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Free TKY “Pleasantville” Effect
I wanted to see how easy it would be to build a chroma keyer from scatch inside of Motion 5, so this effect is the result of that experiment.
This effect allows you to select a color from your source image (using the Mac Color picker) and then make the rest of the image black and white. You can also use the Invert.Key switch to quickly have the reverse effect. There is also a control for boosting the selected colour for extra impact.
3498_tkypleasantvilleeffect.zip
The default is for the Desaturation switch to be Off so that you can properly select your key colour. Once you have done so, turn on the View.Key switch to see a grayscale image of the key.
To get the required result you will need to tweak the Strengthen.Kept.Color and the Strengthen.Excluded controls (while looking at the View.Key) for firming up the key depending on your source image.
once you are happy with the key, then turn on the Desaturate.On/Off switch to see the result.
As I say, this is an experiment and the chroma keyer might not work immediately in all cases. If you find that the key looks completely black, then you will need to boost the luminance of the key color – you can do this with the individual sliders but it’s best to use the luminace slider in the Mac Color Picker.
Of course, you can do all this in the Color Board, but a) I thought it would be an interesting challenge to make the keyer from scratch, and b) with this effect you can actually see the key while you’re working on it (which is quite a big plus), and also you can blur the key (which is a feature that isn’t available on the Color Board).
Many thanks to Andy Neil for pointing me in the direction of the Motion 5 Channel Mixer filter which is the “key” to building this keyer.
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
2 Replies
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thanks for all your work in the past Simon
Adstream London, England
4 x Mac Pros, FCP7, 4 x Flip Factories, 35 x Rhozet Carbon Coders, Offices Globally
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Thanks, Craig!
For anyone interested in this effect, I’ve made a short video showing it in action and explaining how it works:
There is also now an improved version with the ability to mask around the keyed area (4-point mask with onscreen controls) to eliminate unwanted areas; also controls for adjusting the black/white/gamma balance of the black & white area for extra punch, as well as a tint option to give a colour cast to the black & white areas.
3516_tkypleasantvilleeffect.zip
I should add as a bit of background that (as I mentioned) the original purpose of this exercise was to see how far it would be possible to build a chroma keyer inside Motion 5 for use in FCPX. This is actually a necessary function as thing stand since it is not possible to publish the Motion 5 keyer in any workable fashion, otherwise ruling out effects that rely on a chroma key.
The Channel Mixer (new to Motion 5) has meant that there is almost enough control to build a keyer as seen in this example – but the big limitation remains that it is not possible to use conditional expressions directly inside Motion 5, and hence (as the video explains) it is necessary to use a bit of manual intervention to get the best key in some situations.
Expressions are of course one of the major strengths of After Effects and an absolutely essential feature of all the major compositing applications. In this area more than any other Motion still shows itself to be an application that doesn’t quite know its market. Hopefully however Apple are now taking it more seriously and we may well see some major improvements in terms of higher-end functionality – or we may not!?!
Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com
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