[Max Jackson]

Hi Dave!

I’m pulling a luma key/matte, and yes the footage isn’t that great:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/994740

It’s really noisy footage too. I did a color reverse channel blur on green, but it didn’t help too much. So yeah, blonde hair on white with noisy, semi-grade footage has been an interesting challenge.

That might be a reason I’m having a more difficult time. I’ve gotten close though, just need to try a couple more things. Then I’m going to have to put up a thread looking for more white cyc backgrounds to practice on. 😛

[Max Jackson]

Cool, I’ll try apply fast blur, and matte choker instead of simple choker.

I’d post the files but they’re copyright sensitive and don’t want to get in trouble. I’m just using them because it’s a great real job scenario demonstration to work with. What’s funny is their resolution isn’t that great. If you check my blog in the main AE forum you’ll see what I mean. 😛

Thanks Joey! You’ve been a great help!

[Max Jackson]

Yeah, totally. That’s what I started doing using the blue channel. Joey told me how to filter all of them through a color using the Shift Channels.

I chose blue because I was dealing with blonde on white and it come out the most contrasty on a channel-to-channel check.

Even though I couldn’t quite get past the white fuzz. It sounds like this is a common method for what everybody does. It’s late here in California, but I’ll practice some more tomorrow and then try a few more tweaks to get it solid.

Thanks Angie! 😀

[Max Jackson]

Hi there,

Yes, I started out using it a bit, but since the blond hair was so much like the white BG it seemed like the wrong way to go for a luma key/matte.

Should I have played more with the bias settings?

[Max Jackson]

Yeah, it was more effective in getting the matte reverse to come out using the choke. But I clicked color key on the thick yellow (anti-blue) trace and it turned grey (which I guess makes sense as they cancel each other out).

Minimax looks like a cool effect, but…I feel I’ve started to hit a dead end using a choke method as I’m using color and not luma values. I might try that smart blur and maybe a linear color key in reverse somehow…maybe?

It feels I’m really close and in some instances might get away with it. I might be trying to do too much in one key again too.

Thanks Joey! 😀

[Max Jackson]

That worked pretty good, but I’ve still got a large deal of light reflection on her head. That and a small light white line around the matte.

If I push the blue too hard it eats into the reflection on her head. Is that something that commonly has to be rotoscoped? I’d use a choker of some kind that works with this approach?

The simple choker’s grabbing the entire comp and not the matte.

[Max Jackson]

breeze, the a fan blowing from one side to make her look like she’s running really fast.

Once she’s still it’s not too difficult. I can seem to pull a pretty good matte in the blue channel, but I have no idea how to translate what I see in that channel with the levels pumped into the full RGB.

Is there another option, or is that the idea? (not that there has to be just one)

[Max Jackson]

Cool, that’s what I thought. I’m actually practicing this at home. However, if I were on the job, I’d want to know what to tell the client in good faith.

Thanks Ted!

[Max Jackson]

Hi Ronald,

Thanks a bunch for the in-depth response.

I had no idea that one of my little trivial yet poignant questions could be so revealing. Your response to my humble questions of origin regarding cows and creativity is very inspiring.

I have a proclivity to be quite “wordy” in blog response so I’ll try to curb my enthusiasm. I will say that such a reveal to such an ordinary question really makes me re-think my approach to media application and creative solutions.

Thanks a bunch for taking the time to answer my question. I really wasn’t being disingenuous. Being honest and asking naive questions is sometimes a good thing.

Take care (oh, and your secret is safe :D)
-m

[Max Jackson]

I would but I’m animating each letter individually. I played with the Ramp Up setting and made something that should work. I still don’t really know what I’m doing, but I guess it’s just one of those things that takes practice.

Thanks Joey. 🙂