PNG format renders- where is background?

[Jackson_cg]

I know I can save out in TGA or TIFF format instead, but I just wonder why when you save as PNG it automatically cuts out the background in the alpha channel? I've tried most of the VFB Channels (including the obvious "Background", which appears just to be an inverse alpha mask), but none seem to contain the background as rendered.

Thanks in advance,
Jackson

[thomthom]

Re: PNG format renders- where is background?

You loose the background when saving as PNG if you render out the Alpha channel. Remove it and you can save in PNG with the background.
If you need the alpha and the background, save in a different format and convert afterwards. XnView is very nice for this with its shell extension integration.

[Jackson_cg]

Re: PNG format renders- where is background?

Thanks Thom! ;D

As I used to save mostly in tga format, the alpha VFB channel is selected in most of my preset visopts so I hadn't noticed that omitting it restores the background in pngs. Seems rather odd that adding a VFB channel would actually affect other channels though, I thought they were all additive.

[thomthom]

Re: PNG format renders- where is background?

Yea, I would prefer that the background remained for PNG files even though you exported the alpha channel.