How do I export a Chroma Key w/o BG in final cut pro

Shiloh Arts

Shiloh Arts

Well-known member
Hi,

My problem is that whenever I attempt to export a movie that has been keyed in QT H.264, FCP places a black background behind the keyed object. Therefore, when I import the movie into Flash using ON2 Alpha channeling it doesn't work.

Can someone help me out with some ideas as to why, and what process I can use to get results in FCP?

Thanks:)
 
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Question, why are you keying it in H.264? I don't really see what your workflow from birth to graveyard is exactly.

As for taking it into flash, ah I think you need to use something like an animation codec or such for flash to get a file with an alpha channel it can read/use. Someone asked a similar Flash related question recently around here, can't recall the exact question or solution (if there was one). You might want to try a search for it though.

cheers.
 
I agree with VaricamLife, editing native H.264 is just crazy, much less keying in that format. It's highly compressed, limited color space, MPEG GOP based, it's just not a good thing to do, ever...

Not to mention it doesn't support Alpha Channels.
 
VaricamLife said:
Question, why are you keying it in H.264? I don't really see what your workflow from birth to graveyard is exactly.
Click to expand...

I only use H.264 is to preserve the qulity as much as possible. After, I import the video into Flash and the size get shrunk pretty small, while the quality is preserved.

I key in Final Cut not h.264. I only export my final projects in h.264. However, sometimes I may just need to export the subject after I keyed them. So my questions was more towards "What is the best exportation route for Keyed footage in FCP". I've actually looked through the search already and no luck. Would you know where I can find it?


:dankk2:
Thanks for helping out!
 
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I ask as H.264 is a pretty heavily compressed format. After the footage is keyed in FCP and rendered, the output format has no bearing on the "keying" process, it's just plain old footage at that point.
 
Shiloh Arts,

I think VaricamLife has answered your question. You need to export to a codec that includes the alpha channel in the exported movie, such as the Animation codec set at Millions+. As BenB mentioned, H.264 does not support alpha channels. Then, of course, the application into which you import the movie, such as Flash, also needs to support alpha channels so it can read the transparency information in the alpha channel you have exported from FCP.

Hope that helps.
Kevin
 
Also, I think you want to be using Flash 8. I think it has some major helpful improvements for working with alpha channels and the like. I read up on it briefly somewhere when a similar thread to this was asked a couple weeks ago or such. Just google it and you should be able to quickly figure that out. I think with pre-Flash 8 stuff you might need the aid of a work around invovling AE. Good luck.

cheers.
 
Thanks for letting us know about the end result solution. That's what I was trying to think of earlier when I mentioned Flash 8, the new Video Encoder it comes with is apparently 'the' way to get alpha's into flash. Good luck with the rest of your project.

cheers.
 
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