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M
MarkJean
Inspiring
October 30, 2017
Question

After Effects - Title export with Alpha - fades change when premultiplied

  • October 30, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 1826 views

Hello,

I need to export my Title Sequence I created in After Effects and have a Quicktime or TIFF (or anything) Sequence to add said titles to my movie in Premiere CC.

I very finely adjust the keyframes to have it fade just in the right speed and manipulate those fades just the way I want them.

But as soon as I exported it as a premultiplied .mov (prores4444, animation codec, PNG) the fades always change... they aren't the way I created them anymore.

When they start very slowly and subtle, they pop in much earlier and quicker in the premultiplied .mov.

When I export a TIFF sequence, Premiere sees it as straight, and then, as we all know, the text looks pixilated and the alpha behaves in unwanted ways when fading.

When I modify the footage of the TIFF sequence in Premiere and add the check: premultiplied, it behaves just as the premultiplied .mov does: Fading in ways I don't want it to.

The mystery is: When I play that premultiplied .mov (or TIFF with premultiplied checked in Modify Footage) in the preview window, it fades just as slowly and nicely, similar to After Effects.

But when I put it on in a video track, on top of my movie, it seems to fade much quicker, it seems to just pop into frame...

How can I export / import / modify my premultiplied .mov so it will be displayed and fades like I see it doing in the preview window? The background of my video is just as black as the preview window... But later I have titles on top of moving video of course, so I can't just export them burned into black video...

I have a little show for you:

First the premultiplied alpha .mov on top of my video in Premiere:

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30arfukx.png

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30abzufb.png

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30agzudn.png

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30a8fu4j.png

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30ac2uxy.png

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30ae7uua.png

Then the premultiplied alpha .mov in the Premiere Preview monitor, fading slower, the way I'd like it to:

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30amsjcn.png

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30a5cki1.png

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30aqvjpo.png

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30an9j1k.png

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30a5hk7w.png

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30ax8kv9.png

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30alikkk.png

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30appkxy.png

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30azoku3.png

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30aiijc9.png

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30axhj9f.png

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30an7jcs.png

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30awyje8.png

http://abload.de/image.php?img=screenshot2017-10-30av3k9q.png

Next to each other:

http://abload.de/img/screenshot2017-10-30apqk5v.png

(I can't implement the screenshots here... sorry for all the links)

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Mylenium
Mylenium
Legend
October 30, 2017

Start by using another image format. Nothing prevents you from using Targas, PNGs or PSDs even. The rest are bugs, though arguably you may be doing something wrong just as well. You've provided a boatload of screenshots from Premiere but really nothing about the AE side of things, so it's impossible to tell you what might be wrong. E.g. some effects that have internal intensity/ opacity controls can totally whack out when not used at 100% and in combination with native layer opacity.

Mylenium

M
MarkJeanAuthor
Inspiring
October 30, 2017

Sorry for all the links, I created a montage of them next to each other:

Left how the premultiplied alpha looks in the timeline and right how it looks in the preview window.

I also tried the other image sequences, even PSDs, but they behave just like the TIFF sequence. Straight is unwanted due to fading behaviour (when barely visible it's always grey as if it fades in the alpha channel only first) and rough pixilated edges, premultiplied changes the fading behaviour too and also changes the look of the logos, like the added shadow being much brighter.

I will provide screenshots how my settings and effects look in After Effects, but since it looks fine in the Premiere preview monitor I'm not sure what to do...

Two examples: First of a logo and second of a text. It's really simple and doesn't have much effects. I use the Opacity setting to create a fade:

Mylenium
Mylenium
Legend
October 30, 2017

Well, straight up: Blending modes and using Change to Color? That is one hell of a crooked workflow! Sorry, this is inevitably bound to result in a mess. Blending modes (including the ones used by layer styles) only interact with real pixel data, not composition backgrounds and the Change to color effect is not supposed to be used on items with transparency. That's what Tint and otehr effects are for. It's really no wonder everything whacks out. You are using effects that modify the Alpha but never truly check the interactions because you use them against a blank background. This cannot work. So by all means, use different effects and methods and learn to make friends with the Alt+4 shortcut to inspect the transparency/ Alpha inside AE.

Mylenium

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