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Serious Green Screen Woes
All right, I have a full painted green screen set (floor and two perpendicular walls.) I have been trying to get a good key and I am having a heck of a time. First I ended up covering one of the walls and the floor so I could just start with one green area – similar to a standard green screen. Then, I have a set of 7 Kino Flo florescent Diva-lites (201 and 401) I have two 401s shining down onto the green screen from above at about a 45 degree angle. Then I have the subject set about 10 feet from the screen. I have one backlight at about a 45 degree angle directly behind her head. Then I have two side lights just slightly behind her on each side. I then have a 401 with a 1 F-stop Flozier to soften it up as a key light on the right side and a 201 on the left as a fill light. Everything I have read would say this is an excellent lighting set-up… none of the light from the background interferes with the light on the subject or vice versa. I kept the subject a fair distance from the screen and then kept the camera another 10 feet or so and zoomed in on the subject to lessen the depth of field and throw the background out of focus.
BUT, after all of that I’m still not getting a strong key. It’s close… but it’s just not there. I can’t seem to get rid of the green around the hair and the clothes and such. I use FCP to edit. I apply color smoothing 4:1:1 then apply the schroma key filter with a minimal amount of feather, just enough to soften rough edges. Then I use matte choker and spill suppressor if necessary. Although I hate spill suppressor because it always puts an unnatural dark line around the edges… practically impossible to use on a blonde.
SO can anyone help me?? I feel like I am doing everything right and it is just not yielding results that I need. I see 12 year-olds on Youtube making perfect chromakeys in their garage and it frustrates me to no end that I can’t seem to create a good result and I have all the right equipment. PLEASE HELP! I am at the end of my rapidly fraying rope here! haha
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13 Replies
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Nobody raves about the FCP built in Chroma Keyer. That’s why there are lots of plugins for keying in FCP. But before you search the forum for recommended plugins, try the keyer in Motion to see if that gets the result.
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Jessica,
You told everything under the sun about your lighting setup that was used in production, but nothing about the video codec you’re editing/keying in post.
Help us to help you by giving us the info we need about things we can help you with…
THNX,
DavidDavid Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
http://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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David, thank you for the response. I’m shooting on a Canon Gl2 mini-dv camcorder. Standard definition dv codec. Is there any other information I can provide to help? I really appreciate the help! Thank you.
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Michael, thanks so much. I haven’t tried the keyer in motion yet but I will definitely give it a go. Green spill is the biggest issue that Im having right now, just a green haze around my subjects no matter what I do. so frustrating. thanks for the tip, Ill be sure to let you know how it goes!
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[Jessica Newman] “color smoothing 4:1:1”
Yecch, are you shooting DV?
Chromakeying DV25 is not one of life’s greatest pleasures…
If so, start by moving your Project to DVCPRO50 to get 4:2:2 output from your filters.
Also, blondes are hard to shoot against green screen.
For that, you’re better off with blue screen.
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The Keyer in FCP is terrible. If you have access to After Effects CS4/5, then Keylight will probably make mincemeat of the key, even if you shot DV.
If you don’t have this, or a better keyer plugin in FCP, use the keyer in Motion, but add a matte around it first, so you’re only dealing with the areas near the subject, not the corners of the frame.
Don’t think you’re going mad – I’ve never achieved an acceptable key in FCP, even with HDCam footage.
Ben
Edit Out Ltd
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FCP Editor/Trainer/System Consultant
EVS/VT Supervisor for live broadcast
RED camera transfer/post
Independent Director/Producerhttps://www.blackmagic-design.com/casestudies/detail.asp?case=therydercup
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I agree…trying to key in Final Cut is incredibly frustrating. Keylight in AE will usually produce a very nice key even on lousy DV footage. If you don’t have After Effects, put your footage into Motion. Not the best…but TONS better than Final Cut.
Brian
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Thanks BJ. I had no idea that DV was so difficult to use for Chromakey work. But that certainly looks like the problem judging from everyone’s responses. I will try what you mentioned and hopefully it’ll help some! And thanks for the bluescreen tip, I hadn’t even thought of that.
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Thank you Ben! You have no idea how much better it makes me feel to hear that others have had issues like what I’m dealing with too. I was starting to think there was no hope for me! I’m going to try using motion today and then if that doesn’t yield good results I may purchase after effects or look into another FCP plug-in. If I go the plug-in route do you have any suggestions as to a good one?
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[Jessica Newman] “I had no idea that DV was so difficult to use for Chromakey work.”
You might enjoy reading this:
https://www.neopics.com/bluescreen/
The solutions listed at the bottom of the page are outdated, but the section explaining the technical reasons for DV’s shortcomings is well illustrated.
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