Graphics

My problems with video materials are many.

1. I apply a video material to a quad and the alpha shows as black in both Designer and Sequencer. Is it actually alpha? Can't tell. If I group it with a Layer Object to try to force the transparency display, I can't see anything.

2. Same quad, I can't figure out a way to scrub. Hunted on the forums and manual to no avail. Tried adding to an Animation Controller with a dummy keyframe but no good. I know you can add the material to the Scene Director directly with Autorun set to Off and that'll work, but then I'm back unable to see transparency again.

3. Like in 2, a Video Material added directly to the Scene Director timeline shows no alpha, just black, but I can at least scrub playback. And I'm not sure how to place something behind it to see if it's transparent or not.

4. Materials (video and still) in the Materials Editor don't show anything in the RGB and Alpha chips. Both just have a gray "(none)" in the little window. Videos have gone through Incoder. Stills can be any file type, with alpha or without.

Figure I must be doing something wrong at a fundamental level. Feel like this worked in training but a lot's happened since then.

Here is my work flow. 1-incoder to "video" folder inside project. 2-material library-New Video, point to video in video folder. 3-Edit material/video to play once/auto start/loop. 4-if video isnt autostart, drag video material to scene director at place where you want it to start. Scrubbing, I open up the scene director where the video is placed, not the animation controller. Without standing in the room to watch I can't see what could be the problem. Sorry if this doesn't help.
#XPression

1. Make sure there is actually an alpha channel in the video. Also inside the video shader setting, I suggest using unshaped and not pre-multiplied in case you have premultiplied with a black background in whatever you render your video.

2. To scrub through a video it must be added to the Scene Director.

3. To place something behind it to test put something on another layer on the framebuffer that is on a lower level like -1 but to me, it doesn't sound like this is the issue.

4. The RGB values for videos you usually just want as default because otherwise, it will colour the video.

#XPression

Problem solved. One of my coworkers (whose punishment shall be swift and brutal) changed the setting on the Incoder to RGB only.

But while we're on the subject, can a video added directly to a scene director have animation applied to it? Or must it be applied to an object and then keyframes added to an Animation Controller for that object? I ask in general and for an issue where we have two videos in a Scene Director: Track 3 and Track 1. Track 3 plays (alpha to full), a date pops up on Track 2, then Track 3 outro plays (alpha to full to alpha). However, Track 1 seems to stick around instead of going away at the end of its play. Tried messing with Take Offline When Done, alpha keyframes, stagger animation controlling alpha (that I couldn't add to the quad's dedicated track), and various Events (which I guess are global to the Scene Director). Does a video need to end on alpha to not stay visible at the end of its runtime?
#XPression

Hey, you can either keyframe it or if you don't need a fade or dissolve type effect you can use visual logic to trigger the texture to change within the same object instead of changing objects. This removes this issue and is also more efficient for the engine as well.

#XPression