Help wanted with Graphic transparency

SC
Posted By
Steve Cain
Aug 8, 2007
Views
397
Replies
8
Status
Closed
Can anyone please point me in the right direction? I am new to this aspect of using Photoshop, so please bear with me.

I need to create a graphic in Photoshop that has a transparent background (Alpha channel?) to be used in After Effects. I have created a layer with a circle on it and then applied a layer style to it. The result is a "ring", ie the circle consists of just a thick stroke with no fill. The whole document background is transparent (the fill and outside of the shape), I assume is a vector graphic at this point and the document is just a single layer with layer effects applied. I then saved this in various formats (PSD, TIFF, flattened PSD, flattened Tiff).

When I import all these differently saved files into After Effects I always get a white background, the transparancy has been lost.

I need to change the scale of the image in After Effects’ timeline and be able to see an underlying background layer both around the outside of the ring and in the centre of it.

I know what I want to achieve but not how to describe it properly or the terminology used. So, trying to look things up in Help or books is very frustrating and time consuming when not knowing exactly what to look for.

Also, can anyone recommend a good book that explains how to create shapes for use in websites, After Effects projects, Illustrator documents and also explains layers, alpha channels etc? Most Photoshop books seem to focus on image manipulation and photographic uses, I can’t find a good book on the Graphic Design side of things.

Thanks.

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Tom Glowka
Aug 8, 2007
Have you tried a clipping path?
JO
Jim_Oblak
Aug 8, 2007
I’m having trouble visualizing what you are trying to do. It is typically a no-brainer to put PSD with transparency in AE. It might help if you posted a picture via a free image host <http://www.google.com/search?q=free+image+host>.

You can of course wander into the After Effects forum for more info or visit a site like <http://www.creativecow.net> , which has an awful lot of good AE info.
SC
Steve Cain
Aug 8, 2007
Hi Guys,

I think Tom’s solution sounds like it might work OK, will try this shortly.

Meanwhile here is a screenshot:

http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/69ddb4fe6e.jpg

You can see that the background is transparent. So I save this file a a PSD and then import in AE7, the background is now white. I need to preserve the transparancy when in AE7.

Cheers.
SC
Steve Cain
Aug 8, 2007
Don’t think that link above works so try here:

<http://www.stevecain.co.uk/temp/screenshot1.jpg>
JO
Jim_Oblak
Aug 8, 2007
Could the issue be that you are working in 16 bit per channel PSD file? Try dropping it to 8 bit to see if it helps.
SC
Steve Cain
Aug 8, 2007
Tried that Jim, I was working in 8 bit to start with and tried 16 bit to see if that worked. May be the way I am importing into AE.
BD
Brett Dalton
Aug 10, 2007
Are you importing the PSD as a single layer or a Comp? If you import it as a comp then open he comp in AE and check there isn’t a background. If so hide it in AE.

Also check the layer you created isn’t the "bacground layer" in photoshop. make it ANY other layer. If the image is a simple circle or somthing you are better off creating it in illustrator and turning on "continually rasterise" in your comps on so you wont have any pixelation issues when scaling it, this goes for text too. It will render slightly slower but the result will be much nicer.

lastly ( the bane of me AE life) is if a PSD file wont open (or open correctly) more often than not it was, for me, because the colour space was set to CMYK.

hope this helps

BRETT
SC
Steve Cain
Aug 10, 2007
HI Brett,

Thanks for you suggestions. I had the image on a single layer, so I added a transparent background. However, still had no luck.

So I opened the PSD file in Illustrator and then saved it out as a .ai file. Now it works fine.

One point, can’t find the continually rasterize option in Illustrator. I can see the benefit of doing this, but where abouts do I set this option? Sorry if this sounds basic, but I’m learning fast.

Cheers,

Steve

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