# After Effects question - PLEASE?!?

**URL:** <https://forum.kirupa.com/t/after-effects-question-please/262515>\
**Category:** random\
**Created:** [June 6, 2008, 4:03pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/after-effects-question-please/262515 "2008-06-06T16:03:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BoonDock](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/boondock/32/1188_2.png) [@BoonDock](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/BoonDock)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 4:03pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/after-effects-question-please/262515/1 "2008-06-06T16:03:23Z")

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Ok, so I’m no big expert in After Effects by any means - just dabbled here and there. Know enough to be dangerous I guess…

My question is this … how do I drop out a white background in a .avi file?

Can you even do it in After Effects? I’ve tried searching through Google to find something - but I am coming up short.

Or is there a different program I need to get in order to do this?

Thanks!

Boon.

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**Author:** ![999](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/9/c5a1d2/32.png) [@999](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/999)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 4:41pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/after-effects-question-please/262515/2 "2008-06-06T16:41:43Z")

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Various ways but the easiest would probably be to add effect/keying/color key

Click the eyedropper then click the white on your composition.

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**Author:** ![sekasi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f8ce5/32.png) [@sekasi](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/sekasi)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 5:00pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/after-effects-question-please/262515/3 "2008-06-06T17:00:47Z")

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Drop the avi onto the new comp button (its in the library window, just below it… looks like a filmstrip.)

Then with that comp on the screen, click Effects - \> Color Key.

Use the eyedropped to select a base color then use the tolerance and feather to achieve the best result/  
Gl.

EDIT: It’s also worth noting that if you need to re-export it as an AVI, that’s not gonna work. AVI files do not natively support an alpha channel. So you’d need to re-export as a quicktime movie or something else that supports the alpha.

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**Author:** ![BoonDock](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/boondock/32/1188_2.png) [@BoonDock](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/BoonDock)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 5:04pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/after-effects-question-please/262515/4 "2008-06-06T17:04:34Z")

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Great - thanks guys this is exactly what I needed!

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**Author:** ![Anogar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Anogar](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/Anogar)\
**Post date:** [June 6, 2008, 10:08pm UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/after-effects-question-please/262515/5 "2008-06-06T22:08:33Z")

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Keep in mind too that white is a really bad key color, you typically want green or blue, so if there’s any white in the middle bit, take care that it isn’t getting knocked out too. (Like the whites of someone’s eyes, that might look goofy.)

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**Author:** ![BoonDock](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex011/user_avatar/forum.kirupa.com/boondock/32/1188_2.png) [@BoonDock](https://forum.kirupa.com/u/BoonDock)\
**Post date:** [June 7, 2008, 1:12am UTC](https://forum.kirupa.com/t/after-effects-question-please/262515/6 "2008-06-07T01:12:02Z")

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Noted! :thumb: