Keying The Background

stingslang · Post by **stingslang** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:01 pm

I would like to key out the background of my project so that I can only use the characters I make in Anime studio with a CG background. Any tips as to what I should do to the background's color?

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:11 pm

Just do nothing. The default setting for background in AS is transparent.

stingslang · Post by **stingslang** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:32 pm

That doesn't seem to be the case because when i load the image into shake it shows a grey background.

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:52 pm

Export the image as PNG of TGA (not as JPEG) and it will have transparent backgroumd.

stingslang · Post by **stingslang** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 5:23 am

What about a quicktime?

Touched · Post by **Touched** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:44 am

You could try in the Quicktime compression settings dialog which comes up as the last step when exporting, change the default Sorenson3 codec to PNG, and for the Depth dropdown, choose Millions of Colors+. The + is the alpha channel you need. This also works for other compressions such as the Animation compression.

stingslang · Post by **stingslang** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:41 pm

is png lossless?

Rasheed · Post by **Rasheed** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:48 pm

According to Wikipedia it is.

LittleFenris · Post by **LittleFenris** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:09 pm

You could just export the QuickTime with no codec and set its colors to Millions+ if you are worried about compression issues but still want an alpha channel. The files will be huge, but won't have any compression artifacts.

artfx · Post by **artfx** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 1:05 am

You may run into some issues trying to get Quicktimes to work with alpha channels. Even if the file has the channel, I oftimes notice that the correct data is not in the channel.

It seems that png is the ideal way to go, especially on the Mac. I have have only had success with this method when compositing in Mirage.

slowtiger · Post by **slowtiger** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 9:31 am

aha, you too? I wonder how many of us use the combination AS/Mirage?

Rhoel · Post by **Rhoel** » Fri Feb 23, 2007 2:47 pm

slowtiger wrote:aha, you too? I wonder how many of us use the combination AS/Mirage?

AS, Combustion ... legacy of previous studio where we upgraded from Discreet Paint/Effects etc to Combustion, then integrated Max.

larspanky · Post by **larspanky** » Tue Feb 27, 2007 3:14 am

I have used both the alpha channel method and making the background bright green for a mat key,

either works well, the mat key effect can leave artifacts which can be an interesting artistic choice.

I use AS/Blender, LOVE IT.

peace