Your thoughts?

Ty

I'm also interested in how well this works. I was just recently considering using basicly the same setup with scotchlite. This should allow for a chroma set when you want the floor in the shot. Presumably, this should elimanate the talent's shadow.

How well does it work with a CU? Rightlights create unusual eyelights. You also don't want to key out the talents eyes...

I user it regularly in a studio that has a wall of Chromatte cloth and a standard Rosco (chroma) green floor.

It works great! It's pricy, but if you do a lot of keying it's hard to beat!
for CU's we either turn down the ring light (the controler has a fade knob) or we just keep a bit furthur back and zoom in some - DoF isn't so important with keying of course.

about my omly reservation is that it doens't work with a thru-the-lens teleprompter - but an over the lens prompter fixes that too.

- Mikko

Ty,

In addition to Mikko's opinion on reflecmedia. You may find the postitive response I got on this thread where I posted a similar question helpful -

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=54887&highlight=reflecmedia

- - - -

I've been going back and forth over starting with the small kit -
Reflecmedia ChromaFlex 7' Location Background Kit with Green Medium LiteRing Kit & Bag
and seeing what I think of it and then purchasing the larger 16 x 12 or 16 x9 fabric at a later date

OR, just getting one of these kits first -
Reflecmedia Wide Studio Bundle, with Green Medium LiteRing Kit, 16' x 9' Fabric & Bag
Reflecmedia Studio Bundle, with Green Medium LiteRing Kit, 16' x 12' Fabric & Bag

I like the idea of being able to actually move around so I'm leaning towards saving a little longer and getting one of the larger kits. I'd be interested in knowing what you are considering as well if you feel like posting it.

Met up with the guys from Reflecmedia in the UK this week and saw a demo of the system. I was seriously impressed - the keys were clean and adjustable. I even played with the background lighting and despite shadows etc, the key was still good.
Interestingly, they were using an ultimatte DV for the live keying, and recommended using the Y/C inputs rather than DV...
Looks like a great product though

Your thoughts?

Good, but...

- Keep talent as close to bgd as possible
- Don't let it get dirty or dusty (ever)
- Avoid hi-contrast/theatrical lighting of talent in close quarters - the LEDs will spill

Other than that, it's great for chromakey in confined spaces and when you can't carry lots of lighting kit.

Hi,
Very useful process, but very important - don't let your make-up people anywhere near it - makeup and foundation will destroy the fabric if it gets on it - due to the very small particles of foundation getting between the microscopic optical beads that make up the material. Once you get some on the material, you may as well throw it away

Should have my Reflecmedia kit by this weekend. Thank you to everyone who posted comments/advice on this thread. I would have got it sooner, but I had to shell out some $$$ for the HVX.

Just shot a bit with Reflecmedia and the Ultimatte DV box. The results are fantastic! I like using the Ultimatte because you can light your scene more accurately and instantly preview live to really make it look like you are "there."

The Ultimatte DV box is around $3k - if you're doing a lot of keying it's worth it. I now do zero rendering for our show. We just record the output from the Ultimatte directly to the laptop. This is SD rez.

If we want to shoot HD we use the Ultimatte for pre viz to light correctly and to see how everything will key. Then record to tape, capture, composite and render.

Check out the "External SATA" episode at http://dvgeartalk.com to see the results. Watch the ending where the Chromaflex backdrop is torn down.

Have been shooting with the ChromaFlex system for about a year now. Works great, use it a lot. The shadow cast by the ringlight keys fine, the seams and wrinkles in the screen key fine, it's a great system.

If the talent wears glasses, it can be a nightmare to try to get rid of the ringlight reflections.

Also, teleprompters, most of them, do not work with the ringlight, as noted above.

We have the 8'x8' screen, if you want to buy just loose material from them to travel with since the 8x8' is a PITA to fly with, the priced for the screen cloth alone are ridiculous. So if you are flying, ship the screen ahead via FedEx, it's too cumbersome to put in a shipping box and carry through airports.

Makes chroma keying viable for quickie, one man crew shoots in small rooms, a cool thing.

Best,

Dan

I've been happy with my ReflecMedia setup as well. I use Mattenee currently but am not sure how long that will be viable with the new Mac Intels. It's too bad because Mattenee works well and is installed right inside FCP so you just drag and drop the filter to your clip and everything is done just like that.

I recently purchased Shake after the price dropped down to $499 and plan on trying to key in that, although so far, it does not seem as simple.

It's now available for 5.1.2 -

http://www.reflecmedia.com/

or here to try it out ~

http://www.reflecmedia.com/products/evaluate.aspx

Just finished a few Reflecmedia examples to put up online. They came out pretty awesome! The cleanest version is to watch it in iTunes H.264 http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/com.apple.jingle.app.store.DirectAction/viewPodcast?id=80616768

Or here a lower rez .FLV in Brightcove

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid275887224/bclid184432313/bctid878819693

The examples were shot with the Sony FX1 in HDV format. Captured through FireWire as HDV into FCP. The Mattenee plug-in was used to key - with no tweaking of the parameters, just drag and drop.

DVeStore just became a Reflecmedia "Key Dealer" and can offer 5% off to DVinfo.net members, use coupon code "dvinfo" to save a few bucks.

The 7'x7' bundle is $2700 + $200 for Mattenee.

I'm doing tests for a greenscreen shoot in a tight space (office). I'm using the Chromaflex setup and I'm getting an effect with moderate motion (hand waving) that is quite nasty. I added a picture below.

The yellow is bad enough, but the information is actually disappearing. Any idea on what I'm doing wrong here?

What camera are you using?
Use Progressive Scan if your camera has the ability
Make sure the Litering is 10' - 12' from the background.
White Balance
Turn the level with the controller down a bit, looks too high.
Use 1/60th sec if 30p or 1/48th sec if 24p
Properly expose your subject so they're not too bright
Use a softbox/soft light if possible

Thanks Guy. I started trying each suggestion one at a time, so I could identify the problem (as opposed to just picking the solution and moving on). The culprit?

Reflecmedia intensity meter was set to 10 and when I brought it down to 7, the problem went away. No more yellow edges, and no more disappearing appendages in motion.

Much thanks.

An earlier post in this thread said:
> Very useful process, but very important - don't let your make-up people anywhere near
> it - makeup and foundation will destroy the fabric if it gets on it - due to the very small
> particles of foundation getting between the microscopic optical beads that make up the
> material. Once you get some on the material, you may as well throw it away

Is this true if only a small smudge gets on it? Or could you cover the smudge with chromatte tape?

In general, can anyone comment on the effectiveness of chromatte tape? Is it really completely seamless as far as the resulting green screen goes?

Does anyone have experience with joining two 8 x 8 screens together with tape to form one 16 x 8 screen?

An earlier post in this thread said:
> Very useful process, but very important - don't let your make-up people anywhere near
> it - makeup and foundation will destroy the fabric if it gets on it - due to the very small
> particles of foundation getting between the microscopic optical beads that make up the
> material. Once you get some on the material, you may as well throw it away

Is this true if only a small smudge gets on it? Or could you cover the smudge with chromatte tape?

In general, can anyone comment on the effectiveness of chromatte tape? Is it really completely seamless as far as the resulting green screen goes?

Does anyone have experience with joining two 8 x 8 screens together with tape to form one 16 x 8 screen?

For smudges, you can use chromatte tape to repair any areas that become non-reflective. We've rented out our curtains many times and have had great luck with the material holding up. To join two 8x8's, all you have to do is overlap, no need to tape them. Same with the basematte tile, just let it curve up from the ground. See the attachment photo for a "behind the scenes" shot. The resulting composited video can be seen here Manfrotto Monopod demo shot in front of Reflecmedia backdrop on Vimeo (http://vimeo.com/386172)

Hope this helps,