Masking with Moving Characters on Top of Themselves

[Josh Hausman]

Sorry to double post but I'm reaching the end of my rope here. I've watched both the cat example and another example of two guys on the same sit, and I've EXACTLY duplicated the set up and video fx used, and it still looks nothing like the examples. I end up with a mostly black screen, with an almost flourescent outline of the character we are trying to manipulate, who happens to be translucent. Can ayone try to replicate what this guy did and walk me through step by step.

I feel like a fool after all this, especially considering the title of that guys page for these projects was "Vegas Throw Togethers." I'd kill to make stuff that looks that nice. Anyone?

[Edward Troxel]

How about posting a couple of snapshots (i.e. one from 3 or 4 of your clips) and your VEG file?

[Josh Hausman]

Ok well the first thing to go wrong happens very quickly. Looking at the cat project file, specifically at tracks 2-5, which do the actual masking of the jumping cat. I turned off all other tracks and all effects on track 3 to try and emulate it in its most basic form. After turning off all those effects and isolating those tracks, he still has a pretty clear image, albeit very dark, of the jumping cat. It's a bit hard to see but it looks about right.

I did those same exact steps with my own footage; a clean background of an empty elevator as a parent track, set to difference and masked, with a child track of my friend standing in the elevator to hopefully be masked, and a copy of my friend's clip right below it on a subsequent track. Exactly the same set-up, here's the result: http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=374120

Compared to the cat:
http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=374118

This seems to be my fundamental problem. He is able to use those effects I disabled to lighten up the image to make it clearly visible. I'm stuck with a translucent character. What the heck am I doing wrong.

Here's another shot of my project, with the EXACT effects and settings he used, in exactly the same place: http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=374121

Here's a shot of my project, not sure where I can host the project file: http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=374122

[Josh Hausman]

Set...Edward you still out there?

[Edward Troxel]

Yes. Can you post a picture of the scene with nobody in it and then post a picture of the scene with one person in it?

Green screen may be something you want to consider as well.