-
Chroma Key edges pixelated
Hi,
I am working in Final Cut 5. I have gone through the steps to key out the background, that part works fine, I just have very jagged edges around the person. I am using an isight camera that is built into the mac. Is that camera the problem? I just spent an hour working with all the video filters with not much luck. Any advice? Or should I try another video camera, we have a high def camera here at work would that be better? The IT guy wants me to use the isight camera if possible but I can use the high def one if needed to get smooth edges. Thanks.
Kim
-
4 Replies
-
Uh yeah, go HD, not webcam.
Also, you might want to look at a dedicated plugin for keying. FCPs internal tools aren’t really all that great.
Jeremy
-
Thank you for your advice, I am a print design person being thrown in audio/video work here at work. I enjoy it a lot but just learning it on my own.
Kim
-
I have several years in prepress, having been involved in the process from the days when very few knew anything about Photoshop and color separations.
Post production is like prepress.
If you want a glossy fashion magazine cover then you’ll need to get good equipment, proper lighting, and a calibrated monitor to produce a properly color-corrected image with enough pixels to create a 200-line color separation.
If all you want is a community newsletter on newsprint, then you can get by with a cellphone camera and an open window to get a mugshot printed with a 72-line screen.
Video is very similar in that regard. Tailor your workflow to suit your end product.
If you want to shoot green screen that is absolutely convincing then you’ll have to use the right camera, get the scene lighted properly and make certain everything is configured just right. The right green or blue backdrop is important, too. You’ll need to use software that can extract a key through user-defined settings. Plus you’ll need compositing skills that can figure out what isn’t looking quite right and what to do about it.
In fact, many of those skills are applicable to composites in Photoshop.
Then on the other end of the spectrum is the typical weather report look. You don’t care if the background matches the foreground. And stray edges aren’t a problem.
If your IT guy is looking for Industrial Light & Magic results on a Wayne’s World budget, then he’s got a lot of homework to do.
Dean Sensui — Imagination Media Hawaii
-
I’ll try to make this explanation as simple as possible without getting to technical. Do yourself a favor and shoot it with the HD camera. Then, light the background the best you can. It will make keying out easier in the end. If you have a copy of After Effects Professional bundle, there is a plug in in the extra’s folder called Keylight. Install that. I have found that little free plug in was a lot more powerful than the keyers in FCP. Plus it has a low learning curve.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up