play without any other layers in Modul8).

    Any suggestions/help is greatly appreciated!

    (hopefully I explained myself clearly!)

    thanks
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    deepvisual
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    by deepvisual » Wed Aug 27, 2008 9:30 am

    if you want to see your black animation, you'll need to add a layer beneath it. I'd suggest making a white 4:3 document in photoshop and use that.
  • aletheia
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    by aletheia » Wed Aug 27, 2008 7:10 pm

    thanks for your response. i tried adding a white layer (jpg) beneath and the black animation can be seen. it looks correct.

    however, i was hoping that i can layer the black animation onto the footage i have of a person. for some reason when i layer it, all that shows up are white outlines of my black animation - it is not solid black. and if i keep the white layer beneath my black animation, the footage of the person also has the white layer (although when layered it is greyish). i just can't seem to get the results i'm looking for. perhaps it can't be done? any ideas?
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    deepvisual
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    by deepvisual » Wed Aug 27, 2008 10:09 pm

    well this could be one of several problems.
    you may have made the footage badly.
    you may be using an effect like luma key.

    first, make sure the transparency on your footage works properly in after effects.
    if that is the case, it should be fine in M8
    its possible to use animation+ though PNG+ is probably less hard on the computer.
    its possible to make any footage with an alpha go black by turning the RGB- color values down to zero in the top RH corner.

    I've found that because of the size of movies with alpha channels its easier to use apple intermediate codec with just RGB and a pure blue background then let M8 key out the background in real time instead of using alpha channels.
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    sigmasix
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    by sigmasix » Thu Aug 28, 2008 10:49 am

    the problem with lumakey is that it slow down everything in modul8 and drop frames..

    To have a good looking "mask" (I mean black animation with an alpha channel that you can put over any footage in modul8) there's a simple way in after effects:

    - Set you background color to pink or any color you want except black. This color will mean "it's transparent there!"

    - Create all your animation on one or several layers in black. You'll then see what you want to overlay in black and what's supposed to be under in pink or what color you choose..

    - Set your background color to black, now in after effects you'll only see a plain black footage, but you'll still have your alpha channel because of the layers.

    - Export to animation+ or PNG+ (+ means alpha channel). You'll get a plain black movie file with your animation in the alpha channel.
    The thing is that with antialiasing, if you have a black animation on white background, the antialiasing will cross the one from the alpha channel and you'll have a little white stroke around your "mask"...


    Now you can add your file in modul8. then:

    - on the top layer, add your media without adding any effect.

    - under it, add a new layer with your footage of a person. is it ok?!?

    then if you need a white background underneath, you can change the background color of modul8 by changing the sliders at the bottom left of the interface "background color" simply.


    I hope I was clear enough so you can do the same and have it working ;)
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    Ropski
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    by Ropski » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:41 pm

    maybe to be able to watch a black alpha channel movie, modul8 could use some sort of checkerboard functionality (alike AE) in the (layer)viewer. now a layer transparency is also black in the viewer.... ?

    cheerz Ropski
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    sigmasix
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    by sigmasix » Thu Sep 11, 2008 12:28 am

    maybe in tha layer preview, but as you can change background color, you should be able to see how it looks in any situation...

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