Promises Promises …… (keying an obkect?)

[John O’brien]

The “Key” to keying in my experience has always been keeping the light even on the background screen. Light from high positons keeps harsh shadowing on the floor — not the key screen. Use a second light to fill in any shawdowing that you’t can’t avoid. The color range tool followed by a mask choker usually results in a decent effect. good luck.

John

[Matt Larson]

Hook up a waveform to the output of your camera while your lighting–you’ll be surprised to see hwat looks evenly lit to the eye isn’t. If you don’t have a WFM, you can use the zebra stripes in your viewfinder if you’re out on location. I always like my screen lit between 60-70% for Keylight. Then light the foreground once your iris is set for the screen

[Michael Szalapski]

This seems a bit odd to me. I once desperately needed some footage of someone talking for a rush job. That someone turned out to be me (when no actors are available, shoot the effects guy, why not?). I needed them (me) keyed out over a background that I designed.

I used a rubbish camera.

I used a bright yellow(!) cloth.

I used no proper lighting whatsoever.

I used three mouse clicks in Keylight and pulled a perfect key. (Granted it was a shot of me so it still looked rubbish…)

What are you trying to key? Is it translucent or wispy? Is it a phone, a person, the local llama?

If you use a different light for your subject than for your greenscreen that would help a lot. If you can use a slight backlight on your subject with an orange filter on it that would also help.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Eran Solomon]

I actually use a green screen , and I already tried with no lights other than my room’s light..
when that didnt work I used a 500w light on my object.(me:) . but still it turned out pretty bad
(dark areas , lots of noise . )
Im using a normal DV video cam.. nothing special.

[Steve Roberts]

You don’t have to key out everything — just the areas close to your subject. Draw a rough mask around the subject to cut out the garbage around the edges, and see if that makes it easier to key. The mask is called a garbage matte. Animate its shape if necessary.

Alternately, try applying the keying effect multiple times with slightly different settings.

That said, some shots cannot be keyed without rotoscoping. (masking by hand)

Steve

[Michael Szalapski]

There is some help in the Cow tutorial land on keying, check them out and see if they’re of any help too.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.