#post production prob
4 messages in this thread
I think that Alpha Split is one of the most obscure commands in 3DS. I
don't think I've ever seen another PC application that makes pairs of
24-bit and 8-bit files for the purpose of making beauty and alpha masking
videos to be used as elements in an A-B-C-roll system. I'm sure that not
more than 5% of 3DS users have ever even used it. I _still_ haven't heard
of anyone taking the 8-bit mask .tga files and adding or subtracting
to/from them, thereby modifying the original with effects. That would be
totally bizarre, since you could add it to the transition mask, thereby
making two independent alpha masks you could use for transitions.
(Actually, now that I think about it, MartinF has probably been doing this
for months, now!)
– G
You are correct, sir! Who told you? Probably me, huh? I did actually use
the alpha split well over a year ago for exactly that purpose (ABC roll for
a logo/live video composition). And I confess to having "messed about a
bit" with the 8-bit alpha files in a most licentious manner, I admit it
<g>.
Gary:
Actually, most of the people I know who are using 3DS in Dallas are
conversant with the Alpha Split scheme AND USE IT. Most of the edit suites
I am familiar with welcome the mattes as a failsafe against bad luminence
keys.
We make it standard practice to qualify our clients up front to determine
whether they will need mattes with their project. About half of the
corporate/industrial clients do.
An impromptu comparison with TOPAS: Mattes are generated by re-coloring
the elements white, bringing the ambient light all the way up, and
re-rendering the animation! The resulting files are 24 or 16bit and must
be run thru batchfiling QFX functions or some similar avenue to bring them
down to 8bit size for efficient storage until the sequence can be dumped to
tape. Get the picture!?! This was always one of those "obscure"
features in 3DS that impressed the hell out of me!!!
Ken Loss-Cutler
How soon they forget. We (IDLab) used the Alpha Split option to make the C
roll matt for the Autodesk R12 Tape so the narrator could walk around the
shell image. (Though they didn't end up using the shot in the end -typical)
Perhaps for our next tape we should show off this feature?
Jamie