Exporting with Alpha Channel Legacy Quicktime

[Reindeer]

I don't even get the dialogue box. It takes me directly to 'Save'. No tweaking whatsoever is possible.

Try it with the default QuickTime Movie preset...don't select Animation codec here.

No... none of the QT presets produce any dialogue box. It's just select the format and Save. As a matter of fact, even the quality setting menu is greyed out in all presets.

[synthsin75]

Are you on Mac? Do you at least have QuickTime Essentials installed?

[Reindeer]

Are you on Mac?

Yes, El Capitan, not Sierra yet.

[Greenlaw]

I don't know if this makes any difference but do you have QuickTime Pro installed? I'm on Windows these days so I'm not sure my comment is really that helpful or relevant. Just putting it out there.

[Reindeer]

I don't know if this makes any difference but do you have QuickTime Pro installed? I'm on Windows these days so I'm not sure my comment is really that helpful or relevant. Just putting it out there.

Yes, I do. In fact, other software deliver the traditional legacy QT settings dialogue boxes. Moho instead overrides them completely.

[synthsin75]

Yes, El Capitan, not Sierra yet.

That's odd. It says Moho supports El Capitan, and I have the options on Windows. Have you tried the 32 bit version of Moho?

[Reindeer]

Yes, El Capitan, not Sierra yet.

That's odd. It says Moho supports El Capitan, and I have the options on Windows. Have you tried the 32 bit version of Moho?

No, I actually didn't know there was a 32 bit version. If it's available as an alternative download I can try that (I'll check the email with the original link to the download page). D'you say the export dialogs aren't supposed to work with the 64 bit version?

[synthsin75]

No, I actually didn't know there was a 32 bit version. If it's available as an alternative download I can try that (I'll check the email with the original link to the download page). D'you say the export dialogs aren't supposed to work with the 64 bit version?

They may not have a Mac 32 bit, but on Windows you have the option to install both on 64 bit machines, when you install Moho. The export dialogs work in both on Windows.

[Greenlaw]

When you run the installer, it should have asked if you also want the 32 bit version. In ASP 11, you had to use the x32 version for Quicktime movie output. In Moho, I believe the renderer automatically launches the x32 bit renderer in the background when you want QT output. Something like that anyway.

I don't know if choosing not to also install the x32 version makes a difference to Moho 12, but I allow the installer to install the x32 version anyway just to be safe.

I'm not certain how accurate the above info is and, like Wes, I'm not sure how accurate this is for Mac users either. Maybe somebody will post more reliable info.

[Reindeer]

Hmm... I can't recall how the install process went, whether I was asked or not to install a 32 version. If I had a 32 version of the Exporter where would it be? Or, is there any chance I could install the 32 bit Exporter separately? I mean, without installing the entire software.

I kind of have the feeling the export dialogue boxes should be there on the 64 version, I mean it doesn't really figure to have QT Legacy exporting without the tweaking options, does it.

I just checked how exporting was on Anime Studio Pro 11 (haven't used it since Moho's release) and I had the problem there too, albeit slightly less so because I do get an intermediate passage with a little control (as in image). But no dialogue boxes in ASP11 either, though.

[Greenlaw]

The issue is that Quicktime itself isn't written for x64, so many x64 programs that 'support' it have to perform some 'under-the-hood' tricks like running the rendering part in x32 in the background as a separate program.

I don't know if Moho requires that you also install the x32 version to get that part of the renderer but maybe it does. I know ASP did require it--in fact, you were required to run ASP in x32 to get all the QT features. (That's mainly what the x32 switch under ASP's File menu was for.)

(Note that there this is just my personal understanding of how it work, which might be flawed or incorrect. Sorry...I'm really expecting somebody official to pop in and set me straight on this stuff any minute now.)

[synthsin75]

Seems there's no quality settings for QT on Mac, but considering QT doesn't do transparency for Windows either, it doesn't make much difference. Seems like image sequence is the only real option.

[slowtiger]

Sorry, of course QT export with alpha works on Mac.

AS v11 here, on Mac OS 10.11.8. You can have ProRes 4444 which gives you alpha and is faster in opening and saving in other applications. Or you can choose "legacy QT" at the bottom of the first pulldown. After that the Mac file requester opens with options at the bottom (I marked it yellow): choose PNG, check "include alpha channel", use maximum quality, done. Creates a .mov file with alpha, which on this new Mac will open a bit slower because each time it will be converted to ProRes internally, but works perfectly on an older Mac as well.

Please try this with Moho 12.

[Reindeer]

Sorry, of course QT export with alpha works on Mac.
AS v11 here, on Mac OS 10.11.8. You can have ProRes 4444 which gives you alpha and is faster in opening and saving in other applications. Or you can choose "legacy QT" at the bottom of the first pulldown. After that the Mac file requester opens with options at the bottom (I marked it yellow): choose PNG, check "include alpha channel", use maximum quality, done. Creates a .mov file with alpha, which on this new Mac will open a bit slower because each time it will be converted to ProRes internally, but works perfectly on an older Mac as well.
Please try this with Moho 12.

Hi slowtiger, thank you very much. I did try all the possible combinations, the problem is that my Moho 12 (latest build updated three days ago) simply doesn't open the Mac file requester with the options. So, in the case of ProRes 4444, I can't choose PNG (so, no alpha).
That second panel I see in your attachment does not appear, if I press OK, Moho12 immediately starts saving.

[Greenlaw]

...considering QT doesn't do transparency for Windows either, it doesn't make much difference. Seems like image sequence is the only real option.

That didn't sound right to me so I did a quick test. Here's what I found:



Moho on Windows is capable of including an Alpha channel in a QT Movie file. The first image shows a 30 seq of a circle saved out using Legacy QT with alpha enabled. The second image is the movie file composited over another image.

What I also learned is that you MUST have Moho x32 also installed. If you do not, Quicktime options do not appear at all in the x64 version. You do not need to run Moho x32 to export a QT movie but it must be installed for it to be available in Moho x64. (As mentioned earlier, my guess is that the x64 version runs the x32 renderer in the background when you export a QT movie.)

Of course, in this particular situation, there's no real benefit to rendering out a movie file over image sequence since the output for both are PNG + Alpha images, and there more creative and technical in compositing in compositing when you have an image sequence instead.

I know this info doesn't help Reindeer but just wanted to share what I learned this morning in case a Windows users had a similar question about this.