exporting with alpha - false promise

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Peter Wassink
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exporting with alpha - false promise

Post by Peter Wassink »

I'd like some more clarity on alpha exports.

When exporting a Quicktime animation in RGBA mode and Background not ticked.
TVPaint does not include the alpha in the exported mov.

Maybe this is not tvpaints fault but i think at least it should not 'promise' to include alpha it by showing all is well in the export panel.


export panel promise:
exportpanel
exportpanel
Screenshot 2021-10-08 093654.png (50.66 KiB) Viewed 4025 times

actual export----no Alpha!
actual export----- no alpha!
actual export----- no alpha!
Screenshot 2021-10-08 093813-2.png (59.04 KiB) Viewed 4023 times
Peter Wassink - 2D animator
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slowtiger
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Re: exporting with alpha - false promise

Post by slowtiger »

Uhm, choosing "MOV" means you have to choose a codec as well, and only some of those support alpha.
TVP 10.0.18 and 11.0 MacPro Quadcore 3GHz 16GB OS 10.6.8 Quicktime 7.6.6
TVP 11.0 and 11.7 MacPro 12core 3GHz 32GB OS 10.11 Quicktime 10.7.3
TVP 11.7 Mac Mini M2pro 32GB OS 13.5
Xavier
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Re: exporting with alpha - false promise

Post by Xavier »

We discussed this question with the team. This is not trivial :
- the codec has to support the alpha
- but also the video player must support the alpha

So far I found a very little number of players that properly display the alpha channel. One of them is mpv, as discussed there.

Also on MacOS I think the Mov+ProRes combination works well with RGBA.

But I don't deny that we also should double check all the export options and especially the alpha. This year has been quite intense and we still have a lot on our plate ;)
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slowtiger
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Re: exporting with alpha - false promise

Post by slowtiger »

The Quicktime player on Mac (new and old ones) shows alpha simply as black. I think it's more important that video editors recognize it, so far I haven't heard of any difficulties with that.
TVP 10.0.18 and 11.0 MacPro Quadcore 3GHz 16GB OS 10.6.8 Quicktime 7.6.6
TVP 11.0 and 11.7 MacPro 12core 3GHz 32GB OS 10.11 Quicktime 10.7.3
TVP 11.7 Mac Mini M2pro 32GB OS 13.5
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Peter Wassink
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Re: exporting with alpha - false promise

Post by Peter Wassink »

slowtiger wrote: 08 Oct 2021, 13:49 The Quicktime player on Mac (new and old ones) shows alpha simply as black. I think it's more important that video editors recognize it, so far I haven't heard of any difficulties with that.
Thats not the issue, TVPaint 'promises' alpha on export, but it ends up not being in the file.
at least we should get a warning, like; this codec does not support alpha export ...or something
Peter Wassink - 2D animator
• PC: Win11/64 Pro - AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core - 64Gb RAM
• laptop: Win10/64 Pro - i7-4600@2.1 GHz - 16Gb RAM
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