video transparency

[kuroi]

Within the Renpy engine, is it possible to create a video that includes transparency?

For example, if I didn't know ahead of time what background would need to show up against an animation of a character, could I use a video for the animation and still have the area around the character be transparent or would I have to use a series of PNGs for this?

[Tachyglossus]

Since (correct me if I am wrong, but I read this in several other posts) animated GIF's do not work in Ren'Py, I do not see how any other video could be made 'transparent' in places. Flash maybe, but I don't think Ren'Py and Flash talk to each other either (could someone clarify this?).

Your best bet would be to use a series of png files to make an animation with a transparencies.

[kuroi]

I wonder if it would work to use the AlphaMask function with movie files as it's input using the easy_displayable... I bet this will explode when I try it...

init:
image movie = Movie(size=(352, 240))
image movie_mask = Movie(size=(352, 240))

image transparent_movie = im.AlphaMask(easy_displayable (movie, none=False), easy_displayable (movie_mask, none=False))

[PyTom]

I don't know of any movie format that supports transparency, at least that ffmpeg supports.

[luminarious]

I can imagine a way of doing it using chroma key, basically replacing certain solid coloured areas with the background. But that involves some very special programming, I'm sure.

PNG sequence is a lot easier right now.