Alpha channel missing and it looks all black

Limit22 wrote on 1/18/2023, 9:50 PM

Greetings team,

I am racking my brain for the past 3 hours because of this alpha channel issue. I created a clipart of a chess piece in a citadel with a alpha layer, the checkerboard background. I saved it as a PNG. I opened it back up in GIMP to see if there is an alpha channel, yes. In preview plans of windows, it does show up as a PNG and the preview icon, a very light grey background that in the past was an indicator it is a alpha channel, so I assume it has alpha channel. When I drag this PNG onto timeline of my project for vegas365, the alpha channel, shows up all black. I check project media inside Vegas pro application, and the PNG in question, the alpha channel area is all black. Something went wrong. I dont want to assume it's Vegas Pro but I have already uninstalled GIMP and reinstalled it just to do it again and mark it off as NOT the issue.

Comments

fr0sty wrote on 1/18/2023, 10:10 PM

try to right click on the png file, go to properties, and under alpha channel, set it to straight. see if that helps.

Limit22 wrote on 1/18/2023, 10:29 PM

Im sorry my friend. I dont think we understand each other. I probably did not explain this well. I might produce a video on what I am doing to be more clear. Right clicking on a file to go to properties, there is not a place for "alpha channel" so there is no field to toggle "straight." So, I assumed you were talking in GIMP. I just spent 30mins combing through Gimp's properties and still no luck. What I did try to isolate this F!@#ing problem, I created a crude simple red letter T in Gimp and deleted the background so it is just the red T and alpha channel. Open up a new project in Vegas Pro, and it works as I want it to do--so it's not Vegas Pro. SO WTF, is it having the freaking problem with the king piece in the castle? I DO NOT GET IT. I even went to that PNG and erased half that image so the alpha channel can for sure show, saved it and when I dropped it in VPro, still the same freaking problem.

Musicvid wrote on 1/18/2023, 10:35 PM

Right clicking on a file to go to properties, there is not a place for "alpha channel" so there is no field to toggle "straight." 

No, that is not the right place. In Vegas, right-click on the Event, and follow the directions you were given. Post back if you still have problems, and thanks so much for you patience.

Limit22 wrote on 1/18/2023, 10:40 PM

I have used alpha channels before and even that experiment with the "red T" and works. Why was this photo toggled or needs to be toggled? I go into my bathroom and expect the toilet to be in the same place and orientation; and if not, something is messed up and very wrong--SO WTF is going on? why this ONE time that ONE photo is causing you guys to help me to find out to toggle something. I need to sleep, sorry. Thank you to both for finding a solution, I needed that!

fr0sty wrote on 1/19/2023, 12:41 AM

The majority of the time, VEGAS autodetects an image or a video's alpha channel automatically, but once in a while it needs to be set manually.

Systems:

Desktop

AMD Ryzen 7 1800x 8 core 16 thread at stock speed

64GB 3000mhz DDR4

Geforce RTX 3090

Windows 10

Laptop:

ASUS Zenbook Pro Duo 32GB (9980HK CPU, RTX 2060 GPU, dual 4K touch screens, main one OLED HDR)

Musicvid wrote on 1/19/2023, 8:34 AM

Vegas will not autodetect the Alpha layer if the source media metadata is missing or malformed. That accounts for a percentage of all imported material, including some still images.

Limit22 wrote on 1/19/2023, 7:40 PM

thank you for the follow through and insight. Just threw me for a huge loop to count on something I have done before and tested with low complex alpha channel and hit a brick wall--reality, I have just been lucky up to this point with alpha channels. I'm okay to include that in with my check downs for trouble shooting if this happens again. thank you both for your patience and professionalism when I was not.