I am pretty new to Adobe After Effects. I have a basic grasp on it but am not sure how to go about my situation. I am working on a documentary for the N.S Savannah - first nuclear powered ship ever. We shot an interview in front of a ship window with intentions of compositing the exterior of the window into the shot. The interviewee moves in front of the window every now and so I figured I need to use keyframing to move my mask.
How would you recommend going about this? Should I mask him or the window? And is there a tool that I could use to follow him? Or will I have to key frame this by hand? Here is a link to a short clip of what I am talking about. The first part is the interviewee and the second part is the window I would like to composite. any help would be appreciated.
Re: Masking by Darby Edelen on May 30, 2008 at 8:37:41 pm
The window in the interview is incredibly bright, so I would recommend drawing a junk matte around it, then using curves or levels to boost the brightness of the window even more and darken the interviewee. You could then use that image as a luma inverted track matte to knock out the window. Then line up your other window behind that video and color correct them to match.
Darby Edelen Lead Designer Left Coast Digital Santa Cruz, CA
Re: Masking by david bogie on May 30, 2008 at 9:07:17 pm
The term "documentary" poses a bit of an ethical question, though. You're stylizing and enhancing, not documenting.
An open discussion and agreement with your entire staff will help prevent such issues in the future because you'll understand what needs to be done on the set to achieve your stylization. Might be better to obtain some lighting control gels for windows than to drop in video that wasn't really there.
bogiesan
This is my standard sigfile so do not take it personally: "For crying out loud, read the freakin' manual."
Re: Masking by Darby Edelen on May 30, 2008 at 11:08:33 pm
[david bogie]"The term "documentary" poses a bit of an ethical question, though. You're stylizing and enhancing, not documenting. "
Whoa, way to get all direct cinema vérité on us : ) Most documentaries are stylized. Even direct cinema is structured and edited and thus 'stylized' to a certain extent. The effect in question doesn't change the content of the interview at all... If anything you could consider it an 'enhanced' reality where the camera was able to expose both the interior and exterior equally well.
[david bogie]"Might be better to obtain some lighting control gels for windows than to drop in video that wasn't really there. "
I'm not sure if you watched the video, but the video WAS really there, it just was filmed at a lower exposure and without the interviewee in the shot.
Darby Edelen Lead Designer Left Coast Digital Santa Cruz, CA
