Compositing & Transparency problems in post -

Hello all,

I’m doing some imaging for a web site that i hope to share with you all soon, but i’m having some problems with compositing and getting the transparency right.

To explain:
this is how the image looks in the MAX_Video Frame Buffer:
(i’m using some lens effects which is why i’m not using the Vray FB)

Perfect. (at least how i want it to look)

The Alpha channel, view in the Max FB - also perfect.

when i load the saved image (as either 8 bit .png, 8 bit .tif or 32 bit .exr) into a comping package, (i’ve tried Photoshop, After Effects 7 and Combustion) the alpha channel is displayed like this which is wrong:

Wrong Alpha:

In Combustion:

All the volume light has disappeared!

Ultimately I need to output an image in .png format to keep the file sizes down, as it is in the MaxFB - i.e. those colours, and with that alpha. I don’t know why this is happening, or why programs are interpreting the objects (not the volume light) alpha as a grey-scale image, when it should clearly be solid white…

Any help will be most appreciated. I’ll admit that i’m having problems because i don’t really know too much about compositing and render elements, but in this case, i’m only trying to use an alpha, embedded in a file…

this is the coverage channel in case this helps:

Max 8.3 + Vray 1.5 RC2…

Save your passes to a format without alpha channel. You already have your alpha channel in a separate file as the RGB channel there; if you also have the image format with alpha, that means that the alpha would be multiplied twice or something like that. In any case, use a pure RGB only format for the images, without alpha in them.

Best regards,
Vlado