Keylight leaves me with a black background

[Pampurrs]

I don't think I have to tell anyone here, Chroma Key is supposted to remove the green screen background, not replace it wih a black one.  So why is Keylight giving me a video with a black background instead of an invisible one?

I have exported the finished product  using Media Encoder, but when I place the resulting MP5 onto a track in my video editor, it has a black background.

I suspect it's something I am doing incorrectly, but I'm following the steps in this video https://youtu.be/qE9672A5VkU but it's not working correctly.

Is there a step in Keylight I'm missing?

I can't imagine a product like After Effects can't produce an invisible background for overlay.

Thanks

[Jose Panadero]

The problem is the format you are using for export. MP4 does not let you embed an alpha channel in the video file. You must export a format that lets you embed the transparency, for example a Quicktime ProRes 4444 or a Quicktime Animation file. Anyway, in the Output module settings, you must check that you are exporting RGB+Alpha channels.

[Pampurrs]

Oh I wasn't aware of that. Let me try it with AVI and see what happens.

Thanks

[Pampurrs]

Nope!  I tried AVI and QuickTime.  Both had the black background.  This is very disappointing, I had heard that Keylight is a very good ChromaKey prroduct, but I'm not impressed.

Thank you for trying to help.

[Jose Panadero]

Not only you have to create a Quicktime Prores 4444 file. Be sure to select RGB+Alpha in the output module settings. Also, be sure you haven't anythin below your Keylight layer in After Effects. If you have a solid or anything you will get this color in the output file

[Pampurrs]

There is no option for "Quicktime Prores 4444" in Media Encoder, there is only an option for Quicktime  (see attached screenshot).  Please tell me where I would find that option you speak of.

[Jose Panadero]

You can use the Render Queue inside After Effects but I'm afraid you are not using the latests versions of AE and Media Encoder. Adobe added support for Prores files in After Effects version 13.0.2 (CC 2014) so maybe you need to export as a Lossless with alpha within AE to get the embed alpha channel.

[Pampurrs]

It's AE 2020, I just recently installed the trial.  I don't understand why this wouldn't be the latest version.  I guess I need to contact Adobe support and ask why this is not the latest version.

[Pampurrs]

I just rendered a 6 minute video directly from AE to a Quicktime file.  It took nearly an hour to render, and then it told me I was out of memory (which is ridiculous given the amount of memory this computer has).  Then, when I checked the output, it still had the black background.

I have come to the conclusion that After Effects is a rubbish program.  Thank god for free trials, I would hate to have paid for this.