Help the Newbie

Hi all -- looking for some help with my first download from pond5.

I downloaded 555443 - Wipe Hockey Puck Fireball

The preview shows what appears to be a transparent background.

I had to convert the .mov file to mp2 to use in Premiere Elements. When I put the file in my timeline, the background is solid black.

I was able to fade the opacity to make it work, but I'm wondering if converting the file changed the background - or if I misread what I saw in the preview -- or if I'm not using the wipe properly

.

Could you please open the file with Quicktime, then pres Ctrl-I and read the codec? What is the codec? I suppose it is animation as this is one of the very few to support alpha channel.
The conversion process surely destroyed the alpha channel. Can't you use directly the .mov file into PE?

What version of PE are you using?

According to this Adobe page http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/862/cpsid_86248.html Premiere Elements supports import of mov files.

Christian.

Icersman,

If you go to the clip's page and look for the lower case 'i' next to the price.... then mouse over it.... you will see a pop-up window showing the clip info.... in there is the codec of the clip. That clip looks to be animation.... which can carry an alpha channel but not necessarily by default.... however, by looking at the Pond5 flash preview and seeing the checkerboard you can confirm that the Pond5 encoder saw an alpha and processed it.... thus the checkerboard image to show you the transparency data in the alpha channel.

Also... as you saw, the producer noted such in the file description.

Now,.... I believe you rendered the clip to a 'delivery codec' that doesn't carry an alpha channel in its format. As Christian mentioned in the above post, you need to do your editing with the original clip's format codec (animation in this case) that carries the alpha.... composite and edit it with your other footage in their native codecs.... and then when done, if you need to deliver your final piece in mp2.... render your master timeline in that codec out of your non-linear editor.

I suspect that is your workflow.... and what you are looking to achieve ?

hope that helps some....

Thanks for the info. I had been using Premiere Elements 4.0; however, it did not have the codec for .mov files.

I want to have the puck cross the screen on top of our team graphic (.jpg)

I have just installed the complete Adobe CS5 package today. I'll give it a try with the original .mov file in Elements to see if the background is transparent.

Also...

Be aware that upon import of the clip into any NLE or compositing app... the app "may" mis-interpret it.... and not see the alpha that is embedded in the clip.

Select the clip in your project bin.... then look for a menu command of 'Interpret Clip"... or "Interpret Footage".... in this menu you can determine how the app sees the clip as well as do other things to the clip.... ie: re-conform the time-base of the clip from its original fps to something you define. For example... a native 24 fps clip that you want to play at 29.97 in your timeline.... naturally the clip will play back a bit faster since it has a faster time base of fps.

hope that helps .....

"did not have the codec for .mov files"
I never used PE but this issue looks a bit strange as this is one of the most, or perhaps the most, popular containers.

Open Quicktime>Edit>Preferences>Advanced Tab and check "Enable encoding using legacy codecs"