Rendering An Alpha Channel?

[porkchop]

I am trying to render out using an Alpha channel by selecting the "Alpha Channel (mask)" checkbox in Render Settings. But when I import this into my video editing program (Sony Vegas) and try to use the .avi as an Alpha, it doesnt work. Whats the best settings to use to render out a small 10 second clip (flying text) and have it be an alpha channel?

thanks!

[joojaa]

Never render out avis, partly for render related reasons. But here partly that most avi formats don't support alpha. Please note that the software wont probably SHOW you the images alpha even wan its there (unless off course you turn it into a mode that shows to look at alpha only).

But if you msut use avi sue uncompressed one.

[porkchop]

So how would I render out using an Alpha channel? Whats the best way? Maybe I misread your reply...

[ilovedominikadetko]

I m a noob in maya and got no clue and my engl. is bad aswell,
but I think .TGA picutres is the solution
because:
-.TGA supports Alfa Chanel
-And .TGA is mostly supported for importing them into a movie maker

[porkchop]

thanks for the reply. I rendered out using .TGA files, but when I import them into Sony Vegas, it treats each file like an image. I know they ARE image files, but I need these to play like a normal AVI would. How would I convert .TGA files to a normal mpeg or avi or any type of regular movie file? thanks

[mike_w]

[b]I'm pretty new to Maya myself but I did discover a few things. Remember when you'd draw one of those stick figures running and flip the pages. Well in this day and age of high tech that still holds true. Do your animation then batch render using say a .tga format. You will then end up with any number of sequenced pictures of your animation. There are several FREE programs on the web to convert these pictures to a compressed .avi file. Try Virtual Dub http://www.virtualdub.org/index or Wax 2.0. http://www.debugmode.com/wax/

Good luck.

Mike_w[/b]

[porkchop]

QUOTE(mike_w @ 10/26/07, 04:50 PM) [snapback]275492[/snapback]
[b]I'm pretty new to Maya myself but I did discover a few things. Remember when you'd draw one of those stick figures running and flip the pages. Well in this day and age of high tech that still holds true. Do your animation then batch render using say a .tga format. You will then end up with any number of sequenced pictures of your animation. There are several FREE programs on the web to convert these pictures to a compressed .avi file. Try Virtual Dub http://www.virtualdub.org/index or Wax 2.0. http://www.debugmode.com/wax/

Good luck.

Mike_w[/b]

Thanks for the help! I just tried VirtualDub. I cant get the program to recognize any of the .TGA files. When I choose "open file" and select the .TGA option, it doesnt see any of them when there are tons of .TGA file in the folder its looking in. If I go to View All Files and select the first .TGA in the sequence, it just opens up that one frame and will not render out a batch sequence. Any ideas?

[mike_w]

I just loaded some .tga using Virtual Dub. I guess when you had Maya batch render you rendered them all to the same file and they were numbered by Maya in sequence. Look at Windows, Render Globals and I think under common to check for the batch sequence number.

When using Virtual Dub as long as the .tga files are numbered in sequence you just have to select the first one. I guess you tried the play button and got nothing. How did the pictures look, were the all in various states of animation? I did a Christmas ornament rotating and all of the image files were in various states of spin.

[dryodryo]

Any compositing or video editing program will allow you to import a numbered image sequence as a single clip. In Vegas, use Import > Media and choose the first frame of the sequence. Check the box that says "Open Still Image Sequence."

Make sure the frame rate is correct for your source footage, so it matches your target platform. Vegas will prompt you with a Properties dialog. The default frame rate in Maya is 24 fps.

If you have problems with Vegas, you may need to convert or re-render your footage to a different file format, frame rate, or numbering scheme. You can use fcheck to renumber files. The safest numbering scheme is filename_####.ext. The safest format is .TGA, or maybe .TIF.

Once you have your sequence loaded into Vegas, you can render it out as a movie file, Quicktime, AVI, whatever.