Character Animator projects in AE (Beta) 22.4.0.17 change alpha interpretation

Report · Mar 24, 2022

Steps to reproduce:
1. In Photoshop, create a puppet with art layers against transparancy

2. Rig the puppet in Character Animator. Do not add a background

3. Load the resulting puppet.chproj into an older version of AE. 22.1 for example.

4. Add the puppet.chproj to a comp and add a background. Looks great!

5. Open the AE created above in After Effects (Beta) v22.4.0.17
Result: The alpha of the puppet.chproj has a black border
Expected: No black border. Not sure which app is changing how the alpha is handled, but this is new and unexpected...

Workaround: interpret the puppet.chproj footage with premultiplied instead of straight alpha.

System info
Application: After Effects (Beta) v22.4.0.17
OS: macOS v12.2.1, RAM: 64.00 GB GB, CPUs (logical): 10

Report · Mar 28, 2022

Hi @Tom Olsen. Is this perhaps another example of the current AE beta not being compatible with older builds? Thanks!!