Stop Motion/Motion Blur

[John Doe]

Regarding the green screen work: I have never incorporated green screen into a film before, but have run some tests in the past. Shooting on a DV camcorder, I find the major problem to be keying out the background color without getting a grainy image around the subject. What is the best way to alleviate this problem? Also, in lighting the green screen: we are very low budget and don’t have access to studio lighting, leaving us with soft yellow bulbs. As these tend to create shadows, I came to the conclusion that switching to brighter, whiter bulbs would remedy the problem and create a consistent shade of green to key out. I haven’t tried this out, but plan on running some tests in the near future. Suggestions?

Thanks,

Rameen

[Dex Craig]

You might want to check the tutorials — Barend Oneweer (please forgive me if I’ve misspelled the name) did a great one on getting good keys from marginal material in AfterEffects.

One thing to remember when trying to get rid of the artifacts around an object you’re keying from DV footage is the matte choker. It’s simple to use and effective.

If you’re using AE Pro (6.5 or later), you have a key plug in called Keylight. It’s pretty amazing.

You’re right, it’s important to make sure the green screen (which generally seems to produce better results than bluescreen on footage shot in DV) is evenly lit. It’s also important to make sure the greenscreen isn’t significantly over-exposed in the frame; DV has an unfortunate habit of putting a blocky artifacted line around objects when there’s a sharp transition between overexposed (even mildly over exposed) areas and properly or slightly underexposed areas.

Good luck.

[John Doe]

Thinks, I’ll keep your tips in mind.

Rameen