[Grant Swanson]

Hi John,

You would need to edit the original project with the text layer selected…sounds to me like you’re trying to edit the MOV itself.

Grant Swanson
Visual Effects Supervisor
Video Apex – Minneapolis, MN
videoapex.net

[Grant Swanson]

Hi Sean,

If you’re going to be going back and forth between fcp and ae a lot, I would seriously invest in Pro Import AE by Automatic Duck. It’s a bit pricey but it allows you to export your FCP timeline to AE.

Grant Swanson
Visual Effects Supervisor
Video Apex – Minneapolis, MN
videoapex.net

[Grant Swanson]

Hi Dino,

Sure you can use a diffusing spray on the reflective parts, and use a black material under the drum set to reduce the spill as much as possible…

But think about why the spill falls on those shiny parts in the first place. That’s where reflections are supposed to land. Why not mask the reflections out of the key, and take advantage of that spill to add reflections from your new environment later on? It will save you a lot of work and give you a TON more realism. Spill on reflective surfaces gives you a perfect pre-tracked matte to add reflections later on.

That said on objects that move quickly and that normally don’t have reflections go ahead and remove spill before color correcting.

Grant Swanson
Visual Effects Supervisor
Video Apex – Minneapolis, MN
videoapex.net

[Grant Swanson]

Hi Eric,

A great place to start would be here.

If you want a full-fledged book, look into this.

Both are great resources and highly recommended.

Grant Swanson
Visual Effects Supervisor
Video Apex – Minneapolis, MN
videoapex.net

[Grant Swanson]

Hi Tom,

Right-click on the footage in the project panel, and choose Interpret Footage, Main.

Hope this helps!

Grant Swanson
Visual Effects Supervisor
Video Apex – Minneapolis, MN
videoapex.net

[Grant Swanson]

Blahtor-

It is certainly okay to shoot at a higher frame rate-if you can get some decent lighting. If I were you, I would try to get at least one more light, put it behind the actor, and aim it at the green screen. And of course keep the light you already have aiming at the actor.

Then shoot at the 1080 30fps your camera offers. I wouldn’t sacrifice video resolution for a higher frame rate. HD 1080p/i will give you more room to work with when pulling the key and it will make your job a lot easier. Not to mention you’ll have more detail to work with when you do rotoscope work (which will be minimalized if you use the advice above).

Grant Swanson
Visual Effects Supervisor
Video Apex – Minneapolis, MN
videoapex.net

[Grant Swanson]

Hi Corey,

There’s no easy way to do this in AE. Of course using tracking, blending modes and various distort effects, you can come up with something decent…

Check out a program called Monet by Imagineer Systems, the same company that makes Mocha. It’s come in useful many times and is made for just this sort of thing.

Grant Swanson
Visual Effects Supervisor
Video Apex – Minneapolis, MN
videoapex.net

[Grant Swanson]

Brendan-

The Hue/Saturation effect works like this: it takes the hue of the individual color channels and manipulates them independently from the other channels, thus you can change the relationship that pixels have with other colored pixels.

With almost all keying there is roto work involved, but whatever you can do to separate the character from the background to begin with is worth it to save you time, and if it’s for professional work, you certainly can’t afford to take the time and/or money to create a detailed, frame-by-frame animated mask around your character.

Grant Swanson
Visual Effects Supervisor
Video Apex – Minneapolis, MN
videoapex.net

[Grant Swanson]

Brendan–

What I said was to rotoscope out the shadow areas, and use Keylight to key out the green that is not covered in shadow. I also mentioned that since Keylight would be unable to key out the shadows, try using a luma-keyer such as Extract, combined with a garbage mask around the inside of the character.

Blahtor–

I would recommend not shooting at a higher frame rate; even a jump from something like 24 fps to 60 fps will result in a noticeable loss in light, and from what you say, you can’t afford that. To deal with motion blur, my previous advice holds: try to move as little as possible during the shot.

Grant Swanson
Visual Effects Supervisor
Video Apex – Minneapolis, MN
videoapex.net

[Grant Swanson]

Hi Andrew,

This is best dealt with by using some pre–processing.

Basic steps to follow would go like this:

1)Duplicate layer
2)Remove grain
3)Increase contrast
4)Use Hue/Saturation to change purple to blue (may need to create a mask around the character to keep that from becoming blue)
5)Increase saturation
6)CREATE GARBAGE MATTES
7)Take the key(s) from this and use it as an alpha matte for the original

Hope this helps!

Grant Swanson
Visual Effects Supervisor
Video Apex – Minneapolis, MN
videoapex.net