[Andrei Popa]

Yes, compositing is not my main thing, and I think I was kind of blocking that out of my mind, because the girl would have to be rotoscoped, which is something I’d like to avoid….

Is there something like an auto-rotoscope tool, or some kind of mask that auto-follows a shape, or another way to cut the girl out without rotoscoping?

[Andrei Popa]

https://tinypic.com/r/vreq92/8

In the picture above I have the keyed out person (black) on top of the other person.

I get get this or blended, but never the girl on top of the keyed person.

I just think I realised while it’s not working while writing this.

The keyed person is alpha, but the girl is with the background.

So I would actually need 3 layers, background, girl alpha, keyed person alpha.

[Andrei Popa]

Hi Robin,

Done the Alpha Channel.

I have this keyed out and alpha’d person, and I want to combine it with another layer that contains another person, and I’d like the layers to behave Photoshop style.

By that I mean either one should cover the other, depending which one is on top.

I can’t manage to do that.

No matter which layer is on top and what blend mode I use, both layers as visible.

I would like one person to cover parts of the other, depending how they move in the picture.

Any thoughts on this?

Andrei

[Andrei Popa]

What do you mean “if they aren’t 3D” ?

Was that the answer or did it got truncated?

[Andrei Popa]

It seems it was a bug.

I deleted the Keylight effect, re-dragged it and I can do it up to this point in Dave’s description:

“You should see a blue-guy-shaped hole.”

Yes I have that, and if I press the checkerboard button I have a checkerboard filled shape.

Dave now says:

“Apply the Invert effect. You should now see the blue guy….”

I don’t have a blue person though….

The background kind of goes negative film in looks and the person is black if I add invert under Keylight and orange if I add it above.

What is not right here?

[Andrei Popa]

Hi Daniel,

Actually I did find that checkerboard button and it does absolutely nothing.

Of course if I move the composition it is underneath, but that’s it.

What I’m aiming to do is have this keyed character cut out, so having only the person without the background (I have a person in a full body blue suit), render it on an alpha channel.

And then combine it with another piece of footage.

[Andrei Popa]

Hi Dave,

Sorry for the late reply…

Had some health issues that needed taking care of.

By pulling the key, you mean turning the key off is this correct? I used the Keylight effect so I should just turn this off right?

Where are the alpha only or the photoshop checkerboard buttons….

Thanks,

Andrei

[Andrei Popa]

I understand about the 3 layers.

I know about & understand rotobrush, but I’m not very good at it, so I’ll have to practice more.

Honestly I was expecting a transparent background too…., so obviously, something went wrong when exporting.

I exported in ProRes 4444 (RGB+Alpha), as I understand 4444 is the only ProRes that supports transparency…

Is it possible that transparency did not work is because I exported just the matte view?

When I keyed it out the person in the blue suit and it became black, I selected the matte view, so I got a black person on a white background.

I probably wrongly assumed that the white background is a transparency and exported like that in matte view…

My questions are:

Is this the reason I did not get a transparent background with the black person, because the white in matte view is not transparent?

Is there a way after you keyed out a person, to export just the keyed person on a transparent background, or will I have to rotobrush the black person as well?

What other codecs besides ProRes 4444 support alpha?

Thanks

Andrei

[Andrei Popa]

Layer1(on top) is the girl with the background.

Layer2(bottom) is a person dressed in a blue suit, which I keyed out, selected the matte view (to make it black), and rendered it out in matte view with an alpha channel. So this layer by itself looks like the black person with a white background.

Andrei

[Andrei Popa]

Hi Dave,

I posted a link of the screenshot above, because uploading directly does not seem to work, here it is again:

https://tinypic.com/r/vreq92/8

I’m not assuming AE is PS on steroids, I was just explaining what I’m trying to achieve, and the analogy with PS seemed the easiest and clearest way to convey it.

It’s not a pain in the neck, I understand it works differently, and that’s why I started this thread to learn how to do it.

Andrei

P.S. If i want to ask how this would work in Motion as well, is it enough to leave it here, or should I post in the Motion part of the forums as well?