FCPX export PNG with Alpha?

Normally, i do my frame based stuff in AE, where there's a handy way to make a PSD file from a parked frame.

But is there a way to export a single PNG (or TIFF, but not a ProRes 4444) frame to include transparency in FCPX?

Example: Did a rough edit with a director/artist. I'm keying character on green screen and garbage matting him. I want to give the director a PNG with Alpha so that he can do a color model with the keyed foreground image.

I've added Save Current Frame into the Share menu, but this just gives me a flattened image. So if I turn my background layer off, I just get black as a BG as opposed to transparent.

I know FCPX is pretty lame when it comes to image sequences, but is there really no alpha image support on export? It can use embedded alphas on import, so why not on export. I poked around Compressor, and could not find anything helpful there either under the Image Sequence settings.

Any thoughts?

Are you using 10.1.2? This is a bug I'm seeing. As a workaround put an empty title on the layer beneath the keyed image and export TIFF or whatever.

I am indeed using 10.1.2.

Thanks for the tip, but putting a title under the keyed element (in the primary storyline) does not seem to matter. I still get black. PNG, TIFF, DPX, PSD it doesn't matter. I used Alex 4D Adjustment Layer as the title layer. Does it matter which title you use and if the title layer is visible or not?

Use Basic Title. That's what I tested. An adjustment layer is empty, like a gap clip.

Thanks Tom, but that's not working (for me), either.

I put Basic Title (and deleted the word "Title") under the keyed layer and exported a PNG frame. Still black in the background. The Blank Title layer is "visible" and below the Keyed layer in the primary storyline.

The only way I can get this to work is to create a ProRes 4444 export of 1 frame (by setting an in/out on the same frame and then opening it in Photoshop and saving it off as a PSD or PNG file. Really tedious.

(Which brings up another rant: why oh why can't FCPX deal with image sequence imports like other NLE's or After Effects? Even Motion and Compressor know what image sequences are. But not FCPX which wants you to dump a huge folder of frames into a time line and then retime them to 1 frame each. I hate the way it clogs up the browser and makes it much messier than it needs to be...)

Not sure what you're doing but this works for me in PNG, TIFF, or PSD.

IUse feedback if you have a feature request.

Build image sequences into movie files in Compressor, Streamclip, or QT7.

Thanks for testing. I will monkey around with this for a while. Not sure what I'm doing "wrong"

(It seems like it would be handy to have a checkbox for whether to include alphas or not on still frame formats that support them. It seems sensible to have that on ProRes 4444 files as well. In AE, you have the preference to export ProRes4444 as RGB or RBGA as opposed to FCPX where transparency is always on if there's any transparency in the scene (and there's no pref for straight or premultiplied) I will make a suggestion.)

I agree you can bake image sequences as movies, but the point was more to have them stay live in FCPX so that XML can address the original elements for round tripping to other programs like Resolve or AE. That way they could be "optimized" for editing and still available for other uses...

Hi Paul,
Another possibility is to create a "Automator" script for your workaround…"The only way I can get this to work is to create a ProRes 4444 export of 1 frame (by setting an in/out on the same frame and then opening it in Photoshop and saving it off as a PSD or PNG file. Really tedious."
With Automator you can script this and assign a keyboard shortcut, then you just park the playhead on the frame and hit the shortcut or select the script from the sidebar.
Hope this helps, Greg

PaulG wrote:
I agree you can bake image sequences as movies, but the point was more to have them stay live in FCPX so that XML can address the original elements for round tripping to other programs like Resolve or AE. That way they could be "optimized" for editing and still available for other uses...

Hi PaulG,
It's a lot cleaner to have image sequences as movies if you want to round trip with other programs, since you'd be dealing with just one file instead of a whole folder of images. There's almost no downside, especially if the mov has the same frame size (like for a time-lapse that's very high resolution so you'll be able to do zooms, etc.) What other uses are you thinking of that can't be accomplished with a frame of a movie vs. the still?

I guess I'm thinking of using either image raw sequences (CR2) or cinema DNG sequences at full resolution. Edit them in FCPX, send them to Resolve or After Effects for final color correction and output. Resolve has its own raw interpreter and AE relies on Adobe Camera Raw. If I have additional animation/compositing it goes to AE, if its a straight edit, it goes to Resolve.

I know its a bit of a stretch now, because FCPX does not even deal with camera raw except to just display it as it doesn't have access to raw controls. It would be nice for them to use Aperture's engine to adjust camera raw setting, but alas, no. I agree movies are more portable, but you then have to give up all that raw goodness. ProRes4444 is 12bit, while Cinema DNG is 16bit.

I could see FCPX referencing the image sequences but using Proxy or Optimized for editing speed and then referencing back to the camera originals for the finish.