Export alpha

[David_Fine]

I have artwork in black line. I want to export so that I end up with black line on clear, which I thought would be PNG with alpha channel, but I am getting white line on solid black. How can I export so that I get black line on nothing, so it's clear and can be imported into something else?

[slowtiger]

Possible mistakes I did:
- forgot to use scan cleaner (OK, doesn't explain black BG)
- forgot to set PNG to RGBA for exporting with alpha
- forgot to uncheck background in export panel

When exporting Quicktime using PNG codec:
- forgot to set quality to millions+ colours.

[Fabrice]

was the PNG premultiplied or not ?

[David_Fine]

More playing around has solved it. Hurray!

Format: PNG
Mode: RGBA
Alpha: Nopremult

As noted, background must not be ticked!

That gave me what I wanted. Is there a section in the manual about exporting for use in other applications, like After Effects? Would be good to have specific instructions for this as I see on the forum that others have inquired as well.

[Elodie]

That would be great indeed, but since we do not master other software, we cannot really write any documentation about this.
Plus, other software evolve and may change a lot. This is already complex to track the evolution of our own software and change our own guide in consequence, I would not take the risk to write some wrong information about other technologies

[schwarzgrau]

That gave me what I wanted. Is there a section in the manual about exporting for use in other applications, like After Effects? Would be good to have specific instructions for this as I see on the forum that others have inquired as well.

For After Effects PNGs with alpha channel are usually the best choice. But a HUGE timesaver is the script from Mads, which you can find HERE

[David_Fine]

That would be great indeed, but since we do not master other software, we cannot really write any documentation about this.
Plus, other software evolve and may change a lot. This is already complex to track the evolution of our own software and change our own guide in consequence, I would not take the risk to write some wrong information about other technologies

Exporting with alpha channel has wider implications than just for After Effects. Any NLE could use it as well. TVPaint exports a PSD file directly without concern for tracking the evolution of Photoshop. The manual could simply say, "for those who need to export a layer, or layers, you need to export with alpha channels in order to import into other software. Here is how to do that..."

Mad's script looks great, thanks, so that's a solution, but again, this is not in the manual and so users don't have an easy way to access this information. I now have this resolved, so it doesn't matter to me, but I am thinking of other users and ultimately, myself for other things which I'm sure could be in the manual which I am not even thinking of.

[slowtiger]

I found exporting to PNG with alpha never confusing. But OK, I did it in several other programs before.

[schwarzgrau]

I had the same problem as David, till I read the wikipedia article about pngs and premultiplying. So I guess it could be a common problem.
And I share his opnion about the stuff on the forum: It's great that there is a script or some advice for everything here on the forum, but the help shouldn't be a something limited to the forum, since just a tiny percentage of the TVPaint users visit this forum.

[David_Fine]

It's great that there is a script or some advice for everything here on the forum, but the help shouldn't be a something limited to the forum, since just a tiny percentage of the TVPaint users visit this forum.

Yeah, that's the thing. So many users might find the learning curve very steep because the online info is so incomplete. I know you are working on this, but I just can't stress how important it is for all this info to be easily available to users, even though I am very grateful for the dialogue here, which is so helpful.

[Elodie]

I agree there are some elements to improve in the doc. But regarding exports ?
PNG is using no-premultiply by default and options like Background are explained in the doc and in inline help.