HV20 working out well for greenscreen!

[Ocean Zen]

True uncompressed footage would be a bit too big for my hard drives.

BlackMagic say I have these options codec-wise

Intensity supports many of the advanced Final Cut Pro™ features such as 10 bit rendering, RT Extreme™, and support for ProRes 422, HDV, JPEG, DV, DV50, DV100, 8 & 10 bit uncompressed media types.

Does DV100 have an alpha channel? - Is ProRes422 really not suitable for green-screen?

I just don't know what codec to use.
Thanks for your help guys

[Les Caudle]

Ocean Zen - I think Ben is saying that ProRes will work fine. Just don't render until finished.

Filters don't make it into motion from FCP, but I think Motion filters make it back into FCP, so possibly the green screen filtering and many filters should be done in Motion?

So basic editing of clips in FCP, then Motion magic with roundtrip back to FCP if necessary, then render to ProRes where it doesn't matter if there is no alpha channel (for final rendered file).

[Les Caudle]

Originally Posted by Ben Syverson

Regarding Photoshop... I have a stealth plan for getting into Photoshop. But I've said too much already. :)

Ben - With the release of dvMatte Pro (hopefully) this Wed, could you elaborate here or by personal email (You should have mine unless I got caught in your spam filter - or I can receive them on this forum).

BTW - maybe I'm the only one that made this mistake, but if anyone is using two monitors with Motion, you halve the available VRAM and drastically reduce the speed and capabilities of Motion. I found that if I set my monitors to 'mirror' - this 'fixes' the problem - and I can easily switch back to non-mirrored for normal use.

[Ben Syverson]

There is zero difference quality-wise between using dvmatte in FCP vs Motion. So unless you have a more complex composite, you can just stay in FCP. When roundtripping FCP -> Motion -> FCP, there is no rendering, so codecs do not come into play. FCP basically opens the Motion project within FCP and renders it there.

If you need to output a movie with an alpha for going to a totally different suite like CS3, then you need to choose a codec with alpha support. ProRes obviously won't work, besides which, you don't need 10 bit for HV20 footage. A better option is the Animation codec at high quality with keyframes every 10 frames. I believe at that setting, it is lossless. However, those files will be quite large. You really only need to do this for FX shots you're passing to AE, Shake, etc, for which you also need to maintain the alpha. It shouldn't come into play within Final Cut Studio.

[Anthony Torres]

It's Jan 30, noon EST. I hope dvMattePro 3 goes live today!
If not, when's the true ETA?

Best, Anthony Torres
Patiently Waiting...

[Les Caudle]

Ben - when recording 24p for green screen, would I be better off setting as high of a shutter speed as possible (making sure the gain doesn't kick in)?

It would seem logical to me that with less motion blurring, your software could work more efficiently?

I know you've advised to turn

Sharpness -1, and Contrast -1, Color -1.

Using the flash memory half-press photo button, I think I can figure out where I'm getting the proper shutter and f-stop without any gain (if I'm correct, I can do this no matter which mode I'm in).

Do you have any preferences shooting in (Tv/Av) mode or CINE mode in a studio with controlled lighting?

And if using CINE - any interesting FCP filter settings to bring out the HV20's full glory?

BTW - congratulations on getting your new software out today!

[Anthony Torres]

Alas, today's not the day. Maybe tomorrow...

Or maybe post a "secret" link so we can know the specs/cost before the videos are posted and the site is accurate? That'd be awesome!

[Ben Syverson]

Originally Posted by Les Caudle

Ben - when recording 24p for green screen, would I be better off setting as high of a shutter speed as possible (making sure the gain doesn't kick in)?

No, just shoot normally. Motion blur is not much of an issue with this new version.

Do you have any preferences shooting in (Tv/Av) mode or CINE mode in a studio with controlled lighting?

Conventional wisdom says to shoot 24p at 1/48th, which mimics the 180° shutter on a film camera. How you get there is up to you. Personally, I like the look of the Cine mode, but that's subjective. dvmatte definitely doesn't care. :)

And if using CINE - any interesting FCP filter settings to bring out the HV20's full glory?

BTW - congratulations on getting your new software out today!

Thanks! Filter-wise, I do all of my color grading in Conduit. I like having full control and realtime feedback. "Color" is interesting, but I wrote most of the nodes in Conduit, so I have a better idea what's actually happening to my images in Conduit vs Color. :)

[Austin Meyers]

I've posted up some green screen clips i shot using the IOHD with numerous color/contrast etc settings. check it out:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=113509

also does anyone have any thoughts on the intensity card vs the IOHD as far as quality differences? is the prores capture from the IOHD via HDMi going to be the same as the intensity?

[Paul Nixon]

Ben,

The corrector plate idea intrigues me greatly, but I'm not sure I quite understand how it works. You shoot just the screen, then you shoot the action against the screen. The "software" uses the "blank" screen - how exactly?

And have you any idea whether I could use it in either Liquid 7.2 or Commotion Pro?

[Ben Syverson]

Hi Paul,

The correction plate helps dvmatte understand what is the screen and what is the subject. By using a screen correction plate, you can make your screen appear perfectly even -- then you pass that to dvmatte, and it has a much easier time keying!

I had never heard of Liquid until I googled it just now. It looks like they don't have an SDK, so I can't code plugins for it -- bummer. As for Commotion, it supports some AE plug-ins, so I may support it in the future. But since AE plug-ins are CPU-only, it will be much, much, much slower than the realtime FCP/FCE/Motion version.

[Anthony Torres]

Ben,

Awesome software! I downloaded the demo. Unfortunately I get this error message when I attempt to render: "The effect "dvmatte pro demo" failed to render: Your hardware cannot render at the requested size and depth."

I have an iMac G5 2ghz single processor, 1.5 ram. The footage was 1440x1200 Pro Res 24P.

Is this a random glitch with the demo (as you posted earlier) or does the full version have a conflict with ProRes codec?

Please advise.
Thanks, Anthony

PS: Last I knew, Commotion is dead software. I love it- awesome roto/mattes/paint- but I don't think they're doing any further development. Don't want you to expend much time on a dead end.

[Les Caudle]

Anthony - are you using dual monitors?

If so, set the monitors to 'mirror' while you render.

When using 2 monitors off the same card, you are halving your available VRAM and can get that error msg for very simple renders.

[Anthony Torres]

Hey! Thanks for the suggestion. I have the imac with no additional monitors. I turned off the other functions (HDV out). Here's the error I receive when I put the effect on:
The effect "dv..." cannot be rendered in a sequence of this size with the current graphics card.

It's Chipset ATY, RV351
Type: Display
Bus/Slot: AGP
VRAM: 128 MB
Vendor: ATI
Device id: 0x4150
Revision ID: 0x0000

It's some glitch, probably in my settings. I adjust the image where the playhead is parked, but no renders. Any help is appreciated. The intro special is awesome!

[Les Caudle]

Ben - is there an ideal stacking order to dvMatte Pro3 plug-ins?