Transparent background with puppet made in AI

[colleenw7024893]

I have a puppet made in AI that shows a white background when in AI, transparent background when in Photoshop, but exports out of Ch with a black background.  How on earth can I get a transparent background when I export?

[Jeff Almasol]

In Ch, if you toggle the Background Color button (lower-right corner of the Scene panel), do you see the background changing (i.e., it shows as transparent)?

Are you exporting using the PNG Sequence and WAV option, or via Dynamic Link to AME?

The PNG output supports transparency. Via AME, does the output format support transprency?

[colleenw7024893]

I just tried exporting using the PNG output and now I have a million PNG images and a wave file.  How do I add that to a video?

[colleenw7024893]

And yes, sorry...when I toggle the background color button I do see the background change.  I've tried exporting both ways and I tried opening my scene in premiere pro.  Nothing is working for me.

[Jeff Almasol]

If you're dragging the scene from Ch's Project panel into Pr's Project panel, or if you are using the PNG output (and drag the .xml file that's created outside of the folder into Pr's Project panel), you should be able to drag that onto a track above some footage and see the puppet have a transparent background so the underlying video track shows through.

If you use something like the Blank Face template puppet (in Ch's Start workspace), does that also exhibit the same issue?

If so, what version of macOS or Windows are you using, and do you have the latest versions of Ch and Pr installed?

Thanks.

[alank99101739]

(Jeff is an expert, so listen to him first. But if you do go with exporting video files, you can filter the available encoders - try “alpha” in the filter box. For me I have “QuickTime / CineForm GoPro 12-bit RGB with Alpha” - that video format maintains alpha channels. My little laptop struggled to deal with lots of separate PNG files - the file system access was too much. Creating a movie file with alpha channel worked better. But it may be that PNG sequences allow faster seeking to different places in the sequence.)

[Mehtab23432899sfmz]

WHERE ARE THESE TOGGLES? WHY IS YOUR WHOLE SUITE OF APPLICATIONS DEDICATED TO HIDDEN BUTTONS. 

[alank99101739]

What Jeff is talking about is in the Scene view, and it changes how CH will show transparency on the screen. It is still transparency, but monitors cannot show that as a color. If you click that button it toggles between black, white, or checkerboard. It is still transparent, but it changes what Ch will display. I like checkerboard myself to not be confused with solid colors in my character.

[Mehtab23432899sfmz]

Thanks