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Cartoonification and Green Screen
The cartoonification tutorial is amazing, i played around with it a little and got some great results. My question though is related to green screening and the cartoonification process, which is turning a movie file into a series of jpegs and editing them in illustrator then back to a movie file. I want to know how to maintain the transparency, created by keying out the green screen in after effects, in illustrator. is it possible to keep that transparent background?I experimented in my garage and I first used the chroma key filters and what not to remove all of the green around the subject, then i proceeded to cartoonify her, but when i attempted to place a background behind the subject, after the cartoonification, in after effects the empty space that resulted from the green screen earlier had been lost and replaced with black, basically replacing the green but with a color i cannot key out. I then tried to cartoonify the subject with the green screen still present, but when i went to remove the green screen in after effects the quality was compromised entirely by the chroma key filter. I want to know how to key out the green first, and maintain that transparent space behind the subject throughout the process of changing the file to a jpeg and working with it in illustrator, or if that is even possible because i need to manipulate the layer independent of the bakcground after i cartoonify it. I could key out the green and add the background before the cartoonification process, but i want to know if its possible to create a transparent space and maintain it through the cartoonification process, or should i just forget about the possibilty and just edit all layers and then send them as a unified project through the cartoonification process. my goal would be to maintain the independence of each layer through the cartoonification process so i can manipulate the cartoonified layers independently in after effects. thanks.
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7 Replies
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are you exporting both rgb and alpha? it’s been a week or so since i saw the tut. don’t know if those settings were adjusted, just make sure that your exporting alpha, other wise it will turn to black
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so if i make sure that it is exporting alpha, it will recognize the transparency of the background?
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id say yes BUT i have no illustrator experience, if illustrator can recognize alpha then yes it will work, if it cant then no
id asume it can
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You can’t get rid of the BG in Illustrator without going frame by frame. Not a good solution. key it out in AE…
First, using the method I described for creating color palettes, create a color palette for cartoonification. Before saving that palleete, remove all greens except one, so that there is only one green color for the BG that will be keyed out.
Then run through the cartoonification process.
In AE, Use Keylight to remove the Green.
If you don’t have keylight (not on AE Pro?),then try the chroma keyer. With only one green, it should be OK. Then, maybe shrink the edges down 1 pixel with effect > Matte > Simple choker – which should clean the edge.
If you have keylight though (and AE pro comes with it – as a seperate installer on the disk) then tt works great – I’ve tested it.
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Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
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Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com -
Perhaps you could key out in the original footage and put a solid green in the background. Wouldn’t that turn into a plain single color polygon in Illustrator? Then you could force that color into alpha when interpreting the footage or just key it out again, right?
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no illustrator looks at it like a flat image and cartoonifies the whole thing at once as a single layer.
Besides, keying before the process will still cause variences in the green. Get control of your palletes, like I suggested, and then remove everything but one bright green. Save that palette and use it in the cartoonification process, and you will have only one green to key out. much simpler.
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Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com -
or….
Run the cartoon effect on your footage before you pull the key. Then process it through illustrator. then with an instance of the original layer, use keylight to pull the key and then set the result to the screen matte. use this layer as a track matte to you cartoon layer and they should match up and leave just cartoon footage. keeping in mind frame and speed changes in order to match the movement correctly.
I don’t think I read the whole post so maybe i’m talking about something totally differn’t…
Andrew
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