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Step away from the Apple Keyer now! (And build a better one of your own.)
Looking more closely at the Apple Keyer in FCP X and Motion 5 recently, made me aware that it is pretty unsuited to most keying situations that require you to resolve fine edge detail.
Some sharp wit commented recently that it’s great for keying bald men – I think that needs to be revised to “bald men in tightly fitting catsuits”.
Here’s a tutorial that shows you how to build your own keyer in Motion 5 that will both allow you to maintain fine edge detail and transparency, and set up a spill suppression routine that will give you better results than the extremely curious ones you get from Apple’s own offering.
I’ve posted this in the Techniques forum already, but I thought it would make an interesting talking point – why is Apple’s keyer not better than it is? I think I know the answer but what do you think?
On a side note, it was interesting in preparing this tutorial to see how well suited Motion is to building the kinds of composites you need for this job.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
59 Replies
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Simon,
Thank you for your helpful expertise and plug-ins over the years; I have found them helpful and enriching. I appreciate your contributions.
About the keyer, your tutorial is helpful and full of subtle “tricks.” I was wondering if the method you are outlining can be made into a FCP X custom filter so that one could achieve similar results from within FCP X?
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Simon, that was fantastic. Thank you.
Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf -
Thanks very much, Herb 🙂 It pleases me no end that you found it interesting.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Eli Hollander] “About the keyer, your tutorial is helpful and full of subtle “tricks.” I was wondering if the method you are outlining can be made into a FCP X custom filter so that one could achieve similar results from within FCP X?”
Thanks, Eli.
Yes, indeed. As I mentioned to Jeremy over on the Techniques forum, it would be perfectly possible to publish the controls you need to be able to make use of this inside FCP X.
You’d obviously need to start building it in a Motion Effects project rather than just a standard composition.
There might be complications I haven’t thought of but in principle it should work. It’s important to make sure you sue clones throughout where indicated rather than substituting duplicates.
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
Very well done, Simon. Shows how valuable a fundamental understanding of compositing can be. I believe you mentioned your intention to try PixelConduit at some point… were you ever able to do that? Do you see PC as a viable alternative to the built in keyers for FCPX and Motion?
Thanks,
Shawn
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[Shawn Miller] “Very well done, Simon. Shows how valuable a fundamental understanding of compositing can be. I believe you mentioned your intention to try PixelConduit at some point… were you ever able to do that? Do you see PC as a viable alternative to the built in keyers for FCPX and Motion?”
Thanks, Shawn.
Obviously you will know that this is just scratching the surface of a huge and very complex topic (and hugely over-simplifying in the process) but I thought it would be useful for less experienced users to understand the concepts under-the-hood of their favourite keyers.
Knowing how to make it happen means you can get better results than just pulling the sliders around without really understanding what they do – an exercise in frustration for a lot of users I have encountered.
As for Conduit, I started using it many years ago and it really is an amazingly good thing – in terms of keying it really is a pretty high end tool quality-wise and from the perspective of being able to build really powerful keying tools from the basic building blocks. It is very definitely not a toy in any sense (unlike some of the rubbish that Apple offer up as professional!)
Pauli is a massive talent – it’s just a shame that he never seems to have attracted the investment to make something more of what he’s developed.
Sadly it’s not very performant in Motion (and hence FCP X) which is a shame. But I’d love to see it get some more attention.
I used to use Conduit Live for real-time on-set keying and that’s a really brilliant tool as well.
Have you used it much?
Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com -
[Simon Ubsdell] “Some sharp wit commented recently that it’s great for keying bald men”
I both made and resemble that comment.
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Aww, c’mon Simon. HINT HINT! People would pay loads for a keyed that works in X as good as your tutorial.
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[Simon Ubsdell] “…Obviously you will know that this is just scratching the surface of a huge and very complex topic (and hugely over-simplifying in the process) but I thought it would be useful for less experienced users to understand the concepts under-the-hood of their favourite keyers.
Knowing how to make it happen means you can get better results than just pulling the sliders around without really understanding what they do – an exercise in frustration for a lot of users I have encountered.”
Absolutely! I was really impressed by your ability to pare your explanations down to the basics and to present only the most useful information on the subject. IMO, that’s an enviable talent in and of itself. 🙂
[Simon Ubsdell] “As for Conduit, I started using it many years ago and it really is an amazingly good thing – in terms of keying it really is a pretty high end tool quality-wise and from the perspective of being able to build really powerful keying tools from the basic building blocks. It is very definitely not a toy in any sense (unlike some of the rubbish that Apple offer up as professional!)
“Totally agree. I think I first heard about Conduit from Alex Lindsay at NAB a number of years ago. I really loved the mission; to make a stable, powerful and inexpensive compositing tool that didn’t require a fire breathing beast of a machine (like everything from Autodesk did). I believe I purchased a license that night when I got back to my hotel room.
[Simon Ubsdell] “Pauli is a massive talent – it’s just a shame that he never seems to have attracted the investment to make something more of what he’s developed.”
Yes, I believe that’s why he dropped support for Windows. Just not enough time/resources to develop for multiple platforms. Even so, I also wish Conduit was more popular. It’s one of those tools that everyone should be using. I mean, the core application is free, isn’t it? And if I’m not mistaken, the advanced add on pack (or whatever it’s called) is like $100 US… right? Anyone on a Mac who is remotely interested in compositing really should have PixelConduit – no excuses. 🙂
[Simon Ubsdell] “Have you used it much?”
Yes, I was able to use it on a few real projects before the demise of the Windows version. It was a much more powerful application than the price tag suggested, and I really enjoyed using it. I started learning Nuke a few years after that (for my node based compositing fix), but it’s just way out of my price range. Now I’m slowly embracing MambaFX, hoping that the industry acceptance of Mystika will fund further development. As much as I like Adobe’s suite of tools, I also like to have a parallel set of applications that I can rely on… just in case. 🙂
Shawn
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[Simon Ubsdell] ” why is Apple’s keyer not better than it is? I think I know the answer but what do you think?”
Because they are incompetent and the keyed works great for youtube cat videos so why bother improving it? 😀
Nice tutorial BTW. Thanks for that!
Anyway, assuming my answer to your question is correct… do you think the built Apple in keyer is just badly designed? Or does it just need some more love to make it better? You know, for lazy people such as myself. 😉
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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~
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