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Advice keying h264 footage
I’m sure this has been answered at some point, but I didn’t see it when I searched.
I’m debating if I should take a freelance job or not because of time constraints. I’d have about 10 minutes of H.264 footage (broken into aprox 1:30 clips) that would need to be keyed.
I totally understand that H.264 sucks to key because of the it being 4:2:0 footage, but I wouldn’t have a choice since the shoot has happened (and ironicly is for an artist that is well known, and had a budget). The green screen was well lit, but the subjects hair is going to be a issue.
I took a very quick pass at the footage with Keylight, and lost a lot of detail because of the muddiness of the pixels in between the curls of her hair that show through to the green screen.
I was wondering if something would be better than using keylight, or what process I should use to get the best results.
Any advice would be great.
Thanks
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6 Replies
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For best result convert the footage to a lossless format. TGA sequence or QT Animation or the like. Keying will work better this way. Still, you may have some hair issues- worth giving it a try though.
Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist -
Also, if you have the budget for it, use Cineform’s neoscence to transcode the footage from h.264 .mov- 4:2:0 to 10bit avi 4:2:2 for better keying.
Tudor “Ted” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist -
Or if you have budget, rent a Autodesk Smoke. Will solve all the issues. By the way I can do it for $75/hr or a package deal for you. Even if it means to rotoscope it. How many min you said it was?
Ashish
561 310 8177
ashimat@yahoo.com -
I\’ll try a conversion first and see if that helps at all.
I seen some things that primatte keyer works better with this type of issue but I haven\’t used it. I may look into the color space converter but I\’m not sure if it\’s worth it. Basically I\’m deciding if I want to take the job and how much headache it will be. It won\’t be a high paying job regardless so sinking money into programs might not be the best answer.
That information is helpful though! Anyone else have advice as well?
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That’s what I was afraid of. Didn’t really see how re encoding would bring back the lost color information.
Dave you know what you’re talking about so I’m going to say there’s no way I’m doing it for the money which won’t even be close to the effort needed to fix this
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I agree it may not be worth your time. However, the upconverting does surprisingly help your keys. I didn’t believe it either, but someone gave me the same tip and it will HELP. Your key may still suck, but the edges will probably be better.
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