Hello,

After searching the threads concerning rendering with a transparent background/alpha channel, my understanding is that it is not currently possible to render a video file in any video format that results in a transparent background. (I do not consider image sequences to be video files.)

Is his correct, or have I missed a feature that will allow me to export video with transparency?

Thank you,

Nathan

I think AVI support transparent background. But you also need a player that can handle it.
If you are trying to re-use a video in iclone as transparent texture. I think I read that Popvideo can use transparent video in iClone.

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iClone 7, 3DXchange 7 Pipeline, CC3 Pipeline, CT8 Pipeline, Iray, Live Face, iPhone Xr, Win 10, i9 9900K ~5GHz, Nvidia RTX 2080 8GB, 16GB Ram, M.2 SSD

The only export formats that support a transparent background are Sequence Image and popVideo. You can also render a separate black and white alpha channel video which can be taken into a video editor, along with the source video, to remove the background that way.

                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

Thanks for your responses. I will check out popVideo.

Does Reallusion plan to add capability to render without background?
Can rendering video using iRay accomplish videos with transparent background?

Thanks again

Nathan

Some people put a large GREEN (or blue) plane as their background, and in their video editing software (NLE) they will "Chroma Key" out the green background.  But a better solution is to use a "mask" as was previously mentioned

Iray… Yes, Iray can render with a transparent background, but then again, so can iClone's native renderer... both of them generating a sequence of PNG files, except Iray will take a LOT, lot longer.  Iray can also generate, at minimal additional cost (time), several output channels, including a "mask," a depth channel (good for doing fog or DOF work in your NLE), material ID, object ID, and several other possible channels.  It should enable some very creative post-processing possibilities, but I don't know of any iClone users who've taken proper advantage of them yet (probably due in large part to time required for any Iray animation rendering).

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iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

We already do with Sequence Image output. I'm not sure why you don't want to use this format but I would advise giving it a try. Almost any video editor will accept Sequence Images and the quality is much better than when using video codecs.


                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

That's interesting about the sequence quality being superior. I will give the png image sequence a shot. I have to look up how my video editor handles sequences, is all. 

I did convert the project background to neon green. My video editor did a nice job of chroma keying, so I also have that option.

Thanks again to everyone for the responses.

Nathan

The reason most of us prefer image sequences is that PNG is compressed, but lossless. So during editing you will maintain the best quality. and you can then decide how you want to distribute your video, which will necessarily involve lossy compression because of file size.

Most codecs use much higher and lossy compression, which is undesirable, because that will establish early on the best quality you can accomplish for the final product. In addition, video encoded this way is less suitable for editing.

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need to add background options on video bake

You CAN render witha transparent backround when IRAY rendering.  On the tool bar to the left of the Photoreal box (IRAY section) there is an icon that looks like a 3 in a square box. Hit it and it brings up render settings box. You will see a box you can tick to produce a transparent background