1080i EX1 Footage Greenscreen -best approach

[Shane Ross]

First would have been not to record as XDCAM. GOP formats are more difficult to work with. Recording to a KiPro as ProRes 422, or to a computer with a capture card to ProRes would have been best.

But, that is the past. To key you need to use Motion and Primatte, or After Effects and Keylight or Primatte. Software meant to do good keying. FCP 7 has Primatte RT, and you can try that.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Ron Eigen]

Primatte is getting ok results and takes a while to render in FCP.

Should we transcode the footage to anytthing first? Eg: prores? And perhaps deinterlace? Or is that not necessary?

[Shane Ross]

Transcoding might help speed up the renders, as GOP formats are processor intensive. But in terms of quality of footage, the damage has already been done. You recorded as 4:2:0 GOP…going to 4:2:2 now won’t make that missing information return. But it might speed up render times.

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Richard Sanchez]

I have to agree with Shane, if you have any input regarding the shooting, you’ll want to suggest using a better color space than 4:2:0. I’m currently working on a show being shot on the EX3, and all footage is transcoded to Pro Res 422. I’m using keylight and after effects for all the chroma keying but it’s still challenging. It works better than Final Cut’s built in chroma keyer. Ahron Rabinowitz’s tutorial on “super tight garbage mattes” will help you, but my best advice would be to do your keying in After Effects or another good compositing application.

Richard Sanchez
North Hollywood, CA

“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks

[Steve Connor]

Not shooting interlace is very helpful as well

Steve Connor
Adrenalin Television

Have you tried “Search Posts”? Enlightenment may be there.

[Ron Eigen]

Thanks for the suggestions… I’ll try out keying in After Effects, although that might be a major pain with this project since it’s an hour long program.

What about the interlacing question? Is it better to try to make the footage progressive? or is it not worth the step?

[Joey Goodsell]

Although maybe comparing apples to oranges, we shoot green screen with the Panansonic 150 in 1080i and use DV Matte Blast in FCP and Motion. Although intended for DV and HDV footage in does an incredible job for the $99 price tag.

[Ron Eigen]

Wow, DVMatte Blast does a better job than some of the fancier plugs. Thanks for the recommendation. Getting decent results in FCP with dvmatte blast combined with a few other plugs… in the chain are:

-Denoiser from Red Giant’s Key Correct Pro
-dvmatte blast
-Nattress Film Effects Matte Choker
-Color Corrector