It would be great to get the possibility to set a background color when rendering a video with a transparent background.
e.g.
My primary output is a transparent ProRes video, but i also want a mp4 with a white background. It would be nice to set the background color inside the render preset.
If working in After Effects, set the Background Color of the Composition to White. When exporting with the "Apple ProRes 4444 with Alpha" preset in Media Encoder, you'll get a transparent background. When exporting to any preset/format that does not support transparancy (like any MP4 preset), you'll get a white background.
If you want a feature like this to work on all codecs, a switch or checkbox must be added to the render options. Alpha channels render black with some codecs. Setting the background color does not add pixels. It only affects the color tint of anti-aliased edges of the transparent edges of the render when Pre-multiplied with Alpha is selected in the render options. Straight Alpha is a better option unless you have kept the background color black.
The simplest solution is to add a solid to create a colored background. This solution also solves the edge tint problem on transparent layers above the background without throwing any switches.
As Warren Heaton said, setting the background color to white will give you a white background with some codecs, but unless you change the output from Pre-multiplied with Alpha to Straight Alpha, your Pro-Rez files will have a slightly different look that is more pronounced as the edge softens or motion blur increases.
The most efficient option would be to add a solid, then turn it off and add the comp to the Render Queue or Media Encoder again with it turned off for the RGBA copy.
I would like to have the checkbox and colorpicker inside Media Encoder.
It surely must be a good solution without big issues (like an solid background from After Effects).
To make a solid background is one solution. But it could be cumbersome when you have several compositions to export and need always two versions (transparent .mov and a .mp4 with background).
10
Replies
AdChoices