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WorkFlow Advice with Green Screen Footage and After Effects
I’ve got HD footage taken from a Canon 7D, logged and transfeed into FCP with Canon’s plugin, the audio on all that footage I then was synced with audio taken from an external recorder rather than the camera mic itself.
Now, all this green screen has proven a little bit harsh to get rid of. I’ve finally worked it to get a pretty good result in the Chroma Keyer in FCP, but I do get a more professional final key by using Keylight available to me in After Effects CS5 which I own. I think for this, I need to go with the slightly better key, and therefore will use After Effects.
So, my question to any of you guys who might be able to chime in, what would be a recommended workflow for this? Would you get all the editing done in FCP, then export the clips to be keyed out in After Effects, or would you first get the footage into AF, then render it back out to take into FCP for editing?
I’m using the ProRes 422 codec. Any issues or warnings with importing and exporting with that once? Degredation issues at all?
Shaun K.
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“It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to rack and ruin without fail. It is a very grave mistake to think that the engagement of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty.” — Albert Einstien
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13 Replies
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I would Take the clips that are on the green screen.
Do a rough edit in FCP – No Keying. Once you’re close.
Export all the clips being used on Green Screen and take them into AE with some heads and tails.
Key out green and layer in background.
Render out.
Drop in the finished keyed clips in the program.This way you’re not keying out and rendering everything, every take etc.
Just what you need + a little safety.
JMOChris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC -
Okay.
Now too, I need to get my head around which codec to use. ProRes 422, I see, won’t render with an alpha channel included, but that must be rendered seperatly.
I have some products to bring in and put on screen as well as text in all these clips, so would you have that included in that first rough cut for export, or attempt to bring it back in after the key from After Effects to add that final detail of text and other graphics? If so, what codec would you use?
Clients have no idea what technical hurdles have to be taken into account on production work.
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For Alpha, you’ll need to go to ProRes4444
But, You don’t need Alpha.Export your clips on green “Current Settings”
Drop them in AE, key out green ~ drop in backgrounds.(minus Text)
Render out ProRes to match your sequence.
You could add the Text parts in FCP, after you have your keyed clips back from AE.
Make Sense?Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC -
I have used this free little script from Popcorn island with a lot of success moving projects from FCP to AE.
https://www.popcornisland.com/2009/03/final-cut-2-after-effects/
Generally I will do all of the editing first, and then copy and paste all of my green screen shot’s into a new sequence so that I don’t have an AE project with a bunch of shots I don’t need.
Then export an XML and run the script in AE to import. The benefit to this workflow is that AE re-links to your original media, and eliminates the need to render each clip out separately from FCP. If you need additional heads or tails then it will be available to you in AE.
Once I have my composite’s finished I run this script https://aescripts.com/rd-render-layers/ so that I can easily render each keyed layer in the comp independently to it’s own PR422 clip.
-Andy George
Senior Editor
http://www.chiselindustries.com -
Oh man, you guys are awesome. I’ll get on this process now. Pretty sweet to have such a workflow. This is sweet indeed. I love the thought of not having to render out the clips multiple times. Thanks a ton for this. I’ll let you know the results. I’m also delighted at this option, as my client prefers her hair in the After Effects green screen removal, as opposed to the FCP key which isn’t as good and leaves her professional hair style a bit less than ideal looking.
Shaun K.
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“It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to rack and ruin without fail. It is a very grave mistake to think that the engagement of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty.” — Albert Einstien
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Before I give this a go, my client is finalizing her decision on a background.
One other suggestion for the workflow I seek. It would be the fact that I’m using Pluraleyes plugin to sync up the camera audio with the much superior audio captured with another mic system.
How will this play out in bringing this back into FCP? I might need to do the sync again, right? And in importing to After Effects, I best keep the audio file connected with the footage? By default, that dialogue box is set to “No” don’t import the audio.
Shaun K.
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“It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry; for this delicate little plant, aside from stimulation, stands mainly in need of freedom; without this it goes to rack and ruin without fail. It is a very grave mistake to think that the engagement of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty.” — Albert Einstien
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Yes, send to AE with audio.
Consider this a scratch track you can use to line back up when back in FCP.Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC -
One other question for you guys. I’m wondering my best options.
I have footage that was filmed (never again will this be the case) with a diffusion filter to lessen wrinkles in the 71 year old client. A diffusion filter is great—until of course one brings it into post to have green screen background removed. Keylight in After Effects did the job most wonderfully. It looks stellar.
In the script from Popcorn Island, I bring the footage from FCP into After Effects. I remove the green screen there magnificently, with my added background there as well. I then render from AF in ProRes 422, import it back into FCP and relink the audio (which is superior to what I can do audio wise or with ease in AF, it seems. But, that footage brought into FCP has some degredation that is disturbing. I’m not happy about that fact, sort of bummed out over it. I can see a bit of a halo around my talent in that ProRes footage, which is yet there when I render that with the audio to a final video from FCP.
Is there a better work around on this? SHould I invest in the Keylight package for FCP? I hate to do so when I have it already in AF. The problem I am complaining about with the halo and decredation is not evident in other formats out of AF, such as compressing it to a Youtube HD size, but of course I don’t have the full thing with audio done in that timeline, and that is the reason to bring it back into FCP for final sweetening.
Any thoughts on this would be appreciated. I saw another post asking the difference between Keylight in FCP or AF and if there is a difference. I wish my Keylight in AF would work in FCP, that would seemingly solve my problem, though what I’ve had in suggested workflow here already has been great.
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Opened up in Quicktime it looks essentially the same as FCP, though I realize FCP doesn’t give the full quality playback within the editor itself.
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I just rendered out a copy at full 1920 x 1080 using the H.264 codec to see what it looks like in relation to the ProRes 422 version I brought back into FCP. To my surprise, and at that high resolution the same look persists. I hadn’t noticed it prior, when I was rendering out of After Effects at half that resolution. It hid some of this artifacting from my view and attention. So, I think I’m as good as I’ll get.
Great workflow solutions, thanks for that script, pretty great stuff. And keying out with Magenta Solid behind the subject will be a good thing to do.
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