Nicholas Ramsey
June 23rd, 2008, 11:12 AM
I am starting to explore the options of chroma keying and was wondering if anyone new any good articles to read. Especially articles that discuss JVC HDV or HDV in general. I have so many questions and I have only just begun! thanks.
Kennedy Maxwell
June 23rd, 2008, 02:06 PM
There are a number of good threads here dealing with Green Screen. A search will find them. The best are the comments at: dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=120834&highlight=green+screen.
Good luck,
Ken
David Scattergood
June 23rd, 2008, 05:02 PM
Hi Nicholas - indeed - follow the link sent by Kennedy (and this other I created in the photon management thread should you need lighting advice).
http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=121251
FCP and Motion do a really good job by the way.
I'm no expert but I can share my experiences in getting a pretty good key should you need any further tips.
Cheers.
Nicholas Ramsey
June 23rd, 2008, 08:52 PM
Thank you both, I will check out the articles. and Im sure I will be back soon when I know which questions to ask... I have A LOT!
David Scattergood
June 25th, 2008, 06:03 AM
Nicholas...whilst you're on...you might want to look into 'light wraps' on your completed green screen. Not sure if some of the more professional folk on here would recommend it but it made some of footage far more realistic (I've added an example of a light wrap below). I'd worry about that last though and make sure you've lit everything and followed a few basic rules first off.
Good luck.
Paul Cascio
June 25th, 2008, 07:29 AM
David, could you explain Light Wraps? Thanks.
David Scattergood
June 25th, 2008, 07:45 AM
David, could you explain Light Wraps? Thanks.
Paul...I'll try and dig out the bookmark with a step by step guide as the process is a little convoluted for me to even attempt to explain.
Essentially, however, you create a mask from your subject effectively 'punching' a whole in your background you've laid over the green screen. You then 'bleed' the background into the matte where your subject was an then finally compositing it back onto the subject/foreground. There are a couple of mask, duplicate and filters processes but it's easy to follow and learn with the guide.
This guide by the way is for use in Motion - I'm sure similar programs can carry out the same solution. It's also themed for still photo's but I can't see any reason why it shouldn't be done with video (it's in Motion afterall). If you've set up a green screen to match a pre determined scene then you would light accordingly - however if you have shot footage and want to slot it into a certain background this may help to match up. It's an effect however, I'm not sure you can do this when the background is moving footage: still background and video subject worked well for me on this situation.
It's another trick to learn I guess - I'm sure some of the pro's could argue much better the pros and cons for lightwrapping video Paul.
Here's the linkie in fact:
http://www.motionsmarts.com/tutorials/lightwrap/lightwrap3.html
Cheers.