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Horrible Key
I looked through the posts but could not find anything relating to this problem.
I do a lot of chromakey shoots. I am using a Sony DSR-250 DVCAM for acquisition and have had it for a number of years. My main NLE is a Dual 2.5ghz G5 and I am running the latest OS.
I understand that DVCAM is not the best colorspace for keying but over the last couple of version iterations of After Effects (and Final Cut Pro for that matter) I have been experiencing much more difficulty with getting a good edge. My shooting technique has not changed but the software seems to be handling the media differently and frankly not as well – or I am doing something wrong.
Here is the issue. At the edge of the subject and the green screen I am getting this “blocky” edge problem that did not used to show up (as bad). It seems to me that this problem really started getting bad when the software started evolving from RGB to YUV if that is a clue.
I am using the standard key software provided by the program (not any 3rd party plug-ins).
Also, in the recent versions we have the “Fields and Pulldown” issues in the “Interpret Footage” box. I know about pulldown and am not involved in that but I read in the manual that AE is supposed to do a better job with interlaced video by working with each field and then combining them so you are supposed to select “lower field first” (DV) and then “preserve edge quality” but I’m not sure that is helping things either.
I have tried an enormous amount of permutations of settings and still waste huge amounts of editing time every shoot trying to get a key. I generally try to do everything myself but if anyone else has had these issues and has a fix I would appreciate hearing it.
I am going to transition to the Panasonic HVX200 when it comes out and hope the 4:2:2 colorspace fixes all this grief but until then I need to soldier on with the DSR250 and 4:1:1…Brian FitzGerald
FitzVideo.com -
5 Replies
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Well if your using after effects, Why not use “keylight” to create your matte?
This plug-in is far superior and should work well without too much tweaking.Another good technique is to apply some grain removal to your footage to eleminate some of the artifacting.
good luck
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primatte 3 has a really good algorithm for keying DV footage
Pete -
[Pete O’Connell] “primatte 3 has a really good algorithm for keying DV footage”
Dear Pete,
Thanks for the suggestion. I will give it a look.Brian FitzGerald
FitzVideo.com -
[Andrew Kramer] “Why not use “keylight” to create your matte?”
Dear Andrew,
Thanks for your reply. I have never seen Keylight in the basic menu so I assume it is a 3rd party plug-in.
I will take a look at it if you can tell me who makes it. I did a web search but came up empty.Brian FitzGerald
FitzVideo.com -
The Foundry (https://www.thefoundry.co.uk/) develops Keylight and it has shipped with After Effects Professional Edition since v. 6.0. If you have either 6.0 or 6.5 you can find the installation for it on the CD.
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