How to export after effects with transparent background

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Make an After Effects Transparent Background

In any projects at some point you will need to create a simple video clip or a motion graphics animation with a transparent background so I figured it would be useful to share with a tutorial my best tips on How do I make the background transparent in after effects.

First in order to make a transparent background on your After Effects project or any video you need to have an alpha channel.

My simple definition of alpha channel, a colored image has 3 standard channels red,green,blue, the 4th channel is the alpha which allows you to control the opacity or transparency.

If you are interested in a detailed definition of a what is an alpha channel I got one from techopedia.com below:
The alpha channel is a color component that represents the degree of transparency (or opacity) of a color (i.e., the red, green and blue channels). It is used to determine how a pixel is rendered when blended with another.

The alpha channel controls the transparency or opacity of a color. Its value can be represented as a real value, a percentage, or an integer: full transparency is 0.0, 0% or 0, whereas full opacity is 1.0, 100% or 255, respectively.

When a color (source) is blended with another color (background), e.g., when an image is overlaid onto another image, the alpha value of the source color is used to determine the resulting color. If the alpha value is opaque, the source color overwrites the destination color; if transparent, the source color is invisible, allowing the background color to show through. If the value is in between, the resulting color has a varying degree of transparency/opacity, which creates a translucent effect.

The alpha channel is used primarily in alpha blending and alpha compositing.

How to render an After Effects composition with an alpha channel and transparent background?

Exporting ,rendering a video with an alpha channel is actually very straight forward just follow these simple steps below.

Step 1 – Make sure your After Effects Composition has a transparent background
At the bottom of your composition panel on the left of active camera there is a little icon checker box icon

Step 2 – Add your composition to the Render Queue Window
Make sure the composition is open or selected on the project window
Click on Composition > Add to Render Queue
Shortcut: Control+Command+M (MAC) or Ctrl+M  (PC)

Step 3 – Edit the Output Module Options
Located on the bottom left of you render queue window
– Click on LossLess
– Next to Format click on the drop down and select Quicktime

Video Output
– First click Format Options
– “Video Codec:” drop down should be Animation
– Click OK
– Next to “Channels:” on the drop down Select RGB+ALPHA
– Click OK

Step 4 – Rendering
Click the button Render

Step 5 – Verify your After Effects transparent background video
Once your video is rendered, import the video in After Effects or Premiere and add something behind the video to make sure the background is transparent and therefore has the alpha channel included.

Now you can also watch this video below that explain well on how to get a transparent background in after effects.

Which format/extension support and include an alpha channel?

Base on my research I found a couple of video and image format that include an alpha channel, I organized it in 2 categories
– Video Format (One single File)
– Image Files Sequence (Multiple Images that make a video)

You know other method to get a transparent background and export an alpha channel in After Effects? Please share it on the comment area below.

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16 Comments

1. Jeanine 02/13/2019 at 12:41 am - Reply

   this didn’t work for me… I rendered out a png sequence instead.

2. Anyla 08/21/2019 at 2:13 pm - Reply

   How to reduce the size of .mov after rendering?

   • MotionIsland 08/21/2019 at 2:26 pm - Reply

     Go to Adobe Media Encoder and convert the mov file to mp4. The only issue is mp4 do not retain alpha channel. Thanks!

3. Breanna 06/13/2020 at 7:46 pm - Reply

   Is there a way to reduce the size of the .MOV while still retaining the alpha channel? Trying to make them small enough to overlay onto a photo from my phone. Thanks!

   • MotionIsland 06/14/2020 at 3:11 pm - Reply

     Hi Breanna,

     Maybe reduce the FPS (frame per second) and see how it looks. You can also try to reduce your video size and see if it works.

     Thanks

     • Breanna 07/21/2020 at 3:01 pm - Reply

       Unfortunately, that did not work for me. Are you available to consult if I email you a file to see if you’re able to help?

       • MotionIsland 07/22/2020 at 8:53 pm - Reply

         Apologies for the delay actually quite busy at the moment, did you try to check youtube to see if you can find a tutorial?

         • Breanna 07/24/2020 at 9:41 am

           No worries, I completely understand. Yes, I did & I feel like I’ve tried everything so far but I’ll keep on working at it Thank you!

   • Ameeerr 11/06/2020 at 6:14 am - Reply

     You can render the GIF as a transparent instead of .MOV

4. Ansis 11/29/2020 at 10:51 pm - Reply

   should include WebM codec as well, has alpha and is rather lightweight, good for OBS logos and such

   • MotionIsland 11/29/2020 at 11:05 pm - Reply

5. You can use convertio or something similar to convert to WebM which will retain the quality of the initial video at a much smaller file size.

   also my background isn’t coming out as transparent too! I’ve followed the intructions to the T. I can’t understand why, could it be because I have a solid background in the actual compositon?

6. Ah thank you this worked. After trying so many times. I didn’t select the composition on the project menu before exporting so it kept showing the black background.

   • MotionIsland 04/04/2021 at 10:16 pm - Reply

     Awesome! thanks for sharing the issue you had. All my best!

7. Kelsey 04/19/2021 at 12:28 pm - Reply

   I’m having trouble with the same issue, it’s exporting with a black background. Can you elaborate on ‘selecting the composition on the project menu’?

   • MotionIsland 07/16/2021 at 11:03 pm - Reply

     Hi Kelsey, Please check the step 2 in the tutorial above, select your composition then add to render queue. Make sure you also turn on RGB + Alpha Channel. Thank you!

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