How to create a video with a transparent background

[Martin Bergwerf]

If you use a Mix Shader, you can make the unlit lightbulbs any color and material you like (doesn’t have to be an Emission Shader):

You can use the cat, or an Empty at the location of the cat as the Focal Point:

[Marie Delagrave]

I will try that for sure! Thanks! But now, I need a sandwich! 😆 (I don’t know where you are but for me, it’s lunch time.)

[Marie Delagrave]

Hum… I already had the focus on the cat. Should I change then the aperture??? 

[Martin Bergwerf]

Probably; the F-Stop makes a huge difference to how much is out of focus. Also, if the cat is the Focus Point, that means the cat’s Origin. an Empty can be placed easier to where the focus should be.

[Marie Delagrave]

(Sandwich eaten) I put an Empty but what helped the most is changing the aperture (from 2.8 to 13).

[Marie Delagrave]

May I ask… Do you know how I can slow down the movement of the camera (which follows a spiral) and then freeze it for a certain amount of time?

[Martin Bergwerf]

That would probably be easiest done in the Graph Editor, or even just in the Dope Sheet (moving Keyframes further apart at certain times).

Handy Shortcut: E moves Keyframes at the right side of the 2D Cursor (in those Editors).

[Marie Delagrave]

Dope Sheet? (sigh) …That’s Chinese for me. 😢

[Martin Bergwerf]

You can select it here:

It shows the Keyframes, but not all the curves/interpolations of the Graph Editor. It’s very sinmilar to the Timeline, but has a little bit more information.

[Marie Delagrave]

I’ll try that.

[Martin Bergwerf]

And just in case I will be away for today, here is sort of how I separated Foreground and Background; I used 2 Scenes, Foreground (Christmas Cat and Lights, for instance) has Transparent checked:

The other Scene (start with Full Copy, to the right of the Scene name) has Transparent un-checked and all foreground elements (or the Collections that they are in) set to Hold Out (Filter if that doesn’t show up in the Outliner):

I hope that is sort of clear 😉

[Marie Delagrave]

I will study that with attention. THANK YOU!

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