Alpha Channel Support for videos in BigBox themes

[Light Sock]

Hello, I've been using LaunchBox and BigBox for many years now and I'm the creator of the Arcab theme. I'm currently taking on the development for the Slipstream theme which have been abandoned by it's creator. I think he's now working on creating his own front-end. At least that's what I understand from his latest messages. Sorry if that assumption is wrong. BTW I'll have the theme's source code on Github for anyone to contribute in the future.

One thing I always had issues with BigBox is that there's no way to use the alpha channel in videos. I wanted to make Slipstream more clean by integrating @viking's system videos. It's great because he shared all of the source AE and PS files. It was easy to remove the coloured background that ties the files to the Colorful theme which doesn't work in other themes. At least as a graphic designer, it would require something very specific to make a great match. I'm currently using his platform images pack which he kindly took the time to make available for us theme creators.

Unfortunately everything I tried didn't work in BigBox. I'll share what I tried if @Jason Carr you're open to integrate this. BTW, I'm willing to re-export all viking's work in 4K resolution, 1:1 aspect ratio and alpha channel. This would be a great opportunity for theme developers out there.

 

1. WEBM Support - https://www.webmproject.org/

Pros is that the file size is much smaller than any other formats. VP8 codec would be great because it requires less time to encode. VP9 would be the greater option since it outputs better quality videos with smaller size.

Tried both codecs in BigBox and the alpha channel is filled with white/black color. It's compatible with K-lite and VLC, so I think it wouldn't be complicated to integrate.

I tried both with K-lite and VLC getting same results.

I would vouch for this format since it's made by Google and it's open source. I don't believe this format will disappear anytime soon.

 

2. Quicktime Support

I tried it out of curiosity because it's what we use in the industry when dealing with alpha channel but this makes huge files since it's meant to be used primarily for production.

It does work in BigBox but the alpha channel is replaced with a matte black. In other words, everything under the video can't be seen aka doesn't work.

I tried both with K-lite and VLC getting same results.

Maybe there are codecs I'm not aware of that outputs smaller size files but I never tried it.

 

3. Filename Based Image Mask Support

If for whatever reason it's not possible to support alpha channel through above methods, perhaps performance issues, etc. The last thing I'm thinking of are image filename based image masks.

I tried it by making a mask of everything apart of the actual video layer, exported, added mask and voila! I can "technically" get the equivalent of a "transparent" video in BigBox.

Thing is that the image mask will be the same for any platforms which is problematic because not every platforms are the same. So it does work for one platform but, that's it.

A simple workaround would be hard coding in BB to check for a .png of the same name of the platform video. If present, it's getting automatically applied as an image mask respecting perfectly the alignment of the video for a perfect match.

This idea isn't the best because it would have fair amount of limitations compared to just supporting WEBM format. Plus it's adding more code to support in LB.

 

4. GIF

 

Will post soon the Slipstream theme.