Ok, this one is going to fall under the "I would LOVE to get an explanation of this one!" category. Just when I thought I knew everything about transparency and alpha channels, etc ...
The problem: I am importing a PNG sequence into After Effects (CS 5.5), however AE refuses to see the Alpha channel contained within the sequence. Now before anyone jumps the gun and says, "But wait, PNG does not really support alpha, it just supports transparency!" Right, something I just learned, and still -- quite honestly -- baffles the heck out of me.
But anyway, another PNG sequence exported from the exact same program, imports into After Effects just fine with an "alpha channel" and all. I double-checked, and there is NOT an option in the program to export the PNG without transparency info.
Importing sample images from each sequence reveals the EXACT SAME THING ... both have transparency, but NEITHER have an alpha-channel per se.
Sooo ...
- 1) ANY idea why in the heck AE would interpret one's transparency, and not the other?
- 2) Is there a way to FORCE AE to see the transparency of the one?
- 3) IF not, is there something out there that will convert the PNG's with transparency to another format (TIF, TGA, PSD) with an alpha? I just don't want to have to re-render the sequences again.
ANY insight into this bizarre-ness would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks,
Tim