Skip to main content
virginied22769323
virginied22769323
Participant
October 3, 2016
Question

import transparent video in Captivate

  • October 3, 2016
  • 15 replies
  • 9591 views

Hello everyone,

I know this question has often been asked, but is it possible to matter in a transparent video in Captivate? I found tutorials showing that, but it was on the old version of Captivate and especially with a .flv file, but now it is no longer possible to export this way on After Effect, therefore I am forced to use a "Quicktime" file.

There is any alternative ?

Thank you

This topic has been closed for replies.

15 replies

Show previous replies
S
StevePixel
Inspiring
October 22, 2016

Hi Arashmaz,

There is no such thing as a "transparent" video. When rendered to any format it always takes on the background colour,  or if there is not a background colour then it defaults to black. A video, at its core, is merely series of pictures (usually 30 frames a second) that are wrapped in "container" format (MP4, AVI, etc).

The only way to achieve what you want is to take your existing background and place it in the video. That will give the illusion that your object is on top of the background while the video plays in the course.

Cheers,

Steve 

Captiv8r
Captiv8r
Legend
October 22, 2016

Sorry Steve, I have to disagree with you on this.

Take a look at this brief video I created and you will see why.

Click here to view

Cheers... Rick

    S
    StevePixel
    Inspiring
    October 22, 2016

    Hey Rick,

    Thanks for taking the time to create that. I certainly don't have an issue being wrong, but I have a couple of questions.

    1. Can you actually publish the project, not just preview, and retain the alpha properties in the FLV?

    2. Will your FLV video play on any Apple OS system once published?

    If the answer to both those questions are yes then I stand corrected.

    Cheers

    Steve 

    A
    arashmaz
    Known Participant
    October 22, 2016

    If I import an mp4 that contains say a static image as the background, then a video element, like a moving shape, that has transparency. That works fine.

    But if I create a video of a rotating shape for example, that has transparency and nothing behind it, and import it into Captivate then it will show the shape against a black background.

    Is that correct? Ashish.K​

    A
    Adobe Employee
    Ashish.K
    Adobe Employee
    October 12, 2016

    Hi Virginie,

    Thank you for contacting Adobe.

    I have sent you a PM, in order to troubleshoot the issue further. Looking forward for your response.

    Regards

    Ashish Kumar

    A
    arashmaz
    Known Participant
    October 13, 2016

    Myself and a colleague have the exact some dilemma/question....

    I know a gif with transparency can be used. But that's no good if sound is needed.

    Was there any solution to this Ashish.K​

    A
    Adobe Employee
    Ashish.K
    Adobe Employee
    October 18, 2016

    Hi Arash,

     

    You can try to import .mp4 videos with transparency. There should be no issues playing these videos in Captivate. Let me know if you face any issues.

     

    Regards

    Ashish Kumar

    Lilybiri
    Lilybiri
    Legend
    October 3, 2016

    Alternative to FLV in Captivate is MP4 (H264) but I read contradictory information about that format supporting alpha channels. Do not use Quicktime, it is not directly supported by CP.

    S
    StevePixel
    Inspiring
    October 3, 2016

    Hi Virginied,

    When you say:

    1. Import a video with an Alpha Channel are you trying to import a video that has an object in it and everything else around it will be transparent or

    2. Do you mean importing a video that has an alpha channel composited into the footage?

    For example 1, that will not work but example 2 works fine. As the Alpha Channel is not exported on render.

    Cheers,

    Steve   

    Captiv8r
    Captiv8r
    Legend
    October 3, 2016

    Hi there

    I'm not sure exactly what you are asking here. Captivate certainly works with videos that have an alpha channel that provides the transparent background feature. So it will use such a video but it will do nothing to allow you to create such a video for use later.

    To my knowledge there are only two video container formats that allow this. FLV and MOV. And as we have all likely heard, even our dear US government is advising that we need to remove QuickTime (needed to understand the MOV format).

    Normally when you import a video to Captivate, if it doesn't sense the video as an FLV (and possibly one or two other formats) it will launch the Adobe Media Encoder (AME) to transcode the video into a desirable format. But this could also munge the alpha channel.

    You might consider downloading and installing a transcoding application known as handbrake. https://handbrake.fr/

    Hope something here was helpful... Rick

    virginied22769323
    virginied22769323Author
    Participant
    October 4, 2016

    Hello everyone,

    In the first instance, thank you for the answers.

    To be more clear, I filmed a video in green brackground, I cut from After Effects and I export that in ".mov" and I import this in Captivate and effectively, the software tells me that he can't stand it file type and opens Encoder to export in .flv, but in this time, the transparency disappearing. That is my problem.

    I will try your suggestions.

    Thanks again.

    Virginie

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices