Difference between two layers

[Ann Bens]

After effects is the way to go: rotoscoping or use a greenscreen the next time you are filming

[Bernhard Walzl]

There is surely some smarter way than rotoscoping and AE.

Currently I am playing with difference matte, nesting and then keying etc. It does work but its just a bit tricky because I have to nest, I was wondering if there is some smarter way to do this.

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Bernhard,

In the olden days it was called a “difference key”.
Within Adobe that appears now to be called a “Difference Matte”.
Not sure that you can avoid going via After Effects, but there are tutorials out there that will take you through the process.

It is late where I am, so I haven’t watched the whole video from Jake In Motion, but it looks close enough:
https://youtu.be/ciX-roxC4oQ?si=EHrBFvt3M1o8Q5ZP
And, if you are brave, you might be able to replicate in PPro.

But Difference key is most likely only to work on a locked-off tripod shot, where the background on both layers is identical with no movement.

If you don’t have that, you’ll need to follow Ann Bens’ advice above.

Good Luck!

Atb
Mads

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[Bernhard Walzl]

This is perfect. Too bad this effect is listed under “obsolete” in Premiere. I am wondering what they want me to replace this with in future versions.

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Bernhard,

Fab, that you got the fix that you needed!

Yes, obsolete, but it is still there – what gives?

Currently, if your subject is moving through the shot, you can use Mocha (BorisFX – included in some of their plug-ins for PPro, and basic version in After Effects).
Or, if go down the Adobe “contemporary” option of using the Content Aware Fill in After Effects which involves some AI generative processing.

Both Mocha and Adobe is for the right shot, really good choices.
But will not beat the speed and quality of a good difference key.

Atb
Mads

[Bernhard Walzl]

I avoid obsolete effects because this means that in a future version the effect is gone and I will get an error when opening an older project. Hence I couldn’t do changes and reexport it because of the missing effect.

Your answer is still very helpful, I am going this path for now but will have to find a better solution in the future.

For context: I film people presenting a power point presentation. Because it’s difficult to read whats written on the projector, I export the power point to JPEG images and then overlay them in my videos. So the viewer can much better read whats written and it looks nice. However, ever so often the presenter puts his hands in front or walks in front of the screen and in order to avoid rotoscoping I use this difference effect. It is working and looks good, but my current setup of double-nesting and several effects is quite a brain knot. I am looking for a simpler solution.

[Mads Nybo jørgensen]

Hey Bernhard,

There are easier ways of inflicting pain on yourself, than working with “actors” jumping around on a stage in front of your screen.

But if they have the money, then why not.

However, in those situations, I cut to the slide full-screen (from file supplied by client), or frame it on to a static or moving background (in case slide is 4:3 and master needs to be 16:9).
You could also build a Zoom like split with presenter on one side, and slide on the other.

Obviously, I am not being helpful here. Sorry 😉

And, don’t worry, even if Adobe calls it “obsolete”, difference key/matte will always survive in one form or another.

Atb
Mads

[Bernhard Walzl]

Thanks for your suggestions. I do this sometimes too with a zoom style, its style is accepted in some cases. I usually cut to full screen when the presenter is in front which mostly works but when it’s too often then there it simply no other solution to fall back to magic 🙂

Thanks for your comments!

[Santanu Bhattacharjee]

Obsolete only means that that they use old tech. May be not use 32/64 bit processing. However they they do work but at the cost of the CPU and not the GPU. Adobe plans to phase out all such CPU based effects in the future and have put them in the Obsolete bucket.

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