alpha channel

[Showsite]

A client of mine wants to layer an alpha channeled video onto another video that is labeled, "the background" video. Is this possible? I'm still running version 5

[jfk]

Yes, WATCHOUT fully supports alpha channel in movies (animation codec) or stills.

Any still or video can be keyed as well.

The only potential limitation is computer resources,

Some alpha channel videos can be resource hogs and add the second video and

you may find the limits of your computer, may not. Depends a lot on the hardware,

resolution, frame rate and chosen codecs of the videos.

 

I know you said v5, but v6 adds support fot HAP alpha codec,

which is more efficient than animation codec.

[Mike Fahl]

Another option, that sometimes works really well, is to use a green or blue matte where you want the video to be transparent, then use the color keyer in WATCHOUT to  knock out that background. This allows you to use more efficient codecs than Animation, such as MPEG-2 or H.264.

 

Mike

[Walter]

In addition, linear key (using a white matte shape) is a good way to go, often producing better results than color keying, especially with soft edges in the content. (Just render out one normal version of the content and one alpha channel only, place the alpha channel output above the normal version in the timeline and use feature "masked by layer above".