What's the best way to make a photo the backdrop/mask?
by Harrell Williams
on
Nov 6, 2009 at 5:47:16 pm
What's the best way to make a photo the backdrop, behind the original video foot?
I have video footage of someone singing in front of a plain wall (beige pastel color wall). I now want to add a photo as the backdrop. I was able to insert the photo on it's own "video" track, and made it the "mask multiply" (I think that's the right wording), and set my "video" footage/track as the "default", etc.
In "preview/playback" I "am" able to see the photo merged with the original video (looks like it's overlaid/transparent, which is what I want), but the transparent photo is in the foreground, not the background/as a backdrop. When my subject moves around their body/face gets hidden/is partly covered by darker parts of the photo... I tried adjusting the level/amount of transparency on the photo track and on the original video footage track, but that only makes the "whole" footage darker.
Should I have stretched the photo across the whole time line, timed it out as I want it, then saved the photo footage, then stated a new project using the photo footage as my original, then added my singer's footage as the mask (i.e. reversing the process)?
What's the best way to make a photo the backdrop, behind the original video footage (and I do not have to keep the original backdrop/beige color wall as the backdrop; meaning, the photo can be a solid backdrop, not a transparency).
Re: What's the best way to make a photo the backdrop/mask? by Bob Peterson on Nov 6, 2009 at 8:17:12 pm
Put the photo on a layer under the video. Then mask out the area of the video that you want to remove. If the area being masked out has a unique color, you should be able to remove it with something like the Chroma Keyer function. If the color being removed is not unique, you may have draw the mask. However, if the singer moves, I think you will have to adjust the mask to move with the singer's outline. At its worst, than means a frame by frame adjustment.
Re: What's the best way to make a photo the backdrop/mask? by Harrell Williams on Nov 6, 2009 at 10:02:18 pm
I don't mean to come across as an idiot but do you know of a link out on the internet that instructs step by step how to do that, or can you send the steps to me. If not, I uderstand. I've got both manuals and will check them out. Take care.
