Please add Transparent Background Option to MOV File Format (VS-3555)

  • Yup, you should probably add the .mov Alpha channel version soon.  My work around is to just animate some simple letters and let Adobe animate output this for me, and it's practically a comp for AE at that point.   In going that far that far, I am realizing that I probably won't need my subscription here much longer. 

  • This is a Gee I gotta have it feature.


    Is there any plan to output Scribes with transparent backgrounds to overlay over other videos?


    I can find the steps online to output a PNG sequence and process through several other programs to finally import as an overlay layer in Camtasia.


    That's like me having to create Headlines in AI because VideoScribe doesn't do kerning. Or having a calculator on my desk because my analysis software couldn't be bothered to build in a needed solution.


    Had a Pro subscription for several years. Some features are really needed and essential. Like transparent overlay background Scribes

  • I haven't used VideoScribe for a few years, but David Price's request on my old thread arrived in my inbox, and he's asking about outputting Scribes with transparent backgrounds to Camtasia.


    The last video on this page was created in Camtasia 2.X for Mac (two versions ago) and VideoScribe 2.X. The Camtasia timeline has four or five active video layers, two of which were created in VideoScribe. The Scribes were created with green backgrounds, then the Camtasia "Remove Color" command made the background transparent. The most video layers appear around time 1:00.


    Direct link to the video (scroll down to the last video on the page)

  • Thanks very much for your suggestion. I'll try it out!


    Kind regards,


    David



  • Ok guys.... it has been YEARS we have been asking for this option..... What's the hold up? I specifically don't use Videoscribe for most of my projects for this reason alone.... if you are not going to add this feature then just admit it.


    I love the product, but not having a transparent background renders it useless in projects with non-white backgrounds (i.e. 99% of them).


    Thanks again.... I believe I'm one of the first subscribers you ever had.


    Rick


  • We still have PNG Sequence as an option for exporting your project with a transparent  background and adding a .mov option is not something that's on our roadmap at this time. Doesn't mean it will never happen, just means it not in the list of things we are working on and have lined up to start. 

    While it's been years the post only have 5 votes (like the original idea), I'll let the product team know it's being discussed again so they can re-consider it. 

  • I'm not sure it's safe to use the number of votes on ideas suggested by the community as a justification!

    A quick scan of the almost 800 posts in the feature requests forum reveals that over the last five years only 23 community requests/suggestions have been implemented. However, of those, 13 had 5 or less votes (but were implemented nonetheless) and 3 had zero votes (but were implemented nonetheless). That's 70% of implemented suggestions coming from posts with between 0 and 5 votes. Only 4 implemented suggestions had votes in double figures.

    I stress this was a quick count up so my figures might be inaccurate, and it might be the case that you DO implement much more but just fail to tag the posts as 'implemented'. However, there are a number of requests that have double figure votes but have not been addressed or been responded to. That does kind of make me lean towards the thought that your roadmap for development isn't really based much on community suggestions. 


    In my case, the png export, whilst not complicated, just added another layer into my workflow that I could do without, and this is one reason why I stopped offering videoscribe style animations to my clients. 

  • Am I correct that the difference between importing a sequence of PNGs and importing an MOV with an alpha channel is simply choosing "import image sequence>[file name]" instead of "import video>[file name]" in most professional level video editing programs?

    Also I think a PNG sequence is lossless whereas MOV video is lossy, which makes PNG preferable?

    My (admittedly limited) research suggests that PNG sequence will provide better quality with the same effort, compared to MOV with alpha channel. Maybe there is a significantly larger use of disk space.
  • Ian, of course there is more too what get's developed than just the number of votes, it's one of the things we consider and certainly helps push it up the agenda but does not guarantee things.  We'll look at how easily coded the idea is, how well it fits into the product, what we have planned ourselves and a whole host of other stuff is taken into consideration. 

  • Of course, Barry, I totally agree - what I'm saying is there's seemingly little correlation between the suggestions put forward by the community and the product roadmap so it's unsafe to use those numbers as an argument against adopting a suggestion. If you told us it was too difficult to implement, or there is a licencing/cost implication, or it would mess something else up, or it simply wouldn't work, that would be more credible.


    To respond to Mike's point about png being better - yes it is. However, in the production process, when I am shooting work in progress around a team of people the large number of files and the potentially astronomical file sizes make it cumbersome. A relatively small mov is much easier. For the finished product, yes of course, png is far superior.

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