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Transparent videos

Chrome and Firefox support WebM videos with alpha channels. That means that on these browsers, you can embed videos with transparency.

If you are lucky enough to visit the website in one of those supported web browsers, check it out:

Creating a WebM video with Alpha channel​

In order to create a transparent video, you need at least version 1.4 of Remotion. Make sure to not set any background (use the checkerboard button to ensure your video is transparent). In order to render your videos transparent, you need to change 3 settings:

  • Render each frame as PNG.
  • Use the VP8 or VP9 codec
  • Use the yuva420p pixel format.

If you want to set these options and persist them, add this to your remotion.config.ts file (create it if you don't yet have one);

tsx
import { Config } from "@remotion/cli/config";
 
Config.setVideoImageFormat("png");
Config.setPixelFormat("yuva420p");
Config.setCodec("vp8");
tsx
import { Config } from "@remotion/cli/config";
 
Config.setVideoImageFormat("png");
Config.setPixelFormat("yuva420p");
Config.setCodec("vp8");

You can also set the settings on the command line:

bash
--image-format=png --pixel-format=yuva420p --codec=vp8
bash
--image-format=png --pixel-format=yuva420p --codec=vp8

Creating a ProRes video with Alpha channels​

If you want to export a transparent video for use in another video editing program, Apple ProRes is a more suitable option. ProRes is supported by Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere and Davinci Resolve.

Supported since v2.1.7, you can set the codec to prores and choose a ProRes profile with alpha support: Either: 4444 or hq. The pixel format must be yuva444p10le.

tsx
import { Config } from "@remotion/cli/config";
 
Config.setVideoImageFormat("png");
Config.setPixelFormat("yuva444p10le");
Config.setCodec("prores");
Config.setProResProfile("4444");
tsx
import { Config } from "@remotion/cli/config";
 
Config.setVideoImageFormat("png");
Config.setPixelFormat("yuva444p10le");
Config.setCodec("prores");
Config.setProResProfile("4444");

You can also set the settings on the command line:

bash
--image-format=png --pixel-format=yuva444p10le --codec=prores --prores-profile=4444
bash
--image-format=png --pixel-format=yuva444p10le --codec=prores --prores-profile=4444

Enabling transparency when using <OffthreadVideo>​

By default, the <OffthreadVideo> does not add an alpha layer during export.
Add the transparent prop to flag that the video has an alpha channel.
This slightly reduces the performance of the render.

Creating a fallback version​

Given the poor browser support, consider making two versions of a video, one with alpha channel, and an opaque video as a fallback. You can achieve this in Remotion using standard React props:

tsx
const MyVideo: React.FC<{
  transparent: boolean;
}> = ({transparent}) => {
  return (
    <div style={{backgroundColor: transparent ? undefined : 'white', flex: 1}}>
      {/* Omit opaque background based on `transparent` prop */}
    </div>
  )
}
tsx
const MyVideo: React.FC<{
  transparent: boolean;
}> = ({transparent}) => {
  return (
    <div style={{backgroundColor: transparent ? undefined : 'white', flex: 1}}>
      {/* Omit opaque background based on `transparent` prop */}
    </div>
  )
}

It's a good practice to set a default when defining the composition:

tsx
<Composition
  id="my-video"
  component={MyVideo}
  width={1920}
  height={1080}
  fps={30}
  durationInFrames={150}
  defaultProps={{
    transparent: true,
  }}
/>;
tsx
<Composition
  id="my-video"
  component={MyVideo}
  width={1920}
  height={1080}
  fps={30}
  durationInFrames={150}
  defaultProps={{
    transparent: true,
  }}
/>;

You can then have separate render commands in your package.json:

json
"scripts": {
  "render": "remotion render my-video video.mp4",
  "render-transparent": "remotion render --image-format=png --pixel-format=yuva420p --codec=vp8 my-video video-transparent.webm"
}
json
"scripts": {
  "render": "remotion render my-video video.mp4",
  "render-transparent": "remotion render --image-format=png --pixel-format=yuva420p --codec=vp8 my-video video-transparent.webm"
}

Now you can render two variants of the same video and serve a different one based on browser support. You can use APIs like <source> or the canplay event to determine programmatically if a browser is able to play a video.

See also​