Exporting a video with a green screen


https://forum.reallusion.com/Topic451107.aspx 		Print Topic | Close Window

By VRTeacher - 5 Years Ago
In the latest version of iClone, I have a short scene where one character speaks for about a couple minutes without any 3D scene.
What I want to do is use the character's motion and speech in DaVinci Resolve (DVR).
I saw somewhere you could export Alembic to DVR, but somehow "Export Alembic" option is disabled when I clicked on the character.
Alternatively, I have rendered a video using the default setting, and the video came out fine with a black background.
But I'll be using only the character in DVR so I'm looking for a way to render a video with a green background (chroma-key).
But I can't find any option on the Render window to set the background green.
Please help.
Thanks in advance.
By wires - 5 Years Ago
In the Project Settings panel under "2D Background" click in the "Background Color" box and select Green from the Basic colors.

https://forum.reallusion.com/uploads/images/de406f35-f271-4970-a8d9-c091.png
By cinemyscope - 5 Years Ago
Hi,
I just want to say your workflow is wrong.  Don't render the character with a green background to then pull a chroma key in Resolve.  Render the video with an Alpha (transparency) channel!!  There is a radio box you can tick for that in the iClone render options.  That way it doesn't matter what color your background is because the Alpha will take care of removing it.  Use .MOV because Resolve will not open AVI's.
Hope this helps.
By Peter (RL) - 5 Years Ago
VRTeacher (7/18/2020)

I saw somewhere you could export Alembic to DVR, but somehow "Export Alembic" option is disabled when I clicked on the character.


Exporting to Alembic requires 3DXchange 7 Pipeline. If you don't have Pipeline the option will be greyed out.
By VRTeacher - 5 Years Ago
cinemyscope (7/19/2020)
Hi,
I just want to say your workflow is wrong.  Don't render the character with a green background to then pull a chroma key in Resolve.  Render the video with an Alpha (transparency) channel!!  There is a radio box you can tick for that in the iClone render options.  That way it doesn't matter what color your background is because the Alpha will take care of removing it.  Use .MOV because Resolve will not open AVI's.
Hope this helps.

Thanks for the advice. I like being corrected since I'm new to the game and all.
Now I'm not quite sure if I understood correctly.
What do you mean by an Alpha (transparency) channel? By the radio box you can tick for that in the iClone render options, do you mean "Export alpha video only" option? But when I checked that option and exported my video, all I got was a white blank video with audio, which my Resolve recognized as nothing more than a white blank video with audio. (I tried .MOV as well as .MP4)
<EDIT: After I turned on "Sky" in the scene tab, I got a black blank video with my character as white. But I still don't know what to do with it in Resolve.>

I did some search and found out that some people recommend exporting in PNG images to get the transparent background in other editing programs such as Resolve, but this isn't what you're talking about, is it?

I appreciate you helping me out. Thank you.
By VRTeacher - 5 Years Ago
Peter (RL) (7/20/2020)
VRTeacher (7/18/2020)

I saw somewhere you could export Alembic to DVR, but somehow "Export Alembic" option is disabled when I clicked on the character.


Exporting to Alembic requires 3DXchange 7 Pipeline. If you don't have Pipeline the option will be greyed out.

Thanks.
I do have 3DXchange 7. I checked again today and "Export Alembic" was on. Maybe I was mistaken last time.
BTW, is using "Export Alembic" a superior method of exporting a video with a transparent background?
If so, where can I learn about that in detail?