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Alpha Channels


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I've been reading over the many questions and comments regarding the, let's say, unusual method that Affinity has for creating and using alpha channels and the difficulties in saving out files with "correct" alpha channels to be read in other applications. And although there are several workaround, this all seems somewhat problematic given the otherwise robust nature of this software. So the question to the programmers is this. Is there a reason that your alpha cannot be standardized with other applications, and if not is there a reason this is not being done, and if no when do you think we might see it. thanx otherwise for an excellent alternative to adobe.

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Hi dennisqdw,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

Can you be more specific please? Which formats are giving you trouble? Are you able to attach some sample files (afdesign, afphoto files) that when exported to those formats are causing trouble in other apps? To which third party apps are you referring in particular?

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Thanx for the quick response. As you no doubt know there are already several threads in this forum regarding this problem. But let me outline several quick examples.

1. create a teapot in 3ds Max, render and save as numerous file formats (details will follow).

2. if saved as an exr file, and opened in affinity, and then exported again as an exr, the alpha channel then appears completely white in Max and completely black in photoshop. So it's been lost, just from the simple process of opening the file and then resaving it.

3. if saved as a tga file the alpha channel isn't even there in Affinity (and it also imposes a color space, not sure why)

4. if saved as a tif file and opened in affinity the background is cut out to "clear" matching the alpha channel, which although not exactly my first choice, is at least consistent with some applications (although not Photoshop -if the original file is opened in Photoshop, the background is black with a separate alpha channel.) And if the file loaded in Affinity is resaved as a tif and opened in Photoshop the background is clear also, so at least they match. And it reads correctly back in Max.

5. If the tif file is exported from Affinity as a psd file, then it opens as anticipated in photoshop (no alpha channel by name but there is transparency of the background), but if opened in Max, there is no alpha channel nor transparency, the teapot is now on a white background instead of black.

 

I could probably go on endlessly with different combinations and inconsistencies, but you get the idea. In all of these cases, there are workarounds which involve extra steps, but I'm not really sure why I have to do these extra steps in the first place. Any thoughts on this?

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Hi dennisqdw,

Sorry the delay getting back to you. Some of the issues with other apps were already logged and are being looked at. There's plenty of apps out there and not all honour the format's specs which causes problems when we try to import those files. It's also possible we may be doing something wrong. Without specific examples/files there isn't much we can do.

Regarding 3D Studio Max specifically and excluding the TGA format (for which there's no plans to add alpha channel support) if you don't mind providing simple sample files (TIFF, EXR) showing these issues i will log them along with the files for the dev team to take a look (currently i don't have access to 3D Studio Max here).

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Sorry for the delay at my end, been busy with work. I'm not sure why there's no support for targa, it's quite popular in my world at least. But I can work around it. I'm including 3 files referenced above, and the names of the files should explain things. But all you really need is the max rendered exr file and you can recreate the problems. The most peculiar thing is that simply resaving (exporting) the exr file loses the alpha channel, even when reopened in Affinity. I don't know anything about software writing, but this definitely seems odd to me. Thanx for looking into this and the other issues you mention above. I mainly want to use your app for exr files, since the last version of photoshop that one could buy doesn't handle them well. I also use photoline which does, but I don't like the interface, so I'm hoping to use yours once this problem gets resolved.

exr opened in affinity and saved as psd looks wrong when opened in max.psd

simply opened in affinity and reexported alpha not correct.exr

Original rendered from max alpha correct.exr

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