The background (Envlight, Sky Environment Map enabled) renders to disk as transparent, but Mplay renders as it should. I have Googled this problem and most of the articles are 7, 8 years old, and don't really address this simple issue. I'm sure I'm missing something quite basic here, a button that needs to be pushed, etc.

If I render to disk in Jpeg format all is well, but not tif. Any suggestions?

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What's up with Renderman? It's basically free now, why can't we use this with Houdini Indie…or am I missing something?

Thanks again.

Are you saying that in AfterFx that setting the Alpha interpretation to ignore doesn't work?

'Alpha channel interpretation: premultiplied or straight'
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/9.0/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7f7ea.html [help.adobe.com]

Renderman does work in the full commercial Houdini versions, not Non-commerical or the Limited-Commercial Indie version.

Just make sure you have “render light geometry” ticked if you want to see the background in your render.

Both images have the same alpha just in one the background is visible and one it's not. I rendered out to exr rather than tif too.

Great. I figured there had to be a little button to push and whatnot. With C4D I don't need to tick anything in After Effects, but this is another example of me unconsciously trying to make a connection between Cinema and Houdini. I just have to approach Houdini on Houdini's terms.

Thanks.