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Something very broken with Chroma Key Studio…
Hi, are their any other users out there experiencing funky behavior with BCC Chroma Key Studio (CKS)? I’m rather new to the plug-in so I’m not sure what the normal is. (mainly render/export times)
My setup:
MacPro 2007 Octo, 16 GB ram, plenty of HDD, 10.5.8 all up to date, FCS 2 with latest updates. (Updated on April 13th)This morning around 9:00am I was running version 6.0.5 of CKS, which appeared to be doing a great job on a 1080i ProRes piece of Green screen footage about 2:30 seconds in length. That is until I went to export a reference file.
First off it was slated to take roughly 2 hours to complete this task. I figured CKS takes it’s time to render, but 2 hours was seeming a bit ridiculous for such a short clip. (up until this point all the exporting I have done with CKS has been an overnight affair on larger batches) At any rate I had a mind bending meeting to get to so I let the file process. I returned after about 2 1/2 hours and the file was completed, I opened the video to review it and something was horribly wrong.
The composition is a simple talking head with the green being replaced by a standard corporate type setting. The background was fine, it was the talking head that had taken on a totally new appearance, it sort of looked like a bad hologram effect from Star Wars. The subject was pink, semi transparent, full of noise and grain, and had moved almost completely out of frame. *screen shots available upon request*
Okay so this was the first time I used the accompanying Match Color filter and I thought that was giving me the problem. After 15 minutes of exporting a 10 second clip, I was staring at the same holographic result.
Rendering in the time line yields the same result. Uninstalled and reinstalled the CKS unit, same result. Switched to a second identically equipped MacPro, same result on different footage. This problem is affecting both of my edit machines. On the bright side exporting from motion works, and in about half the time! Now since April 13th I am not sure that I or anyone on my team has tried to export CKS footage from the FCP timeline, but I can say for certain I have exported about a dozen clips from Motion. The update (Prokit 5.1 I think) could have borked the plug-in?
Now here I am at 7:15pm, one machine is on the latest version of CKS, 6.0.7x, one is still on 6.0.5. To my surprise the update has fixed my problem! Not to my surprise, I now have a new problem, a much worse problem.
It appears with version 6.0.7x, CKS is completely nonfunctional. As soon as I apply the filter to the clip, the clip disappears and is replaced with garbled pixels that do not resemble the original one bit. (Actually it looks like a cross between whats on my desktop and gray bits from the FCP canvas *screen shots available upon request*) Different colors, no discernible pattern or shape, and when adjusting any parameter their is absolutely no change in what is being displayed in my canvas. The only way to cure the problem, delete the effect. I tried yet another reinstall, and preference trash/cache clear to no avail. To top it all of, now motion locks hard and needs a force quit when applying the filter.
All is not lost, the Chroma key filter, matte choker filter and light wrap filter all still work, but that is not why I bought 2 copies of the plug-in. I bought it for the Chroma Key Studio!
So now I am left hoping that someone, somewhere has tackled this problem and is going to pretentiously point out that I missed some silly little check box under the tab I never flipped down! In the mean time I am reverting to 6.0.5 and am forced to funnel my projects through motion to get a clean export. But in the long run, I have too much volume of Green Screen to make this an acceptable workflow, I simply need batch export from FCP.
Whew, sorry for the long post and thank you for your time.
Phill
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8 Replies
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Phillip,
This is interesting as other customers have reported this fixed with the latest update.
Are you running on a mac pro with dual monitors?
Could you please try, as a test, removing one of the monitors and let me know if the problem persists.
-Matt
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Hi Matt, thanks for taking the time to respond.
Indeed both my systems are dual monitors, both with a Quattro FX 4500 (one 2x 30″, the other 1x 30″ and one cintique). Removing the second monitor on both systems did not solve the pink holographic issue on version 6.0.5.
Upgrading to the latest (6.0.7x) Chroma Key unit did seem to fix the pink holographic issue when exporting/rendering, but it is now causing an entirely new problem…that is the garbled image that doesn’t have any resemblance to the footage, no response from any of the CKS controls(the garble doesn’t change when adjusting the controls), and causing Motion to lock hard needing a force quit…where as Motion was the only way to export correctly on 6.0.5.
This is happening as soon as the filter is applied to the clip in the timeline (6.0.5 looked fine in the timeline/canvas and had a problem when baking…6.0.7 looks bad all the time), and the garbled footage persists during rendering, and exporting.
Running a single monitor with 6.0.7x does not change this behavior either. Disclaimer I only tested this version on one machine.
So as we speak I am again reverting to 6.0.5 so I can use Motion to export…
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Can you try trashing the FCP cache files.
To do so go to the “GO” menu in finder and choose home. Then navigate to Library> Preferences> Final Cut Pro User Data. Trash the “Final Cut Pro OBJ Cache” and “Final Cut Pro Prof Cache” Launch Final Cut Pro and try again.
I would like to know if this helps with the “garbled image” issue.
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Hi Matt,
Clearing the cache did remove the garble, but now when I apply the filter (version 6.0.7x) my canvas simply goes black. I still have no response from the filter’s controls, and Motion still locks hard when applying the filter.Phill
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Phillip,
This is very difficult to diagnose without being able to play with it myself.
Could you send the FCP project file and the pieces of media you are getting this issue with?
You can send the media via yousendit.com
My e-mail is mattm@borisfx.com
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Hi Matt,
I do realize that troubleshooting over the web is a very difficult task. Unfortunately due to the nature of the content I deal with at the large corporation I work for I am not allowed to send any content external.I can tell you that the footage is ProRez 422 (HQ) 1920x1080i60 captured via an AJA Kona on a MacPro. I start with a completely fresh FCP project file and let the sequence conform to my footage
I feel like this is not a footage problem as I have also tried to key 10 bit uncompressed 4:2:2 1920×1080 footage (capture via the same AJA) with the same result.
I will dig around to see if i can find some “safe” content, but even then I risk having a very unhappy corporate lawyer knocking on my door.
I will also try to install 6.0.7 onto a third MP of different specs that never had any version of BCS on it to try a fresh angle.
Thanks,
Phill -
If you could at least send me an RTF copy of the apple system profiler.
I can assure you that we haven’t seen the problem here so it may be a specific issue with your set-up.
Also are you sure you are on 6.0.7.2 and not 6.0.7.1?
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email sent…
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