Exporting Video with Transparency
"I’ve created an animation that contains transparency. I’d like to preserve the transparency when I export the video. How can I do this?”
There are a couple of ways to do this in Final Cut Pro, but only one way that works in both Pro and Express, so let me show you that.
After you’ve made your animation and are ready to export make sure everything is unrendered. Do NOT render it. If it’s already been rendered, switch off the visibility and turn it back on to kill the render files.
To export use File>Export>QuickTime Conversion.
Set the format popup to QuickTime Movie and click on the Options button.
In the Options panel click on the Video Settings button.
You have to use a compressor that carries the alpha channel or transparency of the video. Most digital video formats don’t do that. One of the few that does is the Animation compressor so select that in the Compressor Type.
In the Depth popup select Millions of colors+. The + is the extra transparency channel.
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