A few problems with the Alpha Channel

[Elf-Man42]

ive got a project im trying to do for my dad, its very simplistic, a modified version of a wookie walks into frame while holding a box, turns towards audience, (theres a message on the box) turns back, and walks out of frame.

 

thing is, my dad needs it rendered through an alpha channel, we couldnt find one in the rendering section, so he told me to do a red background and floor, i used a primitive model of a cube, and made it red, but long question short, is there any way to adjust the presets of the setting? the basic brown ground and blue sky? could i, in theory, change those to the same color (red)?

 

 

 

also, for what ever reason, when i try to use the pose sliders on his hands, his fingers get extremely elongated. help?

 

 

thank you.

[robcat2075]

thing is, my dad needs it rendered through an alpha channel, we couldnt find one in the rendering section,

It's in the "Render to File Settings" OUtput tab.

 

Buffers>Alpha>ON

 

 

You have to have selected an output format that supports alphas or it will not appear. Targas do. Quicktime with "Animation" codec does also.

 

 

 

 

so he told me to do a red background and floor, i used a primitive model of a cube, and made it red, but long question short, is there any way to adjust the presets of the setting? the basic brown ground and blue sky? could i, in theory, change those to the same color (red)?

 

the ground is brown because a brown light is shining on it. the sky color is a camera property.

 

But don't do this red thing. Use an alpha channel.

 

 

 

also, for what ever reason, when i try to use the pose sliders on his hands, his fingers get extremely elongated. help?

 

not sure on that.

[Elf-Man42]

thank you, this thing has been so stressful, i dont know why i didnt come to the forums sooner

[Elf-Man42]

ok, i found the output tab in rendering to file, but the only options there are under buffers s "light buffers" and "apply cameras posteffect to rendering" these are both off by the way.

[robcat2075]

ok, i found the output tab in rendering to file, but the only options there are under buffers s "light buffers" and "apply cameras posteffect to rendering" these are both off by the way.

 

targas. Choose targas for your output file format. Do that first. Before you go looking for the alpha buffer.

 

 

You have to have selected an output format that supports alphas or it will not appear. Targas do. Quicktime with "Animation" codec does also.

 

you absolutely have to do this.

 

Have I mentioned you have to do this first?

[Rodney]

i dont know why i didnt come to the forums sooner

 

I'm glad you found your way here to the forums.

 

We've got some work to do to get it done but we'd love to see every A:M User here in the forum.

If you've got the software... use the forum!

One A:M user down... millions to go.

 

And... for those just starting out... if you haven't already, you definitely want to work through the exercises in TaoA:M.

[Elf-Man42]

we've moved everything to a faster computer, we copied everything in it from presets to our custom designs, but for some reason it wont load up the decal patches for the skin of the altered wookie. any ideas? because as of right now hes albino (except his hands for what ever reason...)

 

also, i need to render him over a video background, how would i import that, and delete/remove/make the floor invisible?

 

help is much appreciated

[Elf-Man42]

ok, we fixed the texture/skin problem, we had to manually search and find the jpgs (they didnt copy with the rest for some reason)

 

but now we need to import the video background into the project for final rendering. and how can we get rid of the floor?

[robcat2075]

ok, we fixed the texture/skin problem, we had to manually search and find the jpgs (they didnt copy with the rest for some reason)

 

but now we need to import the video background into the project for final rendering. and how can we get rid of the floor?

 

select the ground, in the properties window turn "active" OFF. And do it on the first frame.

 

 

All objects have this "Active" property.

[Elf-Man42]

ok, we found (and deleted) the ground, which worked, and because we already finished the actual animation, that doesnt matter, which brings us to the final question, where can we specifically find the "sky" pallet and change it to black (to render with the alpha enabled)

[robcat2075]

ok, we found (and deleted) the ground, which worked, and because we already finished the actual animation, that doesnt matter, which brings us to the final question, where can we specifically find the "sky" pallet and change it to black (to render with the alpha enabled)

 

Sky color is in the camera properties, but I believe it always renders as black when Alpha channels are enabled.

[sir fen the usa]

use quicktime if your rendering a video. and as mentioned above once quicktime is chosen the alpha channel on/off is in the output options.

i like to bring my alpha video into another program to overlay it onto another video. this is useful and cuts down the render time. but if your camera does not move i believe you can drop a video onto the camera itself and the video will replace the sky....i have not done that much as i like to put my alpha video rendered from AM into something like final cut pro or adobe premiere.(note you may have to tell the program its an alpha)

 

now there is another aspect here....shadows!!! how do you get them to render onto the video overlay....there is a way...ive seen a tut here with a rabbit crossing a street it was amazing......they did something like render out shadows separate.