PART 2: FX-1 Chroma Key GREAT RESULTS
 

PART 2: FX-1 Chroma Key GREAT RESULTS

So you all may remember my thread from 2 weeks ago about my result on my very first try at pulling a key:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=42828

Well I've now done my second key and the results are quite good if you ask me. My big problem with most green screen shots is that there is no movement or side angles. Well it was my vision to get around this. 'Sin City' was my inspiration.

My Workflow
1) Shot with FX-1 on green screen with green sticky notes as tracking points
2) 3D done with Cinema 4D. All original.
3) Compositing done with shake 3.5

As you'll see in the 'making of' video the key really isn't even lit very well so the result really amazed me. The hardest parts were:
1) Making the rain itself
2) Making 3D world appear wet and raining
3) Keying the blue tape to make it 'glow' white. VERY hard!

YOU NEED QUICKTIME 7 TO VIEW
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/
I've also included the installer incase apple's server gets bogged down

Check out my 'Sin City' videos here:
http://www.12in12.com/sincity/

Please let me know what you think. Please keep in mind this is my second key, first try with 3D like this, and first try using shake/compositing.

Thanks,
Eric James
ExpertMagic.com


p.s. I'm really liking this vfx stuff, thinking about getting into it more in the future.

Hi Eric,

I am really interessted in Your work, but cannot see it. I guess You use some kind of brandnew-codec, that I cannot find anywhere. Could you please post it as MPEG1 or something that works for sure ?

Thanks !

Peter

Peter: did you get/install QuickTime 7? As Eric clearly indicated, you need
QuickTime 7 to view this...

Rob: Yes, I've read that. But it still not available for download, if you take a llok at Apple.com

No problem. I just found it very interessting to see it. Wouldn't be a big thing to make a more common version, I guess.

Peter

Indeed, I missed that. 6.5 is latest available (for the PC). That means I can't
watch it either. Is there a change you can do a QuickTime 6 version Eric?

I can't view it either.

FYI: works fine with linux
 

> Opening video decoder: [ffmpeg] FFmpeg's libavcodec codec family
> Selected video codec: [ffh264] vfm:ffmpeg (FFmpeg H.264)
> ffmpeg version 0.4.9-pre1

Now on topic ...
 

Great work!!!

I like the athmosphere, especially the rain...

The hair seems a bit dry, but that's the easy part ;)

Looks amazing.

Wonderful work.







Love QT7. :D

Ok guys I've put up QT6 versions in SD but if you want to see the HD versions you need QT7

Here they are:
http://www.12in12.com/sincity/QT6sincitySD.mov

http://www.12in12.com/sincity/QT6makingofSD.mov

Thanks,
Eric James

Nicely done!

I could only download the SD version, but what I can see of the green screen work looks great! Some of the bandages didn't key very well, but it's fairly obvious looking at the source footage that this is due to the lighting.

I figured that they did the bandages effect using black lights and a form of fluorescent tape - did they actually do it this way, with blue? Either way makes some sense to me.

Watching the footage carefully reveals how the lightning was done. In the future, wouldn't a camera flash/strobe provide the strobe effect more effectively?

-Steve

Hey Steve,
I hadn't seen anything on how they did the bandages, but I found out you are correct. They used bright pink blacklight sensitive tape for the bandages. Those blue ones where sure a pain in the A$$. There are things I would do different the second time around for sure, but all in all I had lots of fun doing this. Still trying to think of idea for my third 'test' :)

Thanks,
Eric James

Great Work Eric !

Some things I wonder:

How Did you get a 3D-Tracking from only points on the bakground screen ?
Or isn't it really 3D ?

What tracker did you use ?

How's the key in color ? That B/W makes it a little easier I think :)

Still: All in all great :)

Peter

I can only see the QT6 SD version, but that looks very cool :).

I'd be interested to know what you used for the tracking too, I've been thinking of shooting a greenscreen movie on my Z1 after I pick it up next week.

ck w. zu1
 

that makes three of us.

lewis

"Sin City" Production Info in Post
 

FYI - The newest Post Magazine has a article on "Sin City" with some interesting production details. Here's a link to the online version of the article:

http://www.postmagazine.com/post/art....jsp?id=156354

Eric, the background you used, was it CG or a real location?
if it was real, what plugins did you use to get that look?
Darrell
FIRST CINEMA PICTURES

Peter,
The tracking was done in PFHoe which is a cheaper version of PFTrack. It only does SD. I just downsized the footage to SD for the tracking. The Green Screen was set up at a 90* angle so it had 2 sides. With the corner there was enough tracking data. I did quite a bit of tweeking in C4D. I probibly spent 10 hours just on getting the camera perfect. Keep in mind thats 10 hours AFTER the track. I'm sure using PFTrack with full HD res would help out a lot.
http://www.thepixelfarm.co.uk/

The Key is actually pretty good even in color, I didn't even do any spill supression because there was no need. B&W helped kill any problems :)

Derrell,
You just gave me the best compliment I could imagine! The fact it could be taken for a real set means quite a bit to me. To answer your question: Everything but Patrick(the actor) was CG. The entire set, the rain, etc was all CG. It was created using Cinema 4D. Watch the making of video to see what I mean.


For those interested here is a look at one of my shake trees for this project:
http://www.12in12.com/sincity/shaketreesincity.jpg



Thanks for all your comments,
Eric James
http://www.expertmagic.com

Man, I wish I could afford Shake.

:(

Eric, looks great and I think Rodriguez would be proud considering you were using a $3,000 and not $100,000 cam to achieve this. Were you shooting cineframe 30 or did you de-interlace in post?

Eric, thanks for the reply.
the only thing i might of changed would be the rain effect.
i use after effects and have 3 or 4 different type of rain effects to choose from. but thats just me. you really did a great job.
now that you are getting this down so good, you ever think of doing some kind of short parody of sin city? i think a comedy spoof would have people rolling in the iles.
keep up the good work, look forward to seeing more.
Darrell
FIRST CINEMA PICTURES

p.s. even when i play back the sd version at 1920x1080, it looks great.

Bryan,
I use a version that is on loan from a friend, I can't afford shake either. Although I'm starting to save asap for shake 4. Hopefully it will be my christmas present to myself :)

Sean,
Yup I think the FX-1 is an amazing camera....If you have enough light. For this stuff you MUST have enough light or you can't pull a key.
This was shot at 60i and it must be or it wouldn't work. If you shoot at CF30 your losing so much detail it's very difficult to pull a key. I actaully never deinterlaced. Because it was shot in 1080i, once I bring it down to 720p there is no need to deinterlace. I do have a 1080i version that I output back to the FX-1 that is still interlaced.

Darrell,
I'm actually asking all of my buddies to write up idea for a short that involves VFX work. I told them to go crazy for the story, nothing is impossible. That way I end up with quite the challange. I don't know if I will end up going with a sin city style again or not. Most likely not.

If any of you guys have any ideas, I'm open to try just about anything.

Thanks,
Eric James
http://www.expertmagic.com/

Ok, I wish I had a friend that had Shake to loan me. :(



;)

Pheeeno - nominal!!! Kicks complete ass. What did you use to downconvert from 1080i to 720p? Where did you shoot the background??

Wow.

Just looked at Shake, is that how you made the background?

Sorry I'm being such a fanboy, it's the best footage I've ever seen from this cam.

Hey Michael,
I made all of the 3d scene in cinema 4D R8:
http://www.maxon.de/index_e.html

I just used shake for the compositing, everything else was done in cinema 4D and Final Cut Pro.

Thanks for the kind words :)
Eric James

http://www.expertmagic.com/

Eric James,

Great work!

Michael Pappas

Excellent job! How did you do the rain?

Sorry to ask about the rain. I only thought there was one page when I posted.

Thanks for the kind words Michael. Soon will be test #3 :)

Eric James

Top job looks excellent well done

would like to see more if you have any

Hi Eric, could you elaborate on this statement a bit more?

How did you convert 1080i to 720p and why your method does not require deinterlacing?

Thanks!

Hello

can someone tell me the next best thing to final cut pro and shake that will run on windows?

If you divide 1080 by 720 you'll get 3/2. For every 3 Lines 1080i you get 2 lines 720p. That means the jaggy structure of interlaced lines is hidden by blending 2 lines from Field one and 1 from field two (or vice versa) to get two progressive lines. That means every line on the progressive image is a mixture of both fields. The only problem is that the first 2 lines on 720 p contain more of field 1, the next two more of field 2 and so on. It will be visible, but only in moving parts of the image and only if you look carefully. Far less obvious than the usual interlaced "look".

What exactly did you use (software, plugin, ect...) to get the 720p, and is it basically 720p60 or 720p30 that you got from that? Footage looks amazing.

Thanks Thomas!

Hi,

I cant see the videos... ot a codec problem, just a "Safari could not open the page “http://www.12in12.com/sincity/shaketreesincity.jpg” because the server is not responding."

I literally can not see any of your links. I've tried many times, but from what you are writing I can imagine what this post is about. Is your video in black and white? (I'm guessing by the sin city title). A couple of times I have tried to use blue sheets or gym mats etc... to create blue screens. It did not work at all, and I will never try that again. Although the keys actually looked fine in black and white, but unfortunately the content didn't make black and white appropriate. Trying random greens or blues may work for some people in some situations, but the chroma color WILL work for all people. A cheap alternative is to go to home depot and have them match the color, then you can paint wood sheets or better yet canvas that you can roll up.
What shutter speed did you use? I always shoot w/ the shutter speed in 30 which has been reasonable to key. Last time I shot in 60 it was a nightmare. Obviously progressive is ideal, and I've recently been considering Cineframe 30 w/ my FX1.
I'd still like to see your work, so I'll check back soon.

You guys are replying to a thread that's three-and-a-half years old... please check the date before responding. Safe to say that this one's got a lot of dust on it, so we're shutting her down.