best workflow for Greenscreen

[Michael Phillips]

You certainly may have more control in After Effects if the Keyers in Media Composer aren’t meeting your needs. But that being said, will you need to only edit the foreground (greenscreen) together with no need to time it to a background element or elements? Are you going to greenscreen the MXF media or go back to camera originals in After Effects?

Lately I have been conforming these type of productions in Smoke and composting in there when on Mac. On my Windows system I have been learning Eyeon Fusion and using the AVX Fusion outsource effect directly from the timeline. I prefer node based composting which is why I go to those two apps. But you may be able to go AAF via Premiere, then into After Effects.

Michael

[Daniel Schultz]

Hi Michael.

Thanks for your reply.

I won’t be using smoke, since I don’t own that.

Whether to use the mxf files or the original files was a question I had.
What are the pros and cons of each?

-Dan Schultz

[Clayton Lonie]

I use Boris BCC AE to go from Avid to After Effects. I pull the keys in Avid with Boris then transfer to AE to refine.

Avid Media Composer Expert User. (Modist, I know!!!)

[Michael Phillips]

What resolutions amd codec are the camera originals?

Michael

[Daniel Schultz]

Shot on a Sony Z5. I believe it’s HDV 29.97 at 1080.

Backgrounds are going to be fairly simple stills, most likely.

Can you create the key in AE, then add BG in MC?
Or is that a good idea?

Prefer not to edit in Premier, if possible, since I don’t know that program.

[Michael Phillips]

Oh… it’s compressed HD to start with. Have you tried the MC keyers either native or via Boris plug-ins to see of those will do the job to start with?

Michael

[Daniel Schultz]

How do I find out if I even have Boris included with my MC package?
I have the regular (not academic) version. Does it automatically include boris?

I like the idea of doing the rough in MC then refining in AE.

My codec is kinda mediocre, unfortunately (given what I’m given).

Would it be better to upres the HDV codec to something better before doing anything, or is that just “adding more zeros” that won’t help?

Thanks, Dan

[William Meese]

In the After Effects file > import menu do you have the option for “Avid AAF via Boris AAF Transfer”? Then Boris Transfer AE is installed.

How much footage will you be keying? Is it a narrative project? What’s the quality of the greenscreen footage? Have you tried Avid’s SpectraMatte keyer? The more shots you have, the better to avoid the round trip. Also, unless the footage needs a lot of fixing, or this is a narrative project worth the time to squeeze out the best composites you can get, I don’t think the AE round trip will make enough difference. I find the SM keyer much better than most in-NLE keyers, and it’s worth avoiding the round trip. Here’s a tutorial, if it helps:
https://learn.avid.com/content/tutorials/SNspectraMatte/tutorial.html

Michael asks a good question about syncing to background; that’s editing, and is easier/faster in Avid. So one simple workflow: edit your foreground on V1, edit your background on V2 with a PIP effect on it and set into a corner. The purpose is to edit both layers realtime, with no rendering. Once you get close, delete the PIP, swap layers, roughly key the foreground and edit until locked. This would be a good point to refine your SM key — you may be done.

Or, once edit is locked, remove effects and export one same-as-source movie for each layer. In AE, separate into individual shots and composite.

Or, use BCC or Automatic Duck to save time in the round trip organization.

Is this the kind of workflow info you’re asking for?

Yes, uprezzing is just adding zeros, but combined with careful preprocessing in AE you may squeeze some slightly better keys out of the footage. HDV is the weak link here.

Hope this helps.