Color Keying or Chroma Keying - Footage from XDCam
by JLK aniPNG
on
Mar 10, 2007 at 1:54:40 am
Hi,
I have captured a keying subject on chroma blue video from XDCam using the DV - PAL easy setup preferrences. Using either of the filters mention above, I still am left with a dark outline, like a halo just pixals from the subjects area. I have also encountered very steppy pixalated edges, what am I doing wrong?
Syst. ( FCP 5.1.4, OS X 10.4.8)
Cam. (Digital XD Cam)
Capt. Preset (DV Pal 48 KHz)
Re: Color Keying or Chroma Keying - Footage from XDCam by Nick Toth on Mar 10, 2007 at 2:29:04 am
Here is what I use and I get excellent keys. I usually use the DV codec. Apply filters in this order: Color Smoothing 4:1:1 > Color Keyer (adjust edge feather to zero to start) > Matte Choke > Matte Feather. Adjust the Color Keyer to your key color, tweak and then add the choke and feather to tweak the edges. Don't forget that you can add color correction at any point. Also, adding color correction to the background can help. Sometimes you can get a good edge but something drops out in the middle. Just duplicate the layer with no keyer and use a garbage matte to trim to fit. There are free garbage matte filters online that have more than 8 control points. Search for "free FCP filters". I have gotten clean keys with this method with green, blue and white backgrounds. You need to experiment. I think many people give up too soon. Give it a try.
Re: Color Keying or Chroma Keying - Footage from XDCam by Andy Mees on Mar 10, 2007 at 2:29:28 am
shooting DV is not recommended for Chroma Keying work ... basically how well its shot / lit can make or break it
still, whats done is done, so moving on, have a look at these:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/chroma_key_part_1.html http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/chroma_key_part_2.html
Re: Color Keying or Chroma Keying - Footage from XDCam by Andy Mees on Mar 10, 2007 at 6:50:10 am
actually XDCAM is a camera format, not a video compression format.
the poster is asking about keying DV footage, the fact that it was shot with an XDCAM camera is not especially relevant
Re: Color Keying or Chroma Keying - Footage from XDCam by Le Coyote on Mar 10, 2007 at 8:16:48 pm
[msacci]"XDCAM is a highly compressed format and lower end color space, not the best choice for keying. the problem you described are common to this format."
XDCAM can record at many bitrate including IMX 50mbits 4:2:2. IMX 50 mbits is fine for keying. It's at least as good as DVCPRO 50. I don't know how can we say that "XDCAM is a highly compressed format and lower end color space".
"JKL aniPNG", I don't understand how you captured your footage... When copying the files from the blue rays, you should have got them in their native format (which I hope for you is IMX 50). Then you should work with them in a IMX 50 sequence for offline if you have editting to do and an Uncompressed sequence to do your keying.
