Transparency (Again)

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Transparency (Again)

Postby venganewt » Wed Dec 12, 2012 11:31 am

I've read the prior threads and the FAQ information on transparency, but I can't find the information I need:

--what exact settings should I use in Photoshop to produce the images that will be transparent in Morpheus (Professional)?
--what exact settings should I use in Morpheus to retain the transparency?
--what do images that are properly transparent look like within the Morpheus Timeline and Preview?
--which format should I render in to retain the transparency in Final Cut Pro X?

I have tried many different settings in Photoshop and Morpheus, and in Morpheus the images and timeline either have white backgrounds or weird jagged edge colored backgrounds.

Thanks in advance for your help.
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Re: Transparency (Again)

Postby Ark » Wed Dec 12, 2012 11:48 am

You will need to save your images from Photoshop as PNGs with an alpha channel (32-bit format, 4 channels of color, 8 bits per color channel)

See http://www.morpheussoftware.net/morpheu ... ne-options
You should set the Transparent threshold to 0 in order to preserve the transparency when rendering.

The images will look however the RGB channels look, without any alpha blending. The areas you expect to be fully transparent may still have RGB color data stored in the PNGs, which will show up and be morphed. Photoshop is notorious for making strange box patterns of color in the transparent areas. It doesn't matter though, because when viewed with the alpha transparency later, the mess of colors has 0 for the alpha value, and becomes entirely transparent.

You need to render to a file format that both supports 32-bit with alpha, and that Final Cut Pro X supports. You would need to contact the authors of Final Cut for more information about file formats that program supports. Some AVI codecs may support 32-bit, others may take the 32-bit values that Morpheus renders and discard the alpha channel, compressing only a 24-bit image. You can render to a series of still PNG images and be assured that the alpha is there, but that means importing frames one by one (if Final Cut supports PNGs).
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Re: Transparency (Again)

Postby venganewt » Wed Dec 12, 2012 8:54 pm

Thanks so much for your quick and thorough reply, I really appreciate it. I'll try to do as you advise. I also thought of another way of handling it - instead of making the photos transparent, I can add a background layer of lime green, which I can key out in Final Cut. That way, there are no transparency issues at all....

Thanks again!
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Re: Transparency (Again)

Postby shahidjee » Wed Jan 23, 2013 5:19 am

I thought I downloaded professional but when I use help to see my version it shows standard but in the mail it shows I upgraded to professional from standard so I redownloaded the app and reinstalled it and it still shows standard. Not sure what's going on. I think I should have professional but I can't select dots as beginning or end or blended/mix/yellow dots as a feature which only belongs to pro which my email says I have.
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