Good Chroma Key Possible Without Extra Plugins ?

[Walter Biscardi]

To answer your question the answer is yes if:

1 – The set is properly lit. That is good lighting on the green screen / cyc and good lighting on the talent.

2 – Good separation between the talent and the green screen / cyc. Put the talent too close and you have green cast all over everything.

3 – You shoot on a high quality format like DigiBeta, Uncompressed HD.

If you don’t do all of the above, then you’re going to want a good plug-in like the Boris Continuum package.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
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Biscardi Creative Media

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[Arnie Schlissel]

I prefer to do most of my keying with Shake for just this reason. The odds are against getting perfectly lit and staged keys, even when experienced pros are shooting them. Shake offers a lot of extra flexibility when building a key.

And getting good keys is usually a multi stage process, often involving breaking a shot up into separate sections and building separate keys that get combined into a single matte.

Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/

[John Fishback]

IMHO, Motion’s keyer (Primatte) is better than FCPs.

John

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[Rafael Amador]

The keyers mentioned by Arnie and John, are better (much more advanced) than the default FCs Chroma Key. But I would recommends you to use the FC’s CK for two reasons:
– Indeed is a very good filter that works in 32b Floating Point.
– You should learn to light and pull a key with this “classic CK” filter before to try to go to a more advanced system.
Learn to drive a motorbike before you try to drive a truck.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Howard Ferguson]

Hi Rafael,

That is a very good point.

If I wanted to fix some segments, with unintentional green splash on the subject, from the incorrect lighting . . .

Is that possible solely in Final Cut ?

Thanks to all for your help !

Howard

[Rafael Amador]

try the Spill Suppressor Green filter.
Rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Mark Suszko]

A trick I use sometimes is to not try to do the final composite in one go, but to first create a new greenscreen shot from the old one, replacing the original green from the camera with one from the matte generator, THEN making the full composite off of that. And it needn’t be green you replace with, if later you think blue works better.

[Alan Okey]

[Arnie Schlissel] “getting good keys is usually a multi stage process, often involving breaking a shot up into separate sections and building separate keys that get combined into a single matte. “

This is the most overlooked/ignored aspect of pulling a good key, and it’s often because it involves something that many people aren’t willing to do, which is work.

90% of the time when someone asks this question in a forum, they don’t want to actually take the time to learn how to build a good key, they want a quick and easy one-click solution.

I’ll posit this theorem:

The quality of a key is directly proportional to A) the amount of care taken in shooting the footage and B) the amount of effort put into building and finessing the key.

If a lot of time and care was taken in setting up a green screen shot, there is a much higher likelihood of having a satisfactory result form using a one-click keying solution. Since in the real world most green screen footage isn’t perfectly shot, this means that you’ll need to take the time to learn about all of the different keying options and associated tools at your disposal, and learn how to build a good key. No two shots are alike, and pursuing a one-size-fits-all solution will end in a low rate of success.

Of course most editors probably don’t want to become compositors, so this might be asking too much of them. But there’s no free ride – the choices are to A) pick the easiest option and live with a less than perfect key, B) take the time to learn and practice and become competent in creating great keys, or C) hire a compositor to do it.

There are so many parts of the problem to address, and so many tools and techniques relevant to the process. Here’s a short list for starters:

– chroma sampling and its impact on key quality (4:1:1 vs 4:2:2, etc.)
– garbage mattes (rotoscoped or procedural)
– core mattes and edge mattes
– spill suppression

I can’t recommend enough dvGarage’s Conduit plugin for Final Cut Pro. It has everything you need to get under the hood and build a great key for any given shot. It doesn’t have the roto tools of a dedicated compositing app, but for most basic work it’s a fantastic toolbox and a great way to learn about compositing. Shake users will feel right at home. The video tutorials on the dvGarage site are spectacular.

https://www.dvgarage.com/prod/prod.php?prod=conduit2

At only $200, it’s a steal. Of course it won’t satisfy anyone who is looking for a quick one-click soluton for keying, but it’s infinitely more powerful and flexible than one-click solutions. It requires a commitment to learning and practicing to get good results.

What’s the old proverb? Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime. Or something like that.

Having a one-click keyer that works some of the time is not nearly as useful as knowing how to build your own keyer and how to work to create a perfect key every time.

[Mark Suszko]

I’m one editor who can’t get enough of compositing, I figure its just another editing tool.

And the old saying goes:

“Build a man a fire, you keep him warm for a night.
SET a man on fire; you keep him warm his whole life:”

[Stu Siegal]

I have to second Alan’s recommendation. I always hated pulling keys, but dvgarage is some of the best $200 I’ve spent. Once you get comfortable with it, which doesn’t take long, it will save you much time, which is, of course, money.

http://www.verite-media.com