Re: Getting rid of white backgrounds

i would probably do this in photoshop.

photoshop's select>color range tool can be pretty effective at selecting white. using that to create a layer mask, then using curves or level to tweek the mask should give good results. also (after applying the mask) you can use layer>matting>remove white matte or defringe to help clean the white fringing/halo up.

also, you can often use a specific rgb channel as a mask -- create a mask for the layer, then goto channels and see if any of them would make a good mask, then copy/paste that channel into the layer mask channel. tweak the matte from there.

in after effects, you might try the luma key effect, but i doubt that it will yield much better results than what you've tried thus far.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW