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Chroma Key Editing
We just did our first green screen shoot and it turned out fine. We used Premiere Pro 2 (okay quit your snickering)for this project, and I know this is just another reason to upgrade this system. But we also use Final Cut Pro.
My question is this, if we are going to be doing a lot of this type of work, and it looks like we are….what’s the best software for Keying?
Is Final Cut the way to go, or maybe it’s a plug in?
Thank you so much for your help,
Dustin Daniels | http://www.sozovideo.com
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8 Replies
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The best way I have found is the Keylight plugin in After Effects.
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We got Ultimatte AdvantEdge, at the time it was the top dog especially for DV footage and sub-par footage. But I get good results with the stock keyer in FCP as well. I also use the Diamond keyer in Combustion.
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A few of the keyers you will want to demo are:
Primatte Keyer Pro (slow but good, only uses 1 core, I use this one)
Boris Keyer (don’t know the name)
DV Matte Pro (uses GPU and is very fast)
Primatte RT (comes with Motion 3, essentially free, also fast)
Keylight (highly talked about)Of course it is all about the source footage. But assuming you have done a good job with that then those are your options.
FCP’s built in Keyer has a reputation just slightly above that of Premiere’s keyer. There have been a lot of jokes when it comes to poorly keyed footage, one I hear the most is, “Did you use premier to do that” and the lesser is, “Did you use the built in FCP keyer for that”.
Cheers,
Elijah
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What camera are you shooting your green screen with? Yes…the keyer is very important, but make sure you:
#1 – Shoot with a good camera that supports 4:2:2 color space (if your budget allows for that)
#2 – Light the screen separately from the talent.
If you can, get yourself a Canon HV 20 or HV 30 (under $800) and shoot and record directly to hard drive via HDMI, you can shoot HD with 4:2:2 color space and it will certainly help you in the keying process (you’ll be able to use almost any keyer and get great results).
You can see what I mean here re: the HV 20/30:
https://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=37656Anyhow… good luck and post what you used (keyer wise) and your results with it. I’m intrigued.
Cheers!
Cheers!
– Marcelo Lewin
Pixel Heads Network
https://www.PixelHeadsNetwork.com -
Hi,
I agree with Marc. For me Ultimatte Advantage is by far the best plug in for Green Screen work, speciall if you work with lower resolution like MiniDV. Even with not so well lit Green Screens I got amazing results. Just takes a bit to get into the interface, but once you have it – no problem.
Sascha Engel
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Mark and Sascha,
What resources did you turn to to learn Ultimatte AdvantEdge?Check out my DVD Money Making Graphics & Effects for Final Cut Studio 2
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I would be sooo thankful if someone could post me a link to a great article that Stephen Smith wrote in may-june edition of Creativecow magazine in 2007.
Would absolutely make my day- thanks, Adam Simonsen.
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Thanks for asking, here is a link to the COW magazine that has the article, “Perfect Color-key: A Checklist”.
https://magazine.creativecow.net/issue/power-of-artistic-passion
Check out my DVD Money Making Graphics & Effects for Final Cut Studio 2
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