WildFX Pro and correct alpha settings

wethree wrote on 6/2/2004, 5:47 PM
Hey all,

Did a search on WildFX Pro, and came up with jsteehl/2Road/farss conversation about how to get settings right in WildFX Pro 3 to output alpha for Vegas 5.

Solution suggested there--
FOR .MOV OUTPUT
2Road
"In your video settings in WildFX make sure you set Compression to "None," Depth to "Millions of Colors +," and check the transparent background box. Render the text effect and load the clip into Vegas, right click on it and set alpha properties to Straight unmatted."

COMBINED WITH

jsteehl
"I also turned of "Smart Resampling" which improved the quaility in Vegas."

and for .SWF OUTPUT
farss
"I thought from what the Sony guru had to say bringing the Flash file into Vegas was the way to go because you're importing vector graphics which Vegas can then scale without res loss. Not an issue if there's no scaling. As to the transparency, well I'd assume the flash file would have to include that anyway being vector based.
Possibly the reason you saw some artifacts was because the flash data needs to be rendered by Vegas, the AVI is already rendered so what you might have seen was the render engine not being fast enough or else a bug, seem to recall there was still the odd bug with flash import."

------------------------
What I get when I try outputting an .MOV of preset Blue Flame Zipper to V5 at (720x480, compression set to none, +million colors, interleaved, 29.97) = file whose properties report 720x480 at 32, alpha set to straight, = I get an .MOV with no alpha.

And when I tried to import the same preset as an .swf file-- I get a redshifted version of the preset with its white text dropped out. ...

What am I doing wrong and what's the best way to output from WildFX Pro to Vegas 5???

thanks guys

bestx3,

bt

Comments

Spot|DSE wrote on 6/2/2004, 6:28 PM
The alpha is there, you just need to right click the file, choose "properties" and in the Media tab, set the alpha. I recommend setting to Dirty. I don't use Wildform, but this works great for some Swish files that don't carry the alpha correctly.
jsteehl wrote on 6/2/2004, 7:07 PM
Make sure the Transparent Background is checked on the video tab of the WildFx app.
I generated an AVI and used Straight Unmatted and it worked for me.

-Jason
stepfour wrote on 6/2/2004, 9:58 PM
Wildform recommends exporting as .mov with codec like Indeo but I have never tried it. I stick with exporting as .avi with the settings mentioned in that other thread and it works perfectly. WildFX uses a straight alpha channel.
wethree wrote on 6/3/2004, 3:01 PM
Jeepers-- NO JOY

With these exact settings in WILDFX PRO3
___________________
Settings in WildFX Pro3 set on Video Panel:
Export: .AVI, compression set to NONE
Use: Most Recent Settings
(checked) Use these dimensions: 720x480
(unchecked) Use this framerate
(checked) Show Title Safe area
(checked) Transparent Background
(checked) Bilinear Filter
(checked) Insert 5 frames at start
(checked) Insert 5 frames at end
(checked) Estimate actual duration

And these changes made in Vegas 5a
import, right click on properties, check for 720x480 32 bit file, and toggle to either straight unmatted, or premultiplied (dirty).

What's more, .mov (with compression either set to animation or none, +million colors) file comes in with no alpha,

AND neither .png or .tga sequences with alpha channel come in!!!

The only thing I can figure is that it has something to do with either
Quicktime 6.5.1, which I have installed instead of QT6, and/or Vegas 5a.

Can you guys confirm whether QT6.5.1 or V5a is working with WildFXPro3 for you guys?

OK -- the only other wacky thing is the way the Most Recent Setting and Default Setting pulldown box toggle crazy when one is trying to decide which pulldown to choose-- kept resetting to some medium video setting

HELP?
wethree wrote on 6/5/2004, 12:18 PM
Can you guys confirm whether QT6.5.1 or V5a is working with WildFXPro3 for you guys?

OK -- the only other wacky thing is the way the Most Recent Setting and Default Setting pulldown box toggle crazy when one is trying to decide which pulldown to choose-- kept resetting to some medium video setting

HELP?
wethree wrote on 6/6/2004, 6:30 PM
For those looking at WildFX Pro 3 as a titler for Vegas5a

How to use WildFX Pro 3 with Vegas 5- for the slow but careful

FIRST SET THE MAIN TAB
Check Export Video, Browse to desired VIDEO folder, Name your video output file

If for VEGAS 5, you could also set at the same time,

Check Export SWF, Browse to desired SWF folder, and Name your .swf output file


Set Width 655 Height 480 Effect fps 30 BgFill: Black/Solid/NO NOT check Opaque SWF press Apply

THEN SET THE VIDEO TAB
For Vegas 5

Either of these FIVE VIDEO settings will work

You can Export as an .AVI
Compression: None
Depth: Millions of Colors+
Quality:Best
Frame rate: 29.97
Check: Transparent Background
QUALIFICATIONS: DO NOT CHECK Bilinear Filter (V5a won't see alpha), or Safe Colors

THIS IS WHAT WILDFORM WILDFX PRO HELP SAYS THESE TWO TOGGLES DO--------
Bilinear Filter: Selecting this option doubles the size of the movie then scales the output back down to the correct size using bilinear scaling to help smooth out the edges of your text. This can result in smoother looking text.
Use Safe Colors: Selecting this option will filter the colors selected in the effect output so they fall in the "safe color" range for video.
-------------------- THEY DO NOT SEEM TO ALLOW ALPHA TO WORK IN VEGAS 5......WHY???
You can check Show Title Safe area (useful to line up titling, does not show up on final output)

You can also output Images Sequences consisting of .PNG, or .TGA at about 4-21KB per still. (If ten second sequence then- 300x21KB=3.25 MB)

Additional Info:
Relative File Sizes for Single title "This should be transparent" w POWERFX effect
95.796 MB for .AVI none longest render- 35 secs
95.795 MB for .MOV none longer render -25+ secs
21KB for .SWF -Zero seconds
_________________________

I couldn't see an difference in pixelation between the three...

How do you test beyond going same distance in on a pan crop of each file, keyframed to an exact point?

bestx3,
bt