Alpha, Magic and LenZFX?
18 messages in this thread
I'm using Magic to create a comet trail and would like to apply a glow to the
trail. I've rendered the comet trail separately with alpha and applied LenZFX
glow with alpha to get the desired glow. When I go to composite the animation
in video post I'm not getting good transparency of the alpha and it looks
rather nasty. Any tips on this? Brent Bonet – POP! Multimedia Atlanta
Because of it's nature (8 bits) the alpha channel is not antialiased. The
particles of the comet trail a probably too small to look good without
aliasing.
One possible solution would be to not render a separate alpha chan. but instead
to make the comet trail a single color ( self illuminated ?) color and key your
glow off of that color.
If I have time tonight ( I'm bust learning Premiere) I'll try it that way and
let you know what other ideas I can come up with that might help.
Also , if you get it to work, let me know.
Bye bye
-=DC=-
Brent,
Just a further note. David's self illuminated material suggestion is
the ticket. Probably the easiest way to key Glow or LenZFX. Make sure
you have gamma correct "off" during this render.
Lee
I've rendered the magic with alpha and then applied glow based on brightness
with alpha on. when I composited I got no transparency…when I rendered with
alpha split and looked at the alpha is was all white! My earlier problem came
from the use of flics instead of targas. I wasn't aware that the flics
couldn't save alpha info. It seems to me with alpha rendered with my glow and
256 levels of transparency I could get a decent composite!
Brent Bonet – POP! Multimedia Atlanta
>. Make sure
you have gamma correct "off" during this render.
Oops, I forgot about that part….
Thanks
David
David, PMJI, but the alpha channel _is_ antialiased. If you're using SEEZ, the
Z-buffer isn't AA but alpha definately is. LenzFX has a problem with AA since
it's laid over after the studio rendering is finished. You have to use masks to
get around this limitation. You're right about the particles though, if they're
too small both AA, and gamma can change their hue so it isn't affected by glow.
Good luck with Premier. Will you be trying to use it with a PAR?
DM
As far as my original problem with alpha goes…I experimented by turning off
gamma and using negative alpha it seemed to work! Not perfectly in my opinion,
but good enough to keep. Doesn't make sense to me but…
256 level alpha should be perfect in the 32 bit environment. No pixel can have
more than 256 levels of luminance, so… Brent Bonet – POP! Multimedia Atlanta
>t the alpha channel _is_ antialiased. If you're using SEEZ, the Z-buffer
>isn't AA but alpha definitely is.
Oh. I guess I got 'em mixed up, thanks
>….. Premier. Will you be trying to use it with a PAR?
Yes. I hope to. I was going to go with RAZOR, but I was given a copy of
Premiere by Adobe. In the README file, it says DPS PAR drivers are available,
but I can't seem to find them. Maybe with the PVR officially announced, DPS
decided not to continue with PAR software development. I don't know that for
sure, but I hope it isn't true ( maybe I'll ask our new friend David White )
I may end up getting RAZOR PRO anyway (everyone recommends it very highly, and
it works flawlessly with the PAR right now. They both do things that other
lacks, so getting both might work out.
So far, I'm very impressed with Premiere. It really does things that could only
be done in a big dollar studio until recently.
See ya'
David
I also have Premier 4 with PAR. The big problem is you must work with the long
lists of seq. TGA files as the PAR does not support AVI. The MCI drivers are
available and they do work. The test I di says the Premier works but now I
need to find the time to learn the interface and the procedure to follow for
achieving productivity. If only Premier would read *.ani files the product
would be better than Insinc's Razor pro.
> If only Premier would read *.ani files the product would be better than
>Insinc's Razor pro.
Every day I spend some time exploring Premiere and it hasn't stopped amazing
me. I do hear, however, that the latest upgrade to RAZOR PRO is really great. I
may end up getting RAZOR and use both programs for their strengths.
Bye
David
Sounds like what I might be doing in the future. Razor pro is just not in my
current budget however.
> Razor pro is just not in my current budget however.
Same here……… 1st priority is a PVR (or a cheap PAR, if I can find one)
I'll survive with Premiere for a while and, hopefully, there will be drivers
for Premiere from DPS in the near future.
Bye
David
David, Actually, I thought they were showing it on Win 3.1. Maybe not. I don't
care really, I was hoping we'd get one at work, because now we single frame it
and are constantly out of HD space. I myself have it scheduled for a fall
purchase, so by then I'm sure everything will be ironed out. Yes, Razor Pro
works great with the PAR. Actually, last night, I finished rendering a 6000
frame animation with it. It was about 30 seperate .ANI's all with transitions,
crossfades mostly, but quite a few transjammer ones. It rendered without a
hitch. Though it did take about 6 hours. I used the player to play it along
with 3 min of recorded sound we edited with Wave SE. It came out very nicely.
But it's still a lot of f'ing around to get things done right. I'm hoping an
Alpha with NT will help a lot with this. 🙂 Take care.
DM
Thanks for the info…..
Do you know of anyone working with a PAR and Premiere 4.0?
Are the drivers out? David White from DPS hasn't answered that question, (I've
asked Twice)
Thanks again
Bye
David
David, No, I don't think there are drivers yet for Premiere/PAR. I haven't
really been following anything related to Premiere as RP is so nice.
DM
> RP is so nice.
Yeah, fate is a funny thing. after looking at both, and really putting a lot of
effort into finding out as much information about both as I could, I made a
very carful and well thought out decision. As soon as I could, I would buy
RAZOR PRO. Then, out of nowhere, I win Premiere at a computer show.
I guess this means that if I now buy RAZOR, it will be kinda' like getting two
for one, but the fact that I have a bird in the hand makes it sort off tough to
lay out $800 for something that, although "nicer", still doesn't do that much
more than what I already have.
Oh well, lifes a B****
Bye
David
Hey Dave, Yup, really the only thing RP has over Premiere is its ability to
talk directly to the Par. When you start doing big projects though, this is a
major issue. I'd just go buy RP anyway, it's worth it. Take care.
DM
Thanks… you take care also
DC