HD-100 and GReenscreen

[Brian Duke]

Justa basic question. If I shoot ANYTHING with the HD-100, can I use that footage and place in the background of a subject shot in front of a green screen. In other words, let's say I shot footage in the desert with a nice pan and then a Guy in front of a greenscreen with a nice pan. Can I place the desert in the back of the subject in FCP so it looks like he's walking in the desert? It may be a stupid question but I am JUST getting into this.

Anyone care share thier expertise? or maybe even something they have shot. I hope I can use the HD_100 for this. I plan on doing some effects on my next short film.

[Craig Donaldson]

its possible.
u'll need a big chromakey screen to do a pan though. maybe have the person walk through the frame instead and then lay the pan of the desert underneath on your timeline in fcp....
doing chromakey in fcp is pretty easy, just search through the menus at the top somewhere and there is an option.
go forth and experiment...... trial and error....trial and error....

[Brian Duke]

Originally Posted by Craig Donaldson

its possible.
u'll need a big chromakey screen to do a pan though. maybe have the person walk through the frame instead and then lay the pan of the desert underneath on your timeline in fcp....
doing chromakey in fcp is pretty easy, just search through the menus at the top somewhere and there is an option.
go forth and experiment...... trial and error....trial and error....

I'm talking small pans and close up pans. Say, like 5-10ft IF that. I guess I will buy some greenscreen and do some testing. =) Any other suggestions will be welcome.

[Jason Varner]

Hey Hey
If you shoot from the same height, angle, focal length, and don't forget about the lighting it should look pretty convincing. Also you can throw a gaussian blur on the background plate to create DOF and soften the rough edges. Good Luck, Jason.

[Stephan Ahonen]

Silly question, what's the point of greenscreening someone into a scene you could much more easily do by simply shooting him in the desert in the first place? I'm confused...

[John Yamamoto]

Hi just a tip see if help.
most of the desert shot u need to define the speed of pan. then..( e.g. an object gos from point a to point b at 5 sec.)
try to mark the same speed when u do a walking shot.

if u have a full length shot, may be set up a walk at bech with a chroma yet to block the background. u may even have assistant to hold and wlk along with the actor.
this is helpful to have real foot fliping sand and the foreground is real

JY

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Brian Duke

Justa basic question. If I shoot ANYTHING with the HD-100, can I use that footage and place in the background of a subject shot in front of a green screen. In other words, let's say I shot footage in the desert with a nice pan and then a Guy in front of a greenscreen with a nice pan. Can I place the desert in the back of the subject in FCP so it looks like he's walking in the desert?

Brian.
The HD100 doesn't pose particular limitations in GS work, except, of course, the liomited colorspace (4:2:0), if you shoot on tape. Not that HDV colorspace is bad, you just need to make some tests to see what works and what limitation you have. First thing, the chromakey filter in FCP, like in other NLEs, is not very good. I wouldn't bother. Get a good plugin or something like Serious Magic's Ultra. The problem with Ultra is that it runs only on PCs, I bought a Wintel Laptop just to run DVRack and Ultra. Yes, their software is that good.

If you want to see an example of GS work done with the HD100, take a look at my CruiserCast videos, especially episode 1, following the link in my signature.
With the example that you described, you'll also need to track the background. This usually involves placing some markers on the GS and then using the marks to match the pan.

[Warren Shultz]

If you're a Mac user, Graeme Nattress has some great plug-ins for FCP that "restore" color information to 4:2:0 footage and tries to recreate 4:4:4. I've used it to export footage then taken it into After Effects for some great keys.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Warren Shultz

If you're a Mac user, Graeme Nattress has some great plug-ins for FCP that "restore" color information to 4:2:0 footage and tries to recreate 4:4:4. I've used it to export footage then taken it into After Effects for some great keys.

Sounds interesting, I couldn't find information about that on Grame's site, which plugin are you talking about?

[Brian Duke]

Originally Posted by Paolo Ciccone

Brian. the chromakey filter in FCP, like in other NLEs, is not very good. I wouldn't bother. Get a good plugin or something like Serious Magic's Ultra.

Can you recommend another good plug in for G5 FCP? I want the best of the best. I cannot allow myself to make a movie where the effects look cheesy or fake.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Brian Duke

Can you recommend another good plug in for G5 FCP? I want the best of the best. I cannot allow myself to make a movie where the effects look cheesy or fake.

Well, if you want the "best of the best of the best, sir. With honor" :), probably Ultimatte (http://www.ultimatte.com/) is your best bet. It's the industry standard. I didn't try it but other people here will give you more details.

[Warren Shultz]

Paolo, the filter I'm talking about is part of the Film Effects package which includes:
Package Contains:

G Film
G Film Extra
G Film Presets
G Film Presets RT
G FIlm Plus
G Film Plus RT
G Chroma Blur
G Temperature
G Black and White Diffusion
G Bleach Bypass
G Film Damage
G Film Dissolve
G Film Flash
G Smart De-Interlace
G Fast De-Interlace
G Fast De-Interlace Blend
G Fast De-Interlace Smart
G Fast De-Interlace Smart Blend
G RGB Colour Mixer
G S-Gamma
G Simple S-Gamma
G Simple S-Gamma Plus
G Gamma S-Gamma
G Vignette
G Film Widescreen Matte
G Chroma Sharpen Interlaced
G Chroma Sharpen Progressive
G Nicer 4:1:1

These three:
G Chroma Sharpen Interlaced
G Chroma Sharpen Progressive
G Nicer 4:1:1
work with Chroma reconstruction. I like G Chroma Sharpen Progressive.

Warren

[Ian Mora]

Paolo,....

How did you pull off that first shot? Could you give a breakdown of the basics. Did you use a crane?

Ian

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Ian Mora

Paolo,....

How did you pull off that first shot? Could you give a breakdown of the basics. Did you use a crane?

Ian

You mean the Space Station opening in Episode 1?
Man, you want all my secrets :) Oh well, here it goes. I used Serious Magic's Ultra for the Chroma work. Ultra doesn't just pull great keys, it supports Virtual Sets. SM sells a group of Libraries calle the Master Set Libraries. Some of the sets in the MSL use tracking shots with some spectacular moves.
I used a couple of tracking shots in the Space Station set. I was actually standing in my Living Room for that opening shot. Ultra can apply perspective distortions to make it believable, to sell the shot :)
Go to Serious Magic site and check the videos and download the demos, they are worth the time.

[Daniel Patton]

We also use the @%$# out of Ultra as well, the 1:1 render times are a huge plus over other good or even better keyers. We use it for more than 80% of the keys we pull, more so when we don't have hours or days to wait on rendering.

However, I will not paint a perfect picture when it comes to reliability and use of Ultra. Our major complaint is that it's not the most stable product on the market and has more than it's share of bugs when working in HD, and more so with products like Aspect HD. I doubt neither company would take the credit for who broke what, but break it often does when running a key longer than the short commercial spots of 15-30 seconds. Anyone claiming it's "good clean code" has obviously never had to rely on it in a production environment. It's one of the few products I love and truly hate in the same breath.

Just don't buy the product looking for rock solid and you will not be too disappointed. It's fast, pulls a great key and is worth the money... if you have the patience. ;)