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A question about green screen, AE and Premiere Pro. Which comes first?
My apologies if this is a stupid question;
I have several scenes that need chroma keying. Do I do my work in Premiere Pro (putting all the scenes together, audio etc etc) FIRST, and then use AE to chroma key?
Or.. do I chroma key the individual scenes, render them (lossless), and THEN use Prem Pro?
Do I need to render anything or can I import Comps/projects etc?
What’s the correct process?
Thanks.
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13 Replies
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I’d recommend editing before compositing so that you don’t waste your time on compositing of shots that you’re not going to use. But everyone’s workflow is different, depending on what makes sense for the individual project.
You can either render out high-quality (losslessly encoded) movies from Premiere Pro for the segments that you need to composite, or you can use Dynamic Link to send items to After Effects from Premiere Pro. Again, it depends on what exactly you’re doing. I tend to use intermediate movies, since I tend to work on projects where the editing and compositing are done by different people on different computers.
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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
After Effects quality engineering
After Effects team blog
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First of all, thank you for taking the time to help me. It’s very much appreciated.
Editing before compositing makes sense to me. But, with me still being a learner (I started learning about AE / Prem Pro only a week or so ago), I’m unsure of the practical process involved.
Let’s say I put all my segments together in Prem Pro <<< not sure if that's the correct technical terms. Basically I put all my shots together, add the intro, the end, transitions, audio etc. Do I then render the whole thing and composite in AE from that or do I render individual segments, in which case, how? Doesn't Prem Pro merge all the segments together when rendering? In terms of sending items to After Effects from Premiere Pro using Dynamic links, I haven't experienced / learned that yet 🙁 I'm getting there slowly but surely. Thanks!
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Please think about using the quite capable keyer – ‘Ultra Key’ in PPro, if you’re on CS6. Unless you have specific problems with your footage, you might find that you don’t even need to take it into AE. Saves LOADS of time.
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“98% of all computer issues can be solved by simply pressing ‘F1’.”
Steve Brame
creative illusions Productions -
Thanks for the tip Steve.
From what I have been reading and watching online, it appears the consensus is that KeyLight in AE is far superior.
I have Prem Pro CS5 and it does appear that I have Ultra Key.
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Also, with AE, I really like the way I can create a custom background using a solid layer, and also position my logo on the background. I don’t see that option with Prem Pro and I wonder if I would have to create the bg in PS and import it in (I don’t know PS).
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The reason to do keying work in After Effects is not so much that the keyer is better, but because After Effects (being a compositing program) makes it far, far easier to create garbage mattes, create holdout mattes, paint on the alpha channel for touch-ups, and all of the other things that you so often need to do when separating an item from the background. It is almost never a matter of applying one instance of a keying effect and being done with it.
There are some resources about compositing, including keying, here:
https://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS5822310e5111fa1a11d362d31238b283695-8000.htmlStart here to learn After Effects: https://adobe.ly/bjBT3P
Start here to learn Premiere Pro: https://adobe.ly/psbYc4
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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
After Effects quality engineering
After Effects team blog
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Thanks Todd
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I think I figured it out:
1. New Project Prem Pro
2. Edit
3. Import Prem Pro Project into After Effects
4. Edit (chrome key etc)
5. Import AE project back into Prem Pro
6. Render (AME)That about right?
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Correct…AE is better if you need better matte capability. Hence my comment “Unless you have specific problems with your footage”.
While on that subject, you really should take a look at Aharon Rabinowitz’s tutorial on creating “Super Tight Junk Mattes“. It allows you to create a matte to within 25 pixels of your subject without dropping a single keyframe manually.
Asus P6X58D Premium * Core i7 950 * 24GB RAM * nVidia Quadro 4000 * Windows 7 Premium 64bit * System Drive – WD Caviar Black 500GB * 2nd Drive(Pagefile, Previews) – WD Velociraptor 10K drive 600GB * Media Drive – 2TB RAID5 (4 – WD Caviar Black 500GB drive) * Matrox MX02 Mini * CS6.x Creative Cloud
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“98% of all computer issues can be solved by simply pressing ‘F1’.”
Steve Brame
creative illusions Productions -
Awesome tip. Thanks Steve!
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