Am wondering if it is possible to render a video with a fade to trasnparency so it can be reimported; and, then, when it is set on top of a second clip, if the transparent fade will still work?
Try one of the Video with Alpha render profiles/presets.
More in the Exporting section of the official documentation.
Thank you. That’s helpful. But there are four options there… ?
The technique I described doesnt seem to be coming up in searches… I think because it may be a complex problem… the search engines seem to get hung up on the word “transparency”, and I get all sorts of irrelevant responses…
It looks like what I need is to render a video with a transparency (which seem doable) and then re-import the transparency…
Yes, exactly. Render with alpha. Put the rendered video into the timeline again and the alpha part of the clip is visible.
Can a (mpg, mp4) video have transparency at all?
Not that I am aware of, but these do:
Ok, these videos have alpha. But what do you do with videos that have transparency? I assume that no video player can display that.
Overlay them on other videos so they show through …
Yes, of course, but why do you need to render the videos with alpha? Can’t you set each video in the timelie to be transparent?
You can control the opacity/transparency for each clip (e.g. Transform effect, Opacity parameter), yes, but this applies to all pixels, not just the black ones.
Of course, you could use the Chroma Key effect to specify that all black pixels are transparent. And a Screen composition works also. But that means you need to add an effect or a composition to achieve this.
There could be many use cases I am not aware of. Personally, I would use the Screen composition to make all black pixels transparent.
Greetings Everyone,
Thank you for your replies…
Still working on this issue, but wanted to comment on what we have so far…
Can a (mpg, mp4) video have transparency at all?
Could any video player play them?
That kind of answers my question.
Essentially, you seem to be saying it is at least not common practice, which is what I was wondering about…
On the other hand, if you think about it, even if other video players don’t play them - it’s still open space for development…
Why? What’s the purpose?
Well - for one - why not? Applications could be unlimited. Whatever you imagine. But, personally, it would be a bit of a timesaver. Render it once and you don’t have to go through all the settings again; it would save on rendering time; and save on processing resources during internal playback. There would be downsides, I guess, but it also seems just like it would make the workflow easier overall.
Yes, of course, but why do you need to render the videos with alpha? Can’t you set each video in the timelie to be transparent?
Again, it takes time and effort to do that… which is one of the things software in general is supposed to correct…
Chroma keying and using blends might help, but it still seems to have problems with it…
Right now, I am thinking Image Sequences may be an option. If mp4’s won’t support alpha transparency, then maybe exporting or rendering image sequences - which could support individually transparent images - could then be reimported with the transparency effect already in place…
Not exactly perfect for what I was hoping for, but it might be a good workaround…