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Harry Potter and the Tracking Points of Fire
Ok, so I got some grief for my use of hot pink tracking points on a green screen recently, and justifiably so, but I just saw like the exact same hue used in this CNN clip filmed behind the scenes of the latest Harry Potter movie:
https://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/07/17/the.scene.potter.prince/index.html
I can’t imagine that they are rotoscoping and masking all that out. And yet, that’s the best I can come up with in AE.
Do they know something I don’t? God, I’m starting to hate those little pink boxes.
– Dan
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2 Replies
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Hey,
It takes a secure man (or motion designer) to use pink!
I think though personal opinion matters most when it comes to what color you use. Kinda like using a blue or green screen. Also what colors are being filmed in that scene? Lastly pink stands out more for it being so far in the distant.
I actually have used a blue marker on a green screen (or the other way around) so that I could just key out the blue after I was finished with the green. Some people prefer white and I’m sure others prefer different colors. Whatever is clearly different in color allowing your motion tracker to distinguish the pixels is what I would recommend. That is probably what they did. They took a step back and recognized that for that shot, using that color would be the best and easiest color for them to track the shot with.
If anyone else has something to say about it, I too would love to hear what you have to say.
Hope this helps!
Jeff Bonano
http://www.bonanoproductions.com -
The format on which you’re shooting makes a difference when you’re keying later. Colors show up on film differently than they show up on DV which is different from XDCAM which is different from…etc. etc.
Also, what you’re keying out makes a difference. If it’s a shot of things occurring at in a field in the dark and the human actors have makeup on their faces to make them more brown…perhaps pink would work for your tracking points.
As mentioned previously; some people use a lighter shade of green for tracking, others use blue or white…
It all depends on your particular situation what colors work best. In your situation, as I recall, pink wasn’t the best choice. It’s a lesson from which you can learn.
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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