Cheap 'Chromatte' Reflective Chromakey material - any interest?

**_gl** · 2009 August 18th, 09:17

I'm building myself a reflective chromakey solution. It's usually called 'Chromatte' and obscenely expensive, but produces superiour results without any lighting needed on the screen itself (except for an LED lightsource) and no problems with spill.

They're perfect for small rooms as as your talent can stand close to it without spill, you get very even colour, and you can even change the material between a green and bluescreens at the flick of a switch!

If you're not familiar with them, the idea is that the fabric is highly reflective (like street signs), and because it is, you can light it up with a very low-powered LED lightsource (a ring of LEDs around your lens). The light is so low that it won't be picked up on your subjects, but brightly lights the reflective screen from the camera's point of view. And as the LEDs supply the colour (the screen looks silver in normal lighting), you can simply switch between blue or green LEDs to change between blue and greenscreen instantly.

Here's a video:
[ame="http://youtube.com/watch?v=TkhGzi_o_gE"]YouTube- Chromatte[/ame]

I have found a source for the fabric for myself, and have ordered some LEDs to make the ring with. They are already tightly connected together in a strip, so all you need to do is cut them to size and add a 12V DC supply. I will also look at wiring a small control box that allows dimming (to get the right exposure) and switching between blue and green LEDs.

If there's any interest I might be able to get more of the fabric, and maybe even make a few LED rigs. What screen sizes would you be interested in, and what would you be prepared to pay? (remember this is pro stuff and not cheap).

**BigKarl_519** · 2009 August 18th, 12:44

Woow this would be great.

**ReLogic Studios** · 2009 August 18th, 17:30

What people would want to pay would depend on how big the difference between your product and the commercial version is. If there is 0 to none differences, I would say 80% of the price of the commercial version would be a good starting point, given that you would still make profit at that price.

**blommer** · 2009 August 18th, 22:29

I'm interested in this as well. 5 x 7 would be a good size.

**Ace** · 2009 August 18th, 23:08

interesting...I'd be willing to buy one...on the condition of Relogic's assertions of how closely it performs to the pro version...

maybe you can share your info with a few of us and we could help with a Beta version for testing performance and construction?

**Erik Bien** · 2009 August 19th, 00:02

I'd be interested to know the maximum width that fabric comes in.

**_gl** · 2009 August 19th, 06:07

I'm pretty sure the fabric is exactly the same (it's just rebranded as Chromatte), so I expect the result to be essentially identical. But that also depends on the LEDs, so we'll see.

But the accessories will be more DIY in nature, at least to begin with.

I'll get my setup working first and will post demos (eta ~3 weeks).

**_gl** · 2009 August 19th, 06:12

Originally Posted by Erik Bien

I'd be interested to know the maximum width that fabric comes in.

You can get almost any length, but the maximum width is about 1 yard, so if you need one dimension to be larger it needs to be seamed. Apparently this doesn't affect it's performance at all though. I'll be doing that for my screen so we'll see.

**HueyNRolf** · 2009 August 19th, 06:27

So that LED light does all the work?
Apart from the price, it seems too good to be true.

**_gl** · 2009 August 19th, 06:37

Originally Posted by HueyNRolf

So that LED light does all the work?
Apart from the price, it seems too good to be true.

Yeah, it's clever stuff. I plan to use it in a tiny room and originally started looking at all the lighting I'd have to buy for a traditional greenscreen. This is a much better investment, and also much more portable if you need to move locations.

**thecoleinator** · 2009 August 19th, 19:20

great idea for sure! I recommend that you use Luxeon LEDs because they are cheap yet extremely powerful. Cant wait to see the results!

**sdeming** · 2009 August 19th, 21:04

awesome.

**_gl** · 2009 August 20th, 05:10

Originally Posted by thecoleinator

great idea for sure! I recommend that you use Luxeon LEDs because they are cheap yet extremely powerful. Cant wait to see the results!

That's the thing, the LEDs don't need to be very powerful (you don't want to see them on the talent), but it's important that you get a whole bunch of them in a ring to provide even lighting and eliminate shadows.

I'm getting a sample piece of the material, so I'll put together a mini-screen demo in 1-2 weeks (depends when the LEDs show up).

**Dana Love** · 2009 August 20th, 06:26

Sounds like a neat idea. At one of the Chinese video shows last month, they had a couple guys with knock-offs of the Chromatte product. It'll be fun to see if you can get it working and what price you come in at.

**zephyrnoid** · 2009 August 20th, 07:59

Originally Posted by thecoleinator

great idea for sure! I recommend that you use Luxeon LEDs because they are cheap yet extremely powerful. Cant wait to see the results!

Lumiled Rebels perha

ps.

**zephyrnoid** · 2009 August 20th, 08:02

Originally Posted by _gl

That's the thing, the LEDs don't need to be very powerful (you don't want to see them on the talent), but it's important that you get a whole bunch of them in a ring to provide even lighting and eliminate shadows.

I'm getting a sample piece of the material, so I'll put together a mini-screen demo in 1-2 weeks (depends when the LEDs show up).

Correct me if I'm mistaken. In theory, the foreground illumination ( talent ) must be in balance with the light-ring around the lens? Too much foreground and the 'green screen' isn't so green right?
Also- you might want to check in with the Illuminations forums to get some expert feedback. I'm sure CPF people would be all over this.

**focal** · 2009 August 20th, 08:56

Cree were the king of the LED's for output and efficiency last I was there.

**_gl** · 2009 August 21st, 10:32

Originally Posted by zephyrnoid

Correct me if I'm mistaken. In theory, the foreground illumination ( talent ) must be in balance with the light-ring around the lens? Too much foreground and the 'green screen' isn't so green right?

The fabric mostly reflects light directly back to where it came from, and not much anywhere else. So talent lighting isn't reflected a lot, as long as the light sources aren't too near the path of the camera. Think of street signs - they only reflect brightly because the headlights are close to the driver. If you view them at an angle from the light source, they're pretty dim.

Because it only reflects the light back to the source, it reflects most of it (unlike normal surfaces that scatter it everywhere), and that's why the reflection is so much brighter than from any other surface, and so doesn't need a lot of power. The video shows this - if the LED lights were really powerful, you would see blue or green light on the talent, but you don't.

**_gl** · 2009 August 21st, 11:01

I got my fabric sample. Here's a quick & dirty test:

[ame="http://vimeo.com/6207763"]Reflective Fabric - Quick'n'Dirty Test on Vimeo[/ame]

This was just illuminated with a standard household bulb overhead, and a single mini keyring LED shining directly on the fabric. The LED is actually white, but has a strong blue tint. You can see how brightly it reflects this tiny light, compared to how little it illuminates anything else.

EDIT: Actually this gets much better with distance, where you don't see the LED on anything at all, but the fabric still glows bright.

**HueyNRolf** · 2009 August 21st, 11:13

Thank you for using Asda thick bleach. Asda was acquired by Wal-Mart in 1999. Is that where you bought the reflective material?

**_gl** · 2009 August 21st, 11:23

Originally Posted by HueyNRolf

Thank you for using Asda thick bleach. Asda was acquired by Wal-Mart in 1999. Is that where you bought the reflective material?

Yeah

.

**Rumple** · 2009 August 24th, 18:02

Hmmm...! An interesting product that I only spotted the thread for.
What sort of price are we looking at here, and are you thinking of making a full blown kit (e.g. material and light ring)?

Cheers.

**_gl** · 2009 August 25th, 05:46

Originally Posted by Rumple

What sort of price are we looking at here, and are you thinking of making a full blown kit (e.g. material and light ring)?

It's too early to say, but I would try to make it much more affordable than the commercial versions. The plan is to build my own setup first (enough to do a full-body capture), inc. making a light ring and dimmable control box for it. I'll post HD demos once that's up and running.

If it turns out well and there's enough interest, I'll look at making complete packages available.

**Rumple** · 2009 August 25th, 07:20

Ok mate, i'll keep an eye out!
I'm definately interested...

**_gl** · 2009 August 25th, 07:27

Originally Posted by Rumple

Ok mate, i'll keep an eye out!
I'm definately interested...

. Forgetting cost for the moment, what would be your ideal size? What kind of shots do you need?

Thread: Cheap 'Chromatte' Reflective Chromakey material - any interest?

Thread Tools

Display

Cheap 'Chromatte' Reflective Chromakey material - any interest?

Posting Permissions