After Effects is a powerful tool for creating animations and graphics. Often, you'll create an effect and use it in another video editor. It's only natural to learn how to export After Effects with transparent backgrounds. Your video files will work together seamlessly.
In this tutorial, you'll learn how to make a video transparent in After Effects. That way, you can overlay your effects in other apps and video projects. Let's jump in.
Why use a transparent background in After Effects?
So why is it useful to export with a transparent background from After Effects? Consider what After Effects is really used for. It’s not a full-featured video editor like Premiere Pro. Instead, it’s a powerful tool that you use to create effects and motion graphics.
Odds are, you’ll want to use these effects in other video projects. With a transparent background, only the graphics or effects themselves will be visible. You can overlay them on top of video clips, still images, and more.
Now, let’s learn how to export from After Effects with transparent background designs in place! It only takes a few quick steps.
How to make a video transparent in After Effects (step by step)
Making transparent backgrounds in After Effects is simple. It consists of two key activities. First, you’ll add a transparent background to a project. Then, you’ll render (save and export) that project with the transparent background in place. Let’s look at how.
1. Apply an After Effects transparent background
Go ahead and open Adobe After Effects. There are many cases where it’s useful to add a transparent background. Knowing how to make a video transparent involves understanding exactly what you’re doing.
Look at the titles below. I’ve created them in After Effects, and I want to use them in a video that I’m editing.
Notice that these are purple letters on a black canvas. It appears to be a blank background—and it is! But if I exported the effect like this, the black background would be rendered too.
And when I added it to another project, it would obscure other videos beneath. What is needed here is a transparent background. In other words, I want to render only the text itself.
To see how to make the video transparent, find the toolbar immediately below the effect preview. On it, find the button that looks like a checkerboard. It’s labeled Toggle Transparency Grid. Go ahead and click on it.
The black background vanishes and is replaced with a checkered effect. That’s how to make a video transparent in After Effects.
2. Add a project to the render queue
We’ve added a transparent background to an After Effects file. But remember the goal: getting this transparent effect ready to use in a video editor. This starts by adding the project to the After Effects Render Queue, which controls video exports.
With your effect selected, go to the File dropdown and click on it. Hover over the Export field, and from the list of options, click Add to Render Queue.
3. Refine the export settings for a transparent background
At the bottom of your After Effects screen, you’ll see your composition added to the Render Queue. You’re almost done! But to export from After Effects with a transparent background, you still have some changes to make. A certain set of export settings is required to do this successfully.
Find the Output Model group. It defaults to an H.264 render setting. This is normally a good option, but it won’t work to export transparent backgrounds in After Effects. Let’s add the proper settings.
Click on the dropdown arrow just to the right of Output Module. From it, choose Lossless. With it applied, click Lossless, next to Output Module.
The Output Module Settings will open. Here, you have three changes to make. At the top, from the Format dropdown, select QuickTime as the format. This is critical: it’s the only format that After Effects can export that will support transparent backgrounds.
Next, click Format Options. The QuickTime Options panel will launch. Open the Video Codec dropdown, and be sure that Animation is selected. Choose it, and then click OK. Finally, back on the Output Module Settings, click the Channels dropdown. The option you need here is RGB + Alpha. Click to select it. Finally, click OK.
4. Render and preview a transparent background in After Effects
It’s time to see how to export from After Effects with transparent background effects. Back on the Render Queue, click Render in the upper right. After Effects will start exporting your video. Depending on the length and complexity of your project, this may take a few minutes.
When you’re finished, you’re all set! You’ll have a .mov format transparent background video ready to use. Take a look at the preview below. I’ve opened the effect we just exported in Adobe Premiere Pro.
Notice how it smoothly overlays the video footage beneath, which you can download here. As you can see, that’s all thanks to the transparent background. The effects themselves are visible, but the background is invisible.
You just learned how to change a background color to transparent in After Effects. It’s a crucial skill to help you make the most of After Effects as a video editor.
You just learned how to export from After Effects with transparent backgrounds
Now, you know how to work with transparent backgrounds in After Effects. This gives you the freedom to work between multiple apps and multiple video files.
It's your turn to practice how to make a video transparent in After Effects. Start with an After Effects project and use these steps to create a transparent background. Then, combine it with another project. You're sure to love the results!
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