Alpha Channels

- The Alpha Channel is often considered to be the fourth component of the RGB colour mode (RGBA)
- The Alpha channel, just as the RGB components do, has a value between 0 and 255
- The value of an Alpha channel refers to it’s transparency
- 0 (Black)= Transparent areas
- 255 (White)= Opaque areas

Transparent Alpha Channel

Mattes
- Mattes are used to combine two or more elements into a single, final image.
- A matte masks certain areas of an image and controls which areas are exposed.
- Once a mask has been made, another image can be applied to the masked area, this is called KEYING
- A STATIC MATTE is created when the shape of the mask does not change from frame to frame
- A TRAVELLING MATTE uses an animated mask

Types of Mattes

LUMA KEY- this technique produces an Alpha channel using the brightness in an image without taking
colour information into consideration.

CHROMA KEY- Chroma components represent the colour information and will create an Alpha from
specific colours or colour range (e.g. green screen).

A MASK SHAPE can be used to key an image, here the solid shape can be used to mask an area.
 Working with Alpha Channels
The following file formats support Alpha Channels:
PNG PSD TIFF TGA PXR
(For more information on File Formats see ‘FILE_FORMATS.PDF’)

NOTE: When working with Alpha channels in Photo-

shop, convert all ‘background’ into layers by
double-clicking on the image in the layers palette.

This is how this particular alpha channel appears in

Photoshop.

Notice the black (transparent) area appears to be a

pinky-red when overlaid with the other layers. This is
just to enable you to clearly see the transparent areas.

To manually remove or add to areas of the mask, use a

greyscale brush or fill.
 Creating Alpha Channels

There are many ways of produc-

ing an Alpha channel, they are
all useful in different ways.

Here are a few techniques:

1
A basic Alpha channel can be created in Photoshop by
using the drop down menu in the Channels palette.

This will create a black (transparent) channel. If you were then to add grey and white
shapes to the channel these will act as semi-transparent and opaque mattes.

2 An alpha Channel can also be created in Photoshop by duplicating one of the RGB channels.
This will produce a greyscale version of the channel and will use the LUMA MATTE of the image.

Dr
ag

3
To make an Alpha channel from a selection, select the desired area of
the image and click on this icon in the Channels palette.

NOTE: This will create a solid, crisp matte with an area of 100% transpar-
ency and an area 0% transparency.
 4 After Effects has a feature which enables any shape to be used to key any
image.

In this example I have used a .swf vector graphic created in flash

as a Mask Shape to Key a QT movie.

Once on the timeline, I can set the QT movie to Alpha Matte the ‘Bubble.swf’

This will hide the bubble layer but use it as a mask for the QT movie

This is the result...

NOTE: The mask can be created in any piece of sofware which can save in a file format which
preseves the tranparency of layers e.g. Photoshop .psd, .tiff...