Implicit Separate Alpha

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Implicit Separate Alpha

The file naming convention for implicit alpha channels is controlled from the Separate-alpha suffix preference in the IMAGE INPUT section of preferences.

With the default setting of "_alpha.png", an RGB file name of "myseq042.bmp" is converted to an alpha name of "myseq_alpha042.png" If that alpha file exists, it is read and used as the alpha channel. This process occurs for each frame in the sequence, though there should be a separate alpha file, or not, identically for each frame.

If there is a dot before the frame number, it is moved as well, ie "shot37.0100.tif" becomes "shot37_alpha.0100.tif" (Though filenames with two dots are common, we recommend against it, since it can cause problems when operating-system dialogs attempt to hide the extension.)

If the separate-alpha preference does not contain an extension, then the extension of the original RGB file is used. For example, with a preference of "Alpha" then "scene2B_0029.bmp" becomes "scene2B_Alpha0029.bmp" and "lastshot1023.jpg" becomes "lastshotAlpha1023.jpg". This is generally not a good idea, as described in the next section.

Note that if the preference is cleared (empty), then SynthEyes won't look for any implicit alpha channel files at all.

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