Blackmagic Forum

Lower third transparency problem.

ATEM Mini Pro ISO
M1 Air
ATEM software 8.6.4
Current updated versions of all software.

PNG's created in photoshop with transparent background show as transparent perfectly in Resolve and FCP, even appear normal in the media pool of ATEM (software) but on the actual ATEM itself, it shows as a lower 3rd with a white background only.

One more thing, these work fine in a Tricaster as well.

Following the process outlined but must be overlooking something.

Separately just as an FYI - don't think its related:
The photoshop plugin for direct export wont work even though its in the right place. Photoshop and ATEM dont see each other.

have a look at this setting (pre multplied key - on or off)

I checked ......... Its just not working. The latest version of photoshop wont direct export as it cannot connect to the ATEM. Gone off the wheels a bit - guess I have more work to do. Sigh......

The ATEM switcher doesn't work with PNG images that have transparency. Bad decision by BMD if you ask me as it's the default for transparancy on the web. They should just support importing transparent PNGs and convert them on the fly.

In order to get transparancy to work on an ATEM switcher you need an image with an premultiplied key. This is what the BMD Photoshop plugin creates for you when you export to the ATEM directly. There are two videos by PhotoJoseph on YouTube (, ) that clearly explain the difference and shows you how to create an image with a premultiplied key manually.

For Photoshop the steps are:

1. Load the image with transparency into Photoshop.
2. Duplicate the layer
3. Create a new layer at the bottom and fill that entirely with a black color.
4. Select the bottom two layers (the transparent image and black fill layer) and press Ctrl-E (or Cmd-E on Mac).
5. Hold the Ctrl (Cmd on Mac) while clicking the thumbnail of the original layer with transparancy.
6. Select the newly created merged layer and from the menu select Layer -> Layer Mask -> Reveal Selection
7. Delete the layer with the original transparent image.
8. Save the image to a PNG with transparancy.
9 Load that image into the ATEM and make sure to enable the Pre Multiplied Key checkbox in the keyer.

PS: For some cases where you don't need semi transparency (e.g. shadows, gradients) a simple transparent PNG will work just fine as the black added in the above steps will not be visible.

I figured it out and I'm good now. Once I fixed the communications issue between Photoshop and my ATEM, its all good!

BMD: Keep an eye on this:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/6661561 ... &ref=notif

Hi guys,
Just signed up for this forum.
I'm having the same problem as the original poster, whenever I make a PNG in photoshop to use a lower third, the entire image is white. I tried the steps mentioned above and that just made the whole image black instead.

I'm not very good with photoshop, any idea what I might be doing wrong.

Kit I'm using:

ATEM Mini Pro ISO with latest update installed

Photoshop 23.4.1

Any help much appreciated. It's really frustrating because I downloaded a stock photo PNG to use a lower third and it worked, but none of the PNGs I've created myself using photoshop work. They just fill the entire frame.

eMilty wrote:The ATEM switcher doesn't work with PNG images that have transparency.

Why ? im using it daily , about 8 years ..

Roman Pytkin Pekarek wrote:

eMilty wrote:The ATEM switcher doesn't work with PNG images that have transparency.

Why ? im using it daily , about 8 years ..

It works fine if you use 100% transparent. But not when you want something semi-transparent.

It works fine if you use 100% transparent. But not when you want something semi-transparent.

I downloaded a PNG with transparency from the net, works fine in the ATEM, but if I edit the PNG in photoshop maintaining 100% transparency I get white instead of transparent. Same file, I add text to it in Apple Preview and save it, it works perfectly. It's definitely a problem with how PS is saving the file. Does anyone know why this is happening?

Simply but very annoying reason: The PNG importer of the ATEM Software is broken since ever.
It assumes that imported PNG has premultiplied key but PNG has ALWAYS linear (direct) key per definition.
It simply lacks the premultiply operation inside the internal conversion before upload to the ATEM.

So the only correctly working way is to import TGA with premuliplied alpha key channel.
You may use a tool like Pixelformer (https://www.qualibyte.com/pixelformer/) to do it the right way.

By the way it is the same with export: PNGs downloaded and exported by ATEM software has premultiplied key which is NOT compatible to the PNG specification so any other application will have issues with the key. Anyway you can reupload it correctly again