Chromakey

[Richtiger]

Hi everyone,
I am wondering what settings you guys use to obtain a good bluescreen key.
I am trying to put people on a white background but I'm finding that the subjects have dark outlines around the edges. These are hardly visible when keyed over a darker colour background.
The end result I'm looking for is similar to the Australian Chanell 10 station ad "I Believe" this shows black & white people over a white textured background. I used a blue painted wall for the shots, well lit and bright without shadows. My best results so far have been mixing chromakey with chrominance and monotone. This is fairly complicated and I lose the ability to put another layer behind the people.
I realise it's tricky to get good keys but it seems a bit hit and miss to me.
I've tried After Effects Keylight but it's no better ..... any hints or ideas?
By the way, does anyone know if theres a chrominance filter in After Effects?
Richard

[Roy Colquitt]

What tools do you have at your disposal?

[Roy Colquitt]

By the way, does anyone know if theres a chrominance filter in After Effects?
Richard

Missed that -

If you are referring to isolating a color, Edius called this/does this through its "chrominance filter." Other programs can do the same thing using different methods that go by different names.

To do it in AE, you could find tutorials all over the Internet. I'd suggest doing an web search for "After Effects" + "Pleasantville." You'll come up with more than one way to do it. You could also search "leave color" + "After Effects."

[antonsvideo]

at this stage, the Edius chroma keyer does not have a matte choker

so for now, I use BorisFX9 as a filter and add the chroma key and the matte choke, the matte choke not only allows shrinking of the key area to kill the outline, but also allows hey edge softening, this is great

BorisFX requires rendering

[WTS1]

I'm not sure I can envision what you are describing. Are the people all white or black (ie basically a white or black silhouette) as overlays on a background or other layers?

Jim

[Roy Colquitt]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PxnrLtQlxv0

[Richtiger]

Thanks for the replies guys.
I use Edius primarily for editing but After Effects for compositing. If the chromakey was clean in After Effects I would not have a problem. Also I can't transfer a "better" chromakey from Edius into After Effects as there is no Alpha so I'm trying for any workaround I can find.
There seem to be many adjustments for fine chromakey details in After Effects Keylight but it's pretty hit & miss and I'm getting nowhere.
One of my subjects is a bald man and it's particularly hard to lose the dark outline around his head, this is not quite as noticable with dark haired people and as I said if the background is dark in colour the problem isn't nearly as obvious. But for this particular effect I need a white background.
What other programs do a better key, and can I transfer these with alpha into After Effects?
Richard

[WTS1]

Ahhh....now I get it. Leave it to Roy and YouTube to set me straight. :)

I'd use Serious Magic for this. If you have a decent blue/green screen, extracting your foreground is a snap. It's now integrated into Adobe's product line.

Like others have posted here, there are a number of apps that give you greater control over the extraction than Edius. Once you have the foreground extracted, you can bring it back into Edius and layer it above whatever background you'd like, apply the monotone filters, etc.

Jim

[WTS1]

Thanks for the replies guys.
What other programs do a better key, and can I transfer these with alpha into After Effects?
Richard

You can transfer the alpha into other applications that support it (like AE). I have used it quite a bit in Motion.

Jim

[Roy Colquitt]

As Anton said, the Continuum Complete chroma key filter that's included in Boris FX is excellent. It plugs into Edius...I believe directly into AE as well.

Rich, it sounds like you might be doing a little stabbing in the dark trying to get a good key.

With chroma keying, you really have to take certain steps and use subtlety in adjusting the proper parameters.

A two step process (which generally works without a lot of tweaking in Boris) is (1) apply the chroma key filter and then (2) apply a matte choker.

Try those two steps in After Effects and see if you get different results.

[aldigitalguy]

Ultra

Ultra is a great and easy chromakeyer but it is in limbo right now. I am working on a review of the new Ultra included in Adobe Creative Studio Premium. I am still waiting on the newest beta version of Premire Pro CS3 which will have Ultra. Release date is July.

[GrassValley_BH]

Okay guys, keep on topic...

[WTS1]

I guess this is one of those "guess what we're thinking is on topic" today situations. The original poster asked what people used for keying, and he got a couple of different replies or clarifications. If we're splitting hairs over that, then I guess I'm not smart enough to know when I'm over the line or 'off topic'. If the entire original question (or follow up's by the original poster) was 'off topic' (ie didn't have anything to do with Edius), then I guess it would be better to state it as such.

I use Serious Magic and Edius successfully together (and in some ways they are complimentary), so in my mind I thought my (and the other posts) were germane.

Jim

[Roy Colquitt]

My best results so far have been mixing chromakey with chrominance and monotone. This is fairly complicated and I lose the ability to put another layer behind the people.

Rich,

I was re-reading your original post here and the part about losing this ability made something occur to me...and I'm half expect you to say you already thought of this. But I'll say it anyway...

In Edius, you have to do what you're trying to do in two stages. In the first, use the chrominance filter and monotone filter to make your subject b&w. Next, you need to either render that to a new file or put that sequence on the timeline in a new sequence and then chroma key over your new background.

I don't have any green/blue screen footage handy on my computer, but I think you might find that the clip or sequence that has had the subject made b&w will actually produce a better (easier) key than a color subject.

[GrassValley_BH]

I use Serious Magic and Edius successfully together (and in some ways they are complimentary), so in my mind I thought my (and the other posts) were germane.

They are - just making sure we don't lose sight that EDIUS is in the picture somewhere.