• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  Chroma key vs. Ultimatte

  Posted by Pete Lo on August 20, 2009 at 2:56 am

  Hi there. I’m shooting a project on green screen and I was given the option to either use Chromakey green paint or Ultimatte green paint. I know that Ultimatte paint is much better, but I am editing on FCP using the standard chroma keyer that comes with it. I do NOT have an Ultimatte plug in. Would I still be able to work with the Ultimatte green paint without the Ultimatte plugin? I’m assuming green is green when it comes to keying the color out, but I want to be sure.

  Any input is helpful. Thanks!

  Elijah Lynn replied 16 years, 9 months ago 4 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Scott Sheriff

  August 20, 2009 at 4:15 am

  You can pull a chroma key from any color. CK green is just a better choice because there is very little of that color pigment in out skin tones. Ultimatte paint shading is optimized for the that use, but isn’t really superior. Rosco CK paint, or really any green matte finish paint in that general shade will work in a pinch. Take your Rosco chip card down to home depot, and have them color match it if you can’t find, or afford CK paint.
  The real difference in pulling a good key is more about the lighting, not really the paint. The more even the key wall is, the better. Second, keep the subject as far away from the wall as practical to avoid reflected green spill from the wall hitting the subject. If that can’t be avoided, a light magenta gel in the subject backlight to offset green spill sometimes helps.
• 

  Mark Raudonis

  August 20, 2009 at 9:20 am

  I agree with Scott on this.

  I’ve gone to “Fabric Barn” and bought a few yards of green cloth, hung it from a rod and shot
  perfectly usable green screen interviews. It’s all about the subject lighting, not the background.

  Google this topic and you’ll find tons of hints, suggestions, and tutorials. Well worth researching before you shoot.

  Good luck.

  mark
• 

  Pete Lo

  August 21, 2009 at 3:17 am

  Thanks for the input. I was hesitant at using Chroma Key paint at first, but now am feeling more comfortable.
• 

  Elijah Lynn

  August 22, 2009 at 12:13 am

  The standard chroma keyer in FCP may end up being your weakest link. The other 2 that will contend are poor lighting and the camera.

  I would get away from the standard keyer. I am using Primatte, it is good but only uses one core. After Snow Leopard coms out I am moving to a keyer which uses GPU and/or all 8 cores.

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