TGA not showing up in After Effects

1)Render on black background
2)Under Rendering dialog, click "filter background" .Click off the
other two 
options.
3)TGA should not be Premult,or compressed (at least that is what I am used 
too.)
4)TGA should be 32Bit (4 channels).

I found TGA files do not handle transparencies to well. I would use another 
file type like PNG or TIFF when geometry elements have transparencies.

alex

Another way of working the alpha with TGA files is to render to 24bit, but 
turn on Alpha Split. This will create another sequence of files that are 8bit 
gray scale.

If you said the sphere object was opaque, then I would guess that the max 
object has a Raytrace material with refraction, or you are using a Raytrace 
map in the Refraction slot.

Not all of Adobe's software handles 32bit TGA files the same. Photshop will 
display the alpha as a 4th channel, whereas it will take a PNG file and 
apply the alpha to the layer as a knockout. I've been using TGA's for years and

am not migrating to PNG, except when going to Photoshop.

I only use TIF when absolutely necessary. Too many variations, and with a 
pre-max 8 version (can't recall which one) there were issues in using tiff 
files.


TimW

Department of Visual Arts, University of Dayton
http://www.udayton.edu/
Dell Optiplex 260: P4 3.06Ghz, 1gb, W2K SP4, ATI Radeon 7000. Max: 3.1, 4.26, 
5.1 SP1, 6.0 SP1, 7.0/7.5 SP1, 8.0 

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your replies.  Here's my response:

Mitch: The alpha is pure black and I never use Premultiplied option.
Alex: Everything you suggested is what I usually do with exception of turning 
on 'filter background'.  Can't find that option in the Rendering 
dialogue.
Tim: Are you suggesting I use a separate 8 bit grayscale sequence as a matte 
in AE?  Also, regarding the appearance of the sphere, it did not have any 
reflection or refraction. I tried PNG and got the same result as what I 
reported with the Targas.  Still looking into what the problem might be.  Any 
more suggestions would be appreciated.  

Thanks!

Joel

Joel,

So you are saying you are setting the image loader to NOT premult in After 
Effects?  Wont' matter what you have it set to in Max at rendertime...if the 
alpha is pure black then AE will by default "multiply" your rgb by
that and 
you will get a black image.  Make sense?

-Mitch

Yes Alpha Split will allow you to use the sequence as a matte.

If you view the saved files in max with File > View Image File, and press the

Display Alpha Channel button, you can check for the presence of the 
correct alpha channel there. If it is all black, then is there another object in

the scene? If the alpha is correct, then its at the AE end. (Sorry, I'm no 
help then.)


TimW

Department of Visual Arts, University of Dayton
http://www.udayton.edu/
Dell Optiplex 260: P4 3.06Ghz, 1gb, W2K SP4, ATI Radeon 7000. Max: 3.1, 4.26, 
5.1 SP1, 6.0 SP1, 7.0/7.5 SP1, 8.0