Looking for advice on good software for keying out bluescreen.

Footage was shot with the RED camera, and I'll be transcoding it to a smaller file size and I'll meed software to key it out.

Last minute project and had not done too much keying before.

Looking into BORIS FX, but not tried it yet.

All suggestions would be welcome.

This is for a very high end commercial, but the software for keying was not in the budget so it will have to be modestly priced.

Mac or Windows?

Like I said in the title, Windows. Windows XP and I am also using Adobe Premier CS3

Duhhh! Sorry - I didn't read the whole title - or it didn't register. My bad!

FWIW there is a blue screen keying filter, as well as chroma key and color key filters, in Premiere already (effects / keying menu). If that's not good, try Boris continuum....btw, and I don't know if it's true of the RED, most cameras have more noise in the blue channel than the green, which is why green screen is widely used, it is easier to make a smooth key with less noise in the image..../ Battle Vaughan

Keylight in AE, Primatte as a separate plug-in, Ultra CS3 are the ones that come to mind.

Thanks for your replys, guys.

I will try the Premier key first, I was not sure if that was any good or not.

I do not own after effects, but I could download the trial to use that I suppose if Premier is not good enough.

Thanks!

The PR keys stink. The ones I mentioned are good, but with a different learning curve.

Re After Effects - you can sometimes find old versions being sold quite cheaply on e-bay etc. I took a chance and bought one and it worked fine and was indeed upgradeable as claimed.

YMMV but it worked for me.

What version of Adobe After Effects has Ultra?

I see a 6.5 version (wow looks old!) on amazon

Or do i need cs2 or cs3 for greenscreen keying?

Ultra came bundled with Adobe CS3.

If you're looking into more budget-conscious options, Red Giant Software has a keying plugin for After Effects that looks pretty good.

Or- if you have After Effects CS3, you can spend $0 and use the built-in Keylight plugin. I've used that to pull many a key over the past few years. It's not a "one-click and you're done" kind of thing, but it works better than the stock blue/green chroma key plugin in AE or Premiere. If you want to see an example, I used Keylight to pull all the keys for this project: YouTube - Anchorage Fit Club Season 3 TV Ad (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCg6I2c1zNI)

Maybe you know this already:

Keylight works great for After Effects. If your blue screens were shot well, the premiere pro keyer(s) might be able to pull an acceptable key on RED footage.

Do some tests. If the end result is acceptable, then why bother with more expensive software (unless of course your footage really warrants it)?

Hope this helps.

If you're really doing a lot of keying, consider buying Nuke.

I cannot find CS3 used and I can't upgrade to the newer CS4 or CS5.

Would the older version of Adobe After Effects, 6.5 or 7, work well for keying or should i get a totally different stand alone product. I wish I could get Ultra but I do not see it on amazon or anywhere used.

It's better to key before you transcode to a compressed format that will throw away color information. As I mentioned before, you can pull an acceptable key with premiere pro's built in keyers if you know what you're doing.

Another thing: You can download a 15-day fully working demo of Nuke (maybe other software as well?) and then use Primatte/Keylight/IBK/Ultimatte to key stuff - if you're on a tight deadline of sorts.

I cannot find CS3 used and I can't upgrade to the newer CS4 or CS5.

Would the older version of Adobe After Effects, 6.5 or 7, work well for keying or should i get a totally different stand alone product. I wish I could get Ultra but I do not see it on amazon or anywhere used.

The stock chroma key effects in AE 6.5 or 7 are adequate tools, and if you have the patience and know-how, you can make them work. I've had to use them in the past, and while they're a little more finicky and less refined than some of the other options mentioned here, they can get the job done.

I will also add that one of the cool things about pulling a chroma key in After Effects is that you can apply the chroma key effect to a layer multiple times. This is useful if the photographer didn't have a blue/green screen lit properly or if the first effect isn't keying out enough of what you need. In some cases, I would duplicate layers and create mattes in tandem with the chroma key effect to pull cleaner keys.

I use keylight in AE. It works great.

Here is a tutorial a showing how to use it: Keylight Keying Tutorial . (http://www.thedeadwar.com)