Animation Stills without Alpha

I hope this makes sense. When I render out stills, it has to be a jpeg to get my sky. I don’t get my sky, anything else, like a png or tiff; I want to be able to adjust exposure in post.

I read it a few times but I’m afraid that I don’t understand the question…got an example?

Why does it has to be a jpg to get your Sky? While you say exposure has to be adjusted, it would be strongly recommended to use any file formats that support at least 16bit. Jpg should be the last file format to choose when the work is done.

Hi are you saving your tiff with alpha?

That there is an alpha channel (apparently including your BG) doesn’t mean the image has to be premultiplied by it (i.e. there needs to be no hole).
Photoshop is set in its way that alpha = empty, but it’s wrong.
This may help fix the way PS interprets the file.

p.s.: don’t touch exposure with 8/16 bit int files. Only use 16FP or 32FP imagery (i.e. EXRs).

and with this → https://www.exr-io.com you get better support for EXR FIles. Also free stuff.

I figured it out. I simply had to render without alpha. It has been so long since I did an animation, I forgot the basics. Thanks for the help.

These are stills for an animation, and I use after Effects. I do use EXR-IO in Photoshop. Thanks!

This may help fix the way PS interprets the file

I’ll try it thanks!

Yeah, I confused myself with that one. I had to render without alpha.

guessing you may work in Aftereffects it´s just a question, how to interpret the footage. while disable alpha, your files can of course contain an alpha. But this will be simply ignored then and your missing sky will appear as expected

edit: okay -I wrote it while you explained it already =)

Yep, the missing sky was the issue. Yes, I use After Effects. I do fundamental things, it is easy to use, and the subscription is affordable. I know it isn’t the best thing that I can use, but for me, it works well.

I figured it out using PNG, but what about EXR? In Vantage, there isn’t a non-alpha option. I know… it is a Vantage question; I’ll run over there and ask.

I dont have AE in front of me now, but from memory its something like right click on your clip > interpret footage > main > alpha > ignore
Basically you just tell after effects to ignore the alpha and your background will be back

Yes, footage interpretation is open in AE, no need for third party plugins.
Render WITH your alphas, you didn’t do anything wrong. :slight_smile: