Real-Time Luma Key

[Jon Zanone]

Sure its possible – as long as you don’t have more than 1 layer of FX (the key + background, no FX).

Are you going to be laying a lot of stuff to tape?

Jon

“So you want to throw out the old you – but the old you is old enough to know it won’t make it better”
Del Amitri – “Make it Better”

[Michael Hancock]

[Collin Alexander] “I’m looking at an older Symphony 3.5 system, or maybe other.”

Why such an old system? The Symphony Meridien’s were hardware based, and they no longer make them. If one of the boards goes out you might have trouble finding a replacement, and if you do it could be very, very expensive since they’re getting harder to find.

Set yourself up with a new Media Composer with Nitris DX or Symphony Nitris or Symphony Nitris DX. You’ll have more realtime capabilities than you’ll know what to do with. Luma key, chroma key, multiple streams of HD playing back in realtime. It’s nice.

And your friend who said a realtime luma key isn’t possible–sound’s like he’s not familiar with Avid. There are systems where it may not be possible, but it’s been possible in Avid since the Meridien days.

Michael.

[Collin Alexander]

Thanks for replies. We were thinking about Symphony 3.5 because we have an opportunity to buy a particular system from a guy. Also, my son just finished his first year of college, and that has got us pretty poor! 😉

But a new system is a possibility also. We really don’t know that much about video. One of our clients at the studio is a jam band, quite good actually. They were asking about the possibility of music video, and especially realtime FX, in keeping with their improvisational approach to music.

Which actually brings up a related point. My son is taking film and TV at school, and needs to write a paper on the history of digital effects. Can anyone suggest a good resource for documenting the capabilities, year by year?