Fabien Mosen <fab### [at] skynetbe> wrote:
> (BTW, it would greatly help if POV-Ray was able to output the alpha
> channel as separate grayscale frames, as it seems that it's what
> commercial renderers do.)

  That's odd and sounds cumbersome. (Or is some kind of odd principle they
have that they don't support png, period?)

-- 
#macro N(D)#if(D>99)cylinder{M()#local D=div(D,104);M().5,2pigment{rgb M()}}
N(D)#end#end#macro M()<mod(D,13)-6mod(div(D,13)8)-3,10>#end blob{
N(11117333955)N(4254934330)N(3900569407)N(7382340)N(3358)N(970)}//  - Warp -

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On Wed, 26 Feb 2003 22:08:20 +0100, Fabien Mosen <fab### [at] skynetbe> wrote:
> (BTW, it would greatly help if POV-Ray was able to output the alpha
> channel as separate grayscale frames, as it seems that it's what
> commercial renderers do.)

The alpha channel is accessible in new post-processing stuff for MegaPOV (not
available yet). It is possible to output it to separate file using save_file
feature as well as use it as function for other effects. Also alpha channel can
be obtained from any of post-processes effects used in post-process queue.

follow-ups

ABX

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Remco de Korte <rem### [at] onwijscom> wrote in
news:3E5D3E1B.6CB45246@onwijs.com: 
> I'm also looking for some cheap (or free) editing program. I don't
> really expect that to do the kind of thing I need (= blend live action
> over a rendered background - probably...)
> 
> Remco
> 

You may want to look at http://filmgimp.sourceforge.net/

It is open source and used professionally by the hollywood studios.  The 
Windows version is due to be released any day now.

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Tom Galvin wrote:
> 
> Remco de Korte <rem### [at] onwijscom> wrote in
> news:3E5D3E1B.6CB45246@onwijs.com:
> > I'm also looking for some cheap (or free) editing program. I don't
> > really expect that to do the kind of thing I need (= blend live action
> > over a rendered background - probably...)
> >
> > Remco
> >
> 
> You may want to look at http://filmgimp.sourceforge.net/
> 
> It is open source and used professionally by the hollywood studios.  The
> Windows version is due to be released any day now.

Thank you.

Remco

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On Wed, 26 Feb 2003 12:18:49 +0100, "Fabien Mosen"
<fab### [at] skynetbe> wrote:

>Do you know of any video format that preserves the alpha
>channel of the rendered frames ?
Hi Fabien,

I too was trying this recently - wasn't able to get it to work with
.avi files but could with Quicktime .mov files (although you'll need
to purchase Quicktime Pro ($30) to create .mov files)

Cheers,

Scott

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Warp wrote:
> Fabien Mosen <fab### [at] skynetbe> wrote:
> 
>>(BTW, it would greatly help if POV-Ray was able to output the alpha
>>channel as separate grayscale frames, as it seems that it's what
>>commercial renderers do.)
> 
> 
>   That's odd and sounds cumbersome.

So much ?  In general, I would like to see POV-Ray being able to output
various information in the form of deep-grayscale images aside the
main rendering : alpha, normals, depth...  It would allow easy
postprocessing with existing tools (even for stills).  BTW, most
commercial renderers do that.

> (Or is some kind of odd principle the
> have that they don't support png, period?)

I don't think so.  It might be simply that they are made to get
video as input, and not series of still frames.  Again, commercial
renderers outputs animations as animations, not as series of stills.

Fabien.

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Animated GIF anyone?

(Excuse me while I kill myself laughing)
Andrew.

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Andrew Coppin <orp### [at] btinternetcom> wrote:
> Animated GIF anyone?

  I didn't know GIFs support an alpha channel.

-- 
plane{-x+y,-1pigment{bozo color_map{[0rgb x][1rgb x+y]}turbulence 1}}
sphere{0,2pigment{rgbt 1}interior{media{emission 1density{spherical
density_map{[0rgb 0][.5rgb<1,.5>][1rgb 1]}turbulence.9}}}scale
<1,1,3>hollow}text{ttf"timrom""Warp".1,0translate<-1,-.1,2>}//  - Warp -

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You've never heard of a transparent GIF??? OK, it only supports 1-bit alpha
(i.e., transparency = 100% or 0%, not in between). But you can animate it.

Wasn't really a "serious" suggestion ;-)
Andrew.

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> Or any other procedure
> that will allow us to manage the transparency information
> with the compositing software ?

Probably not the answer you're looking for but you
could render it with a blue or green screen. Compositing
software should have this available. Zei-Stein is
free and will do it:
http://www.thugsatbay.com/


-- 
Phil

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