Green Screen Basics for Web?

[Rafael Amador]

Hi Rory,
Go to the FCP forum and type “Green screen”, “Blu screen” or “Chroma key” in the SEARCH window.
There are tons of info about how to get it done in FC.
rafael

http://www.nagavideo.com

[Chris Tompkins]

Do they want the footage keyed out to overlay on a webpage????

You key out your quicktimes in AE or FCP or Avid or APP.

Export to Prores 4444 or animation w/ alpha.
Compress to .SWF file with alpha for the web.

They’ll need flash to do the rest.

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC

[Brad Wright]

There are several good books out there for keying. I recommend the Green Screen Handbook by Jeff Foster or Steve Wright’s books. The most important thing about green screens to know is that your green screen should be perfectly flat and evenly lit. Sure, there’s people that will tell you that there software fixes these problems. However, if you ask an expert, they will tell you the exact same thing. Even lighting and a flat background.

Brad Wright is software engineer, so often hard to figure out what he is talking about. He is always happy to explain answers further.

[Mark Suszko]

I thought this flash keying over the web page thing had died off already; it was hot for a few months like 2 years ago, just because it was new, but viewers rapidly became annoyed by it, because it wasn’t often used with any taste. Maybe your guy has a better application in mind for how to employ it.

Anyway, if the footage is already shot, I find that with a little tweaking, the standard keyer in FCP is no slouch at doing this job, provided the footage is really evenly lit and properly exposed. If the footage is at all problematical, other keyers become the go-to for this, and you can still invoke them thru FCP, if you have them installed. A lot of folks prefer to do their keying in Apple Motion, where they may have access to more keying tools. You may also find that before you key, you’ll want to do some tweaking around in the 3-way color corrector or Apple Color, to optimize the footage first.

The 8-point garbage matte filter in FCP is very nice and intuitive to use, and you can keyframe it if needed. But first try using just the normal image cropping tools in the FCP motion tab to cut out unwanted junk in the scene.

[Stephen Smith]

[Chris]

Export to Prores 4444 or animation w/ alpha.
Compress to .SWF file with alpha for the web.

Can PC guys use Proress 4444 in Flash? If yes that is great news. Every time I do this they want Animation with Alpha. They then bring it into Flash and let flash compress it when it makes the website.

Stephen Smith
Utah Video Productions

Check out my Motion Training DVD

Check out my Motion Tutorials

[Chris Tompkins]

I don’t think so, don’t know for sure.
Prores and WIN.

Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta LLC

[Rory Keenan]

Thanks guy these tips are great.

“You may also find that before you key, you’ll want to do some tweaking around in the 3-way color corrector “

I saw this same tip on older posts about green-screen.
What am I correcting for in the 3-way color corrector?
Do I make the image slightly more magenta, adjust brightness levels…….what am I tweaking for?

“If the footage is at all problematical, other keyers become the go-to for this, and you can still invoke them thru FCP, if you have them installed. A lot of folks prefer to do their keying in Apple Motion, where they may have access to more keying tools.”

• What do you mean “Invoke them thru FCP?
• I’ve seen several suggestions for other keyers. Using Apple Motion sounds good because it means I won’t need to buy software for this project (I also have After Effects ). I’ve never used motion, know of any tutorials on keying in Motion? Any tips on starting it?

Within the Filters folder, what sub-folder is the “8-point garbage matte filter” located in”?

[Rory Keenan]

Thanks guy these tips are great.

“You may also find that before you key, you’ll want to do some tweaking around in the 3-way color corrector “

I saw this same tip on older posts about green-screen.
What am I correcting for in the 3-way color corrector?
Do I make the image slightly more magenta, adjust brightness levels…….what am I tweaking for?

“If the footage is at all problematical, other keyers become the go-to for this, and you can still invoke them thru FCP, if you have them installed. A lot of folks prefer to do their keying in Apple Motion, where they may have access to more keying tools.”

• What do you mean “Invoke them thru FCP?
• I’ve seen several suggestions for other keyers. Using Apple Motion sounds good because it means I won’t need to buy software for this project (I also have After Effects ). I’ve never used motion, know of any tutorials on keying in Motion? Any tips on starting it?

Within the Filters folder, what sub-folder is the “8-point garbage matte filter” located in”?

How do you use “multiple layers” or “multiple instances” of the keyer to key problem areas separately?
I’ve seen suggestions about that in older posts like this one:

“you don’t have to get everything in one pass: you can invoke multiple instances of the keyer and composite them in the FCP timeline so as to treat one troublesome part separate from the rest.”

Can anyone clarify how to do this (I think I may have problematic footage)

[Rory Keenan]

Yes, they want the footage keyed out to overlay on a web page.

Is there any particular codec I should be working in that’s better for keying?
I think the footage was shot on a Panosonic P2, in 1080 at 29.97fps, I think it’s DVCproHD.
Should I transcode to another codec?

“Export to Prores 4444 or animation w/ alpha.
Compress to .SWF file with alpha for the web.”

How do I do this?
Correct me If I’m wrong: it sounds like I export in the FCP Export settings as Prores 4444.
Then I use compressor to save as an .SWF file with alpha for the web.
Do I have that right?

[Stephen Smith]

I’m not a fan of the keyer in Motion. Motion 5 got a better keyer but I have not used it. I love Keylight which comes with AE. The FCP keyer is okay but it is not good with hair and glass.

Stephen Smith
Utah Video Productions

Check out my Motion Training DVD

Check out my Motion Tutorials