FS700 Green Screen 2K RAW Workflow to FCP or Adobe

[Jeff Kirkland]

You’re in a FCPX forum so you know what the answer’s going to be 🙂 Ultimately though, the keyers in either app are fine. The final result is really going to depend on how well the footage was shot (quality of lighting, frame rate, etc) and how experienced you are with your keyer of choice.

Try ’em both and see what you like. As with any workflow, now matter what we might say you’ll still have to test it for yourself and make your own decision.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Dennis Radeke]

You might find this helpful as a comparison if green screen is a big deal for you. https://www.greenscreenstudios.ca/2012/09/10/why-we-switched-to-adobe-premiere-pro-and-love-it/

[Bill Davis]

Perhaps relevant quote from the article Dennis referenced above:

“Granted, FCP X was much more responsive but we just couldn’t get our heads around the GUI in fact, I wrote about this in an article  last year shortly after the debut.”

Which would date the article as being nearly 3 years old – or around the era of FCP X 10.0.3

Probably time for someone with a quality green screen facility to see how the algorithms stack up – with the code as it exists in both programs today – if a useful contemporary comparison is the goal.

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[Jeremy Garchow]

[Dave Victorson] “What is my workflow going to be? Trying to sort it out with DaVinci with no success.
“

Meaning you can’t see the files in davinci or that you’re trying to key the footage in davinci without any luck?

[Jeff Kirkland]

[Bill Davis] “”Granted, FCP X was much more responsive but we just couldn’t get our heads around the GUI in fact, I wrote about this in an article  last year shortly after the debut.””

That comparison gets trotted out a lot but it just confirms my post above. They got a good result from the software they knew how to use and not so much from FCPX which they clearly didn’t understand.

[Bill Davis] “Probably time for someone with a quality green screen facility to see how the algorithms stack up – with the code as it exists in both programs today – if a useful contemporary comparison is the goal.”

I’d suggest it’s the fringe cases that really test a keyer. Luckily people seem to be very good at shooting bad chromakey footage so there’s no shortage of test material.

I’ve yet to find a one-size-fits-all keying solution but the keyer in FCPX comes mighty close. It’s rare I have to send any footage out to After Effects these days. Usually just the stuff that needs additional roto work.

Having shot similar footage a couple of years ago of someone signing that had to be keyed into the corner of a presentation, I can say FCPX will key it just fine. The real key to success is making sure its well lit and shot with the shutter speed high enough that there’s no motion blur on the signer’s fingers – otherwise it’s a nightmare no matter what keyer you use.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Dave Victorson]

Hi Jeff –

We did the shoot but I haven’t seen the results yet.

You brought up an interesting point about the shutter speed that is making me nervous.

What is fast enough?

I won’t be able to see anything until next week at the earliest.

Thank you,

Dave

[Dave Victorson]

Hi Jeremy –

The question is really 2 parts.

1. When do I do the color adjustment on the raw file? Before or or after keying out the green and adding background scenery?
2. How do I export out of DaVince with no compression in a format that is compatible with FCX or Adobe Premiere?

Thank you,

Dave

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Dave Victorson] “1. When do I do the color adjustment on the raw file? Before or or after keying out the green and adding background scenery?”

There’s a few ways to do this, but generally, if starting with a flat image, you will need to apply a LUT to the footage to get a good key, and then you composite, and then you should color correct the image to match the other background/foreground elements in the scene.

[Dave Victorson] “2. How do I export out of DaVince with no compression in a format that is compatible with FCX or Adobe Premiere?”

It depends on your needs, but you could export 444 ProRes out of DaVinci and be just fine, or you can do an “offline” where you export ProRes LT or Proxy movies out of DaVinci, do the edit, then use DaVinci to relink to the Raw, and send that over to another application for composite.

It really depends on where you are planning to do the compositing and editing.

[Jeff Kirkland]

Hi Dave,

The right shutter speed really depends on the situation but a 90 degree shutter is a good starting point. So that’d be 120fps at 30p. Basically as far as you can push it without it looking too jerky. If the motion blur matters, there are plugins that can do a pretty good job of adding it back in post.

Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland

[Dave Victorson]

The plan is to composite edit etc. in either FCP or Adobe Premier with added effects from either Motion or AE.

Due to the fast moving hands and fingers in American Sign Language I need uncompressed video for the keying and want to work in as high a resolution as possible until the final render/export for web based viewing.

Ideally I only use DaVinci for the initial LUT and then never go back to it.

Is this possible?

Dave