Any suggestions on keying?

[Eddie Torre]

Wow, they really hung you out to dry didn’t they?

This would most likely be better suited for After Effects.

I was able to isolate the foreground with the Roto Brush Tool (CS5 AE), but the wires might require a separate pass.

I’m not a master compositer though. I’m sure there are some compositing sages in the AE forum who could recommend the best approach.

[Dustin Parsons]

It’s going to be next to impossible to key out the background without removing the ducks head as well – also, the subject is too dark and the green-screen is not lit evenly. I would definitely make the client aware of these issues and even just the basic of shooting green-screen before they try to give you something else like this.

As far as rotoscoping goes I would definitely do it in After Effects. Here’s a tutorial that covers rotoscoping in After Effects https://library.creativecow.net/articles/oconnell_pete/roto/video-tutorial . Unlike the tutorial you probably won’t be able to create a mask and then assigning it’s movement to a tracking node because this is a human and not an object on a set path, this guy will probably turn his head or lift his arms so the mask has to change shape with him. Unfortunately, the only way I know how to do this is to keyframe the individual points of the mask as he moves.

Best of luck!

————————————————————–
Mac Pro | Leopard 10.5.7
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[Scott Fowler]

Thanks Eddie. I don’t have CS5, just CS4. I upgraded just before CS5 came out unfortunately. If I have to upgrade to make this happen I will charge it to the client most likely. Cheaper than a reshoot!

The outer edges are going to be garbage mattes as it is the sides of the greenscreen background.

Anyone else have any other suggestions before purchasing CS5 as a solution?

[Scott Fowler]

Thanks Dustin. Downloading the trial version of AE CS5 just now and will see what results I get.

[Chris Tompkins]

Forget it man. That is horrible.

Lighting – really bad.
Green foreground on greenscreen – bad idea!

Rotoscoping in AE would be my suggestion.
Charge hourly.

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC

[Jeff Greenberg]

This is going to be nightmarish not because of the screen (I could do that screen in Motion with a better keyer) – no the problem is the duck is green.

I’d use the CS5 Roto tool to mostly worry about the head, then I’d go back and use a ‘solid’ keyer like Primatte. Know that Imagineer has a GREAT roto tool – not intuitive (nor cheap) but great for this sort of work.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer
Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC
Avid & Color Videos Vasst.com
Compressor Essentials Lynda.com

[Dennis Radeke]

[Jeff Greenberg] “Know that Imagineer has a GREAT roto tool – not intuitive (nor cheap) but great for this sort of work.”

Mocha for AE is included in CS5 so you could either using AE’s Rotobrush tool or the Mocha tool.

Dennis

[Scott Fowler]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

I’ve used the CS5 roto brush with some decent success. Enough success at least for the customer’s expectations. I’ve got several clips to do and I’ve been brushing in just the duck’s head and using a keyer underneath on a duplicate clip for the rest of the body. The edges around the rotoscoped head jutter just a little but it’s usable I guess.

It seems like it takes a VERY long time for frames to update from one roto key point to another once I’ve dragged out the “propogated” keyframe bars. Any ideas how to speed this up or is it just so memory intensive that I have to be super patient? I’ve been setting up a render even before all the roto frames are propogated and leaving it to finish rotoscoping and render out the clip overnight. Not ideal, but at least I’m sleeping while it’s working.

Thanks again for such great assistance!