[Eric Goldstein]

Thanks to everyone for the tips,

I now have a variety of solutions.

Thanks again,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Hi Joe,

Thanks for the information. Xmult so far is the best of the different methods I’ve tried. It’s not perfect, but as you suggest, working with different transfer modes and layers in addition to Xmult seems to be a good solution.

Thanks again,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for your responses.

I do need to output the file with an alpha.

I tried the channel>set matte effect, but couldn’t get anywhere with it. Would someone elaborate on how to work with it in this instance?

I also tried a luma key, but wasn’t able to get close to a reasonable key with the different luminance values present in the lens flare.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

A final note:

After experimenting with many of the methods suggested and some others, the best result I’ve come up with is using two layers: one key for the blue and below it, one key for the green. I expanded the edges of the blue tracking mark key and softened them. I then use use the track matte on the main greenscreen layer to use the blue track mark layer’s alpha.

Thanks again for everyone’s help.

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Thank you all for your thoughts. In the end it’s probably going to be a little of all the solutions mentioned. I’m going to try to avoid masking as much as possible. I’ve been playing around with multiple layers, but so far haven’t gotten a better result than using two keys on the same layer, but I’m still working on it.

The thing that’s hurting the key is that the blue tracking marks were made using blue tape. Even though it’s very slight, there’s a slight edge and therefore a very slight shadow around the tracking marks. It’s this shadow that causing what would otherwise be an easy key to be problematic.

Thanks again,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Hi Joey,

Perhaps I’m not doing it properly. I followed your directions, but got a very transparent version of my foreground scene.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Hey Michael and anyone else. Let me ammend my response. Precomping the first key helped, but didn’t entirely eliminate the problem. The Greenscreen and the blue tracking marks are well lit. But, even precomping the green key, the later blue key forces the edges of the main key to become rough in order to totally eliminate the blue tracking marks.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Hi Michael,

Thanks, precomping the first key solved the problem.

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Frank and Brian,

Thanks again for your help. I found the problem:

My wall was Precomped. I checked collapse layers and thought that the material choices I made to the precomp would act globally on the comped layers. But, apparently it doesn’t work that way.

Once I set the individual layers in the pre-comp to the correct settings, it worked perfectly.

Best,

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com

[Eric Goldstein]

Hi Frank and Brian,

Thanks for your responses. I am using a photoshop file, which I am bringing into AE as a composition containing the various walls of the room I’m building. Photoshop files do, of course, support alphas, but I’m using transparency built into the walls. Could this be the problem?

AE’s lights are behaving as if there is no wall there.

Thanks Brian for the tutorial reference. I’ll take a look.

Eric

Eric Goldstein
Giraffe Film Company
Los Angeles
eric@giraffefilm.com