Integrating 3D Graphics in Flash - Flash 3D: Animation, Interactivity, and Games - page 355

Figure 10.24 No alpha channel

Poser renderings are 32-bit color by default. This means they
are 24-bit color with an 8-bit alpha channel. When rendering
still images or animations in Poser, save the rendered images
as PNG or PSD files. These file formats retain the alpha channel.

What is an alpha channel? An RGB image contains three color
channels—red, green, and blue. When combined, these channels
produce the full color image. The alpha channel is a fourth chan-
nel that contains an 8-bit grayscale image (Figure 10.25). This
image determines the transparency of each pixel. Black pixels
become transparent, and white pixels are opaque. Any value in
between black and white has a certain degree of transparency.

Other 3D applications such as Autodesk Maya, 3ds Max, and
CINEMA 4D save the rendered images with their alpha channels
intact. Figure 10.26 shows the render settings in CINEMA 4D
used to maintain an alpha channel and its results.

Figure 10.25