Maya video with Alpha/transparency

JackL

Hello!

I'm wondering if there's a way to render out a video from Maya with transparent background For instance, you animate a jumping cube and want to have that cube jumping around in the corner of another video.

The only way I found so far is to batch render png files and then make a video out of it in Adobe After effects. I'm trying to avoid that and stick to Maya.

Anyone got some ideas?

kodde

Why not render frames such as TGA? Can be imported as a video clip in most editing programs afaik. You get a separate alpha channel to use for transparency masking.

JedTheKrampus

Why not use a compositor for the things that a compositor is good at? If you don't like After Effects, maybe give Blender a try! It's node-based and it's meant to work with data from 3D renders especially, and it won't cost anything but your time.

JackL

kodde wrote: »

Why not render frames such as TGA? Can be imported as a video clip in most editing programs afaik. You get a separate alpha channel to use for transparency masking.

You're right this would normally be the best thing to do

JedTheKrampus wrote: »

Why not use a compositor for the things that a compositor is good at? If you don't like After Effects, maybe give Blender a try! It's node-based and it's meant to work with data from 3D renders especially, and it won't cost anything but your time.

It's not that I don't like After effect, it's a software license problem and I want to hand over a few video clips instead of hundreds of images.

Thanks for the tips I will take a look at blender

Eric Chadwick

You could also simply add the background video to the background in Maya, with your rotating 3d cube in front, and render it in-camera. I do this all the time in Max, when I just need it quick.

JackL

I had no idea that you can add a video as background, that sounds interesting.

I took a look at blender and it looked promising for a while until I tried to drag the clip into a video editing software, found out later that I do have access to Adobe After effects CS5 so I partly followed this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbVgMJPZv7c and also composed the sequence like Kodde said.

So thanks guys!