Transparency in Video Overlay

jimcmartin wrote on 12/3/2002, 12:33 AM

I'd like to be able to put an image (a JPG, for example) on the video overlay with one of the colors designated as transparent (so that the material on the other video track would show through in those locations). I can do a very basic version of this with the cookie cutter effect, but I'd like to be able to have arbitrarily shaped transparent areas.

Is this possible? Thanks...

Comments

miketree wrote on 12/3/2002, 4:26 AM

Use something like Corel Photopaint or paintshop pro to design your graphic.

Save as .gif

IanG wrote on 12/3/2002, 5:21 AM

And don't forget to designate which colour's transparent. Depending on what sort of image you're starting with, this can be a problem as you rarely get "pure" colours. The result is the transparency is patchy. Anti-aliasing causes the same problem and you end up with fuzzy edges. One way round it is to draw round the edge of your transparent area (PSP has a "smart edge" facility) and then apply a flood fill of your transparency colour. This also allows you to select a colour that isn't going to appear elesewhere in the image.

Ian G.

JohnnyRoy wrote on 12/3/2002, 4:09 PM

You can also save your image with an alpha mask of the area you want to show through. Both the TGA and PNG filetypes support alpha channels. I use Paintshop Pro to create them. If you save it as a PNG, it will automatically be transparent when you drop it in VF. If you save it as a TGA, you may have to open the properties on the event and turn on alpha channel in the media tab.

~jr

discdude wrote on 12/4/2002, 4:07 PM

Transparency in .psd (Photoshop) files also works, although Photoshop and even Photoshop Elements is a wee bit pricey. Luckily, I got my copy of Photoshop LE free with my HD.

BillyBoy wrote on 12/4/2002, 5:43 PM

Visit Chienworks' video share site and look at my 'bird mask' tutorial. :-)