• Adobe After Effects

  HELP! keying blurry footage. arrgh!

  Posted by Prad Senanayake on May 8, 2008 at 9:05 am

  Hi all,
  Recently shot something on the Varicam, ingested as ProRes 422 for keying. But there is a big problem. My DOP unwittingly lowered the shutter to get a better saturation on the bluescreen and what i now have is blur/ghosting on fast movements that are really messing with me getting a good key! Apart from a lot of roto, is there anything else i should try. Please help!

  Joey Foreman replied 18 years ago 5 Members · 7 Replies
• 7 Replies

• 

  Jeremy Fabiano

  May 8, 2008 at 12:29 pm

  I can’t answer about techniques, but after toying with keying for a bit, Keylight is probably the plugin you’re going to need…
  https://www.thefoundry.co.uk/pkg_overview.aspx?ui=A5FB8E97-D752-4E01-AC7D-17B39B7E1192

  They have a demo license on there, but I don’t remember what the demo’s limitation is.

  Don’t get me wrong tho.. it’s $420 US.. but it’s never failed me *grins*

  Hope this points you in the right direction..

  -Jeremy
• 

  Joey Foreman

  May 8, 2008 at 1:26 pm

  Keylight is packaged with After Effects.

  Joey Foreman
  Editor/Animator
  Nowhere Productions, Athens, GA
• 

  Jeremy Allen

  May 8, 2008 at 4:31 pm

  I hate to say it, but I think you’re kinda screwed. That is just the opposite of what he should’ve done (crank up the shutter to reduce motion blur).. It’s pretty much impossible to unblur footage with good results.

  ———————————————
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  AE7 on both for now.
• 

  Joey Foreman

  May 8, 2008 at 4:41 pm

  Do you know how to use edge & core/holdout mattes? You’re not going to get a decent key with only one instance of the effect.
  One instance gives you a soft edge that can catch the motion blur, but will make the interior of your matte semi-transparent. The second instance on a second layer gives you a solid center but crunchy edges. You combine the two for an optimal key.
  Take a look at AE Studio Techniques by Mark Christiansen for detailed tutorials.

  https://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Effects-Professional-Studio-Techniques/dp/0321499786/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210264798&sr=8-1

  Joey Foreman
  Editor/Animator
  Nowhere Productions, Athens, GA
• 

  Jeremy Fabiano

  May 8, 2008 at 4:49 pm

  Heh – wasn’t with the copy I’m using 🙁
• 

  Nel Johnson

  May 8, 2008 at 6:13 pm

  Hi Prad,

  I’ve just finished a spot with a really similar setup – basically 2 rappers performing in front of a green screen, and yes.. lots of blurred movement.

  I wrestled with this for a long time, trying to sharpen shots etc, nothing worked. Then I figured that I’d go with the blur rather than trying to get rid of it. Keylight is your friend here in lots of ways. With judicious tweaking of the shots (checking the matte in Keylight’s status viewer) and adjusting black and white values I ended up with a lovely key. Keylight intelligently colour corrected the unwanted green in the blur. Finally I added a bit of lightwrap to sit the subject into the background better. I used KeyCorrect lighwrap but you can get a version in many plugin sets, Walker etc.

  My advice, and it may be against common experience, rather than sharpen the shots, go with the blur and rely on colour correction to get rid of leftover spill.
• 

  Joey Foreman

  May 8, 2008 at 7:46 pm

  Studio Techniques also has a tutorial on how to roll your own lightwrap.

  Joey Foreman
  Editor/Animator
  Nowhere Productions, Athens, GA

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