Hi. i have final cut express. saw this tutorial online, someone here passed it to me. Well they didn't pass the tutorial but it was a site for buying Fire/ Smoke/and effects movies tat can be used in graphics animations. Anyway, they had a tutorial and they s aid you can transparent a black bground and this way, you can do compositions, like put backgrounds etc. Which is great caause i needed this Ok so i tried with a poser movie in the top video track and an image in the bottom track and although it did transparent the black, it made the poser character also transparent. anyone know how to fix?

Best way to export out a poser animation you want to key the background with is to save it out as a series of tif images, rather than as a video file. Final Cut Pro and other video-editing software can then assemble these image sequences back into an animation, and because they are tiff format, you can use the alpha channel to key out the background.

JonTheCelt

couldn't you also do this exporting as a movie in some format? The way i exported my poser movie was using the default setting which is to export as compressor type ANIMATION. but i have many options of compresor type. Also, you say that i should use images but then how compe they used movie with a black background in this tutorial and it worked? http://www.detonationfilms.com/tutorials.htm The first tutorial uses a movie with a black background and they easily make the black transparent

Actually, you need to export them as PNG images, not tiffs. They go to a new folder, in order, so you simply select all of them and import them into a new bin (in Final Cut). Once imported into Final Cut, select them all again and drop them into the timeline. You can then nest that sequence into any timeline you want, where it can be edited, etc., or you can export it to Quicktime to create a self-contained movie. Works perfectly for me, every time, and I've used it with very long animation. Better yet, if your computer should freeze or otherwise blip at any point in the rendering process, you can restart from the last frame, rather than having to go back and start all over. That alone makes it superior to any other technique. And no, using a black background and then trying to key it out doesn't work - the keying picks up too many edges and shadows, no matter what. Not sure what they did in the tut. SS

Hi:

I am a Final Studio 2 user and, yes, you can export from Poser as a QT movie and then import same into the Final Cut timeline.  If you render to black from within Poser (for alpha channel)you will need (for superior results) compositing software (i.e. Shake, Boris, Final Effects, Combustion, etc.) to remove the background and insert another for use within the Final Cut timeline.
I have tried exporting as individual PNG files as described above but have found that Final Cut sees each frame within the sequence as a prolonged finite duration that exceeds the original.  I suppose that Final Cut is assigning the defafult duration that it uses for all single images (i.e. jpg, tiff, etc.)  It is equally assumed that one could nest the frames and adjust the their durations but that adds extra steps to the process.  At least at the present time, I have not noticed any advantage, other than the ability to make finer tonal adjustments to individual frames, to exporting as PNG.  The render time for the PNG's is slightly shorter but once you add the needed adjustments in Final Cut you're back to square one in terms of work flow and time invested.  Now, I must admit that I may be missing something in regards to the advantage of the PNG export and its subsequent import into Final Cut and if so, I would appreciate some enlightenment.

In Final Cut Studio (not sure about Express), you can set the duration of any still image that you import. For example, if your animation was at 15 frames per second, you would set the duration of each imported frame for a hair less than 0.067 seconds. Then you don't have to mess with the clip speed unless you really want to -- I, for one, don't like the effect that changing the speed has on the look of the video. As for using compositing software on the Quicktime output from Poser, I don't yet have Shake (but I'm thinking seriously about it now that Apple has cut the price), but I'm still leery about getting a clean knock-out, especially when the figures are outlined or where there are dark shadows on the figures or props. But then, I'm also a rank amateur when it comes to properly dealing with alpha channels. SS

Hello Skeetshooter:

Yes, I undertand that you can set the duration of each imported frame but I am still not clear on the advantage of exporting the PNG animation files vs a QT export.  I am aware that most of the large animation studio work is done with Image File format and can comprehend the advantage of retaining the ability to manipulate each individual frame without the inherent compression that one sees with QT but, then again, one would have to determine if that ability suits their work flow and the destination of their end-product.  I would hope that someone with greater expertise in this realm than my own will respond with a cogent explanation.

As for Shake, it is a great piece of software currently available for a reasonable price but there still is the requirement for export and re-import of the composited product.  Boris Red 4.1, on the other hand, acts as a Final Cut plugin and does a great job of compositing, rotoscoping, etc, etc..  In addition, it serves as a vehicle for special effects, title creation and so on.  Although it is more costly than Shake it is much more than a compositing program.  If economics allow, owning both would be a good idea but if I were to buy just one at this time, I would choose Boris and, yes, I do possess both, in addition to After Effects CS3 and Combustion! 
Cheers

Ok, guys, the PNG technique worked. Well i only tried with 1 image. I exported my image as image PNG. with a black background. then i went to Fcut, in fcut i brought in a background image, and then my poser image.. I didn't even have to select Composite/Screen command from the menu you get when you Ctr +click. I didn't select that , and it worked right off. Nice. So thanks for the tips. i will render from poser as "Images" and then choose PNG format.

Ok guys, IT WORKS. If i save the movie as MOVIE but select compressor to PNG, then it works!!! nice. Thanks for all your help. I'll play around with this and i'm going to make a great poser movie with backgrounds and all layered in fcut.

One more thing i noted guys is that....for some reason, the poser character's movement is not as smooth as it would be if i saved it normally as a movie , with another compressor like Animation. I don't know if this is to be expected when you save as PNG. anyone know?

Hello all again. I have a surprise. I discovered a better way to do it. and it works And now it's smooth animation. Instead of making the BG black in poser, i make it white. Then save my movie as Quicktime with Animation compression type. With MIllions of colors+ chosen. Then that's it. The transparency works in FCut. I didn't know it but it does I can put my poser movie in a track , then a background image on another video track and the poser movies bg is transparent so it looks excellent Here is a picture of what i achieved. And it moves smoothly. it's a quicktime movie saved out of Fcut with Animation compressor type

In all likelihood, the reaosn white worked when black didnt' is because there is less white in your model than there is black. If you try to 'key out' all the black in your poser animation, than it will also remove all the shades of black in your model - which tends to include shadows, hair, and so on. This results in the transparent animation that you had first time round.

Because there's little or no really white areas in your animation, a white background probably works slightly better as a key. You'd be better off switching to a colour that isnt' involved at all in your animation though, such as the bright lurid green that they tend to use in studios (this is why they use green and blue screens, in fact - the ability to key is much easier from these bright colours).

As to why the animation looked jerky when using png frames - did you make sure that each image in the sequence was only being played for one frame? If set to play for two or even three frames each, then the animaiton will appear to slow down and will look a littel more jerky and unrefined.

And bishop666: the ability of png files to automatically remove their background is why they work better in this instance than quicktime movie files. With the background automatically taken care of, there's no danger of getting a fiddly mask around your models and characters, or having to tweak the edges by hand, or many of the other things which compositors often have to do in these cases.

JonTheCelt

Oh jonthecelt, thanks for the info. so i'll use green next time. so that's why they use it huh. didn't know that.

Thank you for the explanation vis-a-vis PNG export, however, why not import the background into the Poser scene and have it rendered as part of the QT movie rather than composite in post?

bishop. well you may not get it cause you render at full mode. But i render in Display Mode Shaded (and am perfectly happy with it)and backgrounds do not appear in OpenGL preview whih is what i want. they do render in Sreed software preview but i dont' like sreed(