Green Screen Footage (On-going progress thread)

[dreamache]

*UPDATE*

I was able to get a better green screen going (lighting/no folds) along with removing pulldown, and we used Ultra2 to do the keying. As you can see there is no outline this time, except when he moves his arm fast there is a green blur, and I have no idea how I would go about getting rid of that? I assume that might be an issue with shutter speed/aperture?
http://www.garysimon.net/new_try.mov
flash version (better light than the .mov, on my machine at least) (http://www.garysimon.net/newclip.html)

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Ok, I noted "on-going progress" as in the process i will have to inevitably go through (based on my first attempt) to produce something i like video-wise.

This was shot in 24p cinemode hdv. I didn't do any of that pull-down stuff, as I'm not familiar with that whole process yet.
2 lowel tota-light's 750w are hitting the green screen and 2 of the same are on the person.

White background (http://www.garysimon.net/chroma2.mov)
- you can see a slight border (particularly to his right) which i believe is attributed to not removing "pull-down"?

Virtual set (http://www.garysimon.net/chroma2-bg-try.mov)

raw footage cap w/ green screen:
http://www.garysimon.net/chromabg.gif

As you can see, the background is quite unevenly lit, and it needs stretched so the folds are evened out.. the biggest problem is the lack of brightness / color, which is attributed to hdv/firewire. in the actual preview screen on the camera it is a lot brighter. i know that capturing via HDMI would do the trick but we currently don't have a comp with an available PCI-E card. none the less, i'm still impressed with just messing around with this stuff for the first time.

i'm also not really familiar with the different modes / functions of the camera, so i'm sure once i get more familiar, i'll be able to make this stuff look better.

ps: no audio cause the damn mic was buzzing for some reason heh.

[neocastillo]

What are you using to key this? Not trying to bash your work, but I would have expected a smoother edge.

[skinnyboy]

Looking at the lighting in your cap, I was surprised at how well the keying worked, actually.
The border has nothing to do with pull-down. It's either a lighting issue or (more likely) the settings you are using to key it.

So - to echo neocastillo - what program are you using?

Thanks for being willing to post and share with us your experimentation!

[dreamache]

Looking at the lighting in your cap, I was surprised at how well the keying worked, actually.
The border has nothing to do with pull-down. It's either a lighting issue or (more likely) the settings you are using to key it.

So - to echo neocastillo - what program are you using?

Thanks for being willing to post and share with us your experimentation!

Vegas 7, here's a screencap of the setting I'm using.

http://www.garysimon.net/chroma_settings.gif
-I tried messing with it a lot and he would either start becoming transparent, or parts of the green screen would start to appear.


Not trying to bash your work, but I would have expected a smoother edge.

haha, no big deal, "my work" right now is just a first attempt so i know i suck.

[joseph soriano]

actually dreamache,

appreciate you taking the time! please keep them coming!

[neocastillo]

I am FCP user but from what I see there the Vegas Keyer looks mediocre just like the one in FCP. If you dont have acces to After Effects or better keying software. You might want to try first putting a garbage matte around the person, since they don't move much, and then key it.

[dreamache]

I am FCP user but from what I see there the Vegas Keyer looks mediocre just like the one in FCP. If you dont have acces to After Effects or better keying software. You might want to try first putting a garbage matte around the person, since they don't move much, and then key it.

Has anyone tried this? Adobe Ultra 2: http://www.venturaes.com/index_new.asp?http://www.venturaes.com/serious_magic/index.html

[PWHerman]

Has anyone tried this? Adobe Ultra 2: http://www.venturaes.com/index_new.asp?http://www.venturaes.com/serious_magic/index.html

Yeah, that used to be Serious Magic Ultra2...it seems like Adobe (http://www.adobe.com/products/creativesuite/production/ultra/) purchased the whole company. I have the original Serious Magic Ultra2 program, so I'll try to get to using that, although it'll be in a very unprofessional manner (when I get my HV20, that is).

[dreamache]

update...


I was able to get a better green screen going (lighting/no folds) along with removing pulldown, and we used Ultra2 to do the keying. As you can see there is no outline this time, except when he moves his arm fast there is a green blur, and I have no idea how I would go about getting rid of that? I assume that might be an issue with shutter speed/aperture?
http://www.garysimon.net/new_try.mov
flash version (better light than the .mov, on my machine at least) (http://www.garysimon.net/newclip.html)

[PWHerman]

Nice to know that Ultra2 did a little better of a job there...I want to do some very basic green-screening (for fun) once I get my HV20, so it's nice to know that it should work pretty well. This was 24p, huh? I'm guessing that it would look much better green-screened if this had been shot in 60i to begin with (again, just GUESSING!)

[dreamache]

Nice to know that Ultra2 did a little better of a job there...I want to do some very basic green-screening (for fun) once I get my HV20, so it's nice to know that it should work pretty well. This was 24p, huh? I'm guessing that it would look much better green-screened if this had been shot in 60i to begin with (again, just GUESSING!)

Well, I haven't tried out 60i because I was told interlaced video is bad for green screening... although I plan on testing it out regardless.

[Critters]

I would stick with 24p, maybe more light and increasing the shutter speed to the max, which should remove motion blur and therefore the green blur when moving fast.

[VaNdaL]

Here's my quick blue screen test with HV20!

There are a lot of flaws in my video but with better lighting and more attention to straightening the blue sheets you could pull it off. Background is a 3D room I made in Lightwave.

http://hv20.info/yopu/the_room_bst.jpg http://hv20.info/yopu/the_room_3d.jpg

http://hv20.info/yopu/the_room_bst.avi

[Deep G]

Guys, I tried the Vegas keyer and got nowhere. After Effects Pro has the best keyer bundled with it, Keylight I think its called. Almost got 100% good key of some under-lit grainy test footage. I am planning a music video with dancing and done some tests in 25p mode, not cine, in TV mode with the exposure lock gain control method. Great keys in AE and like the first poster said when things move a lot you can see a blurry green coming through. Keylight at least colour shifts this back to skin tone. My best results so far are with at least 1000watts on the back screen and more on the talent, get plenty of back / rim lighting.

[visugeek]

Bad green screens are a pet peve of mine. In the future, you might want to have a digital still camera or a monitor, or a laptop connected to the HV20. This will you enable you to see what kind of screen you are getting. A lightmeter might be helpful for evenly lighting the screen as well. The camera viewfinder does not return an accurate image of what you will see in the computer when comping.

As far as shooting goes, lighting the screen and actor at a 5.6 with enough room between the actor and the screen to limit the spill would be optimal. A smooth bright screen will give you a good comp every time. Uneven lighting and wrinkles in the screen will only create long hours of roto to fix what could have taken 20 minutes to setup on the stage correctly.

Costume choice is very important, if the actors clothing has more blue in it, use a green screen, if it has more green(like a khaki shirt), use a blue screen. : )

Motion blur typicall blends the FG color with the BG screen color, and can be tough to key with a good screen.

Keylight is a fantastic keyer, if you have access to it, I would recommend it.

Chris