Saving with Alph Channel

ThomW wrote on 9/22/2006, 11:04 PM
I've created a graffic with a lower third that I would like to save for future projects and am trying to figure out how to save it. I tried just rendering the clip but the background just ends up being black. If it were just a single element then the file can move around from project to project. But I've created several layers of CG and video to my template and can't figure how to put it all together leaving the background transparent. Since I'm asking can I print to tape or burn this template to a disc for play back when performing a live mix on location.

Comments

jrazz wrote on 9/22/2006, 11:10 PM
Just make the background a different color than what is in your lower third. Then chromakey it out. Or just right click on the file, go to properties, click on the second tab- "media" and change the alpha channel to the one that works the best for you with the black background.

j razz
ThomW wrote on 9/22/2006, 11:20 PM
so another words use the solid color like green. and create a green screen in the background.
Jay-Hancock wrote on 9/22/2006, 11:27 PM
And of course pay attention that your background color isn't in the graphic so it doesn't get keyed out. And be careful what format you render it to (compression can change your pure background).

Any particular reason you don't want to save the .veg file and "nest" it into other projects? As long as the graphics are on your HD or an accessible network share (regardless of where the .veg file goes), it should be ok. Or copy them into a subfolder of each project you put it into, if you're not limiting it to one PC.

You could also render it out as a sequence of png stills w/ alpha. That is a bit messy (creates lots of files and big total drive space).

Quicktime .mov files can have alpha. I never tried rendering this format from Vegas, don't know how well its encoder works for that purpose.

And of course there's the uncompressed avi format, which allows an alpha channel.
bStro wrote on 9/23/2006, 9:59 AM
If you saved the file to uncompressed AVI and made sure to check the "Create Alpha Channel" box, then chances are you've already done all you need to do file-wise. When you bring the AVI back into another project, right-click the lower third event, choose Properties, and fiddle with the Alpha Channel setting on the Media tab until one works.

Or, just don't render your lower third at all -- bring it in as a nested VEG instead.

Rob