Contiguous Color Key

[Max Pinton]

I realize I’m years late to this thread, but since it still comes up when searching for “contiguous key,” I thought I’d mention that the Paint Bucket effect seems like a good solution. You’d fill the background with a different key color, precomp the layer, then use Keylight to key out the paint bucket color to get a contiguous key.

Just tinkering around with a gif I was able to key out a white background without losing some white elements of the subject. There are a few spots that need some additional work. I was thinking I could use a second Paint Bucket effect with a keyframed Fill Point to knock those out.

[Matthew Woods]

You don’t even need to use a color key or pre-comp for this. Just choose “Stencil Alpha” for your blend mode in the paint bucket effect, then check the “Invert Fill” box. Paint Bucket is an incredibly useful and underrated effect in After Effects. I use it all the time.

-Matt

Check out 9 Slice Scale.
A way to scale graphics while preserving the border and corners.
An FxFactory Plugin for AE, Premiere, Motion and FCP.
https://monadnock.org/9slice/