Problem with green screening drumkit cymbals

Problem with green screening drumkit cymbals

on Apr 28, 2012 at 1:42:03 pm

Hi,
I've got a problem keying my drumkit cymbals. They're really shiny and reflect the green screen, so I always end up with choppy cymbals. Little parts in the cymbals are cut out because there's too much green in there. I've tried everything, followed every tutorial I could find, bought a new camera, bought 3 new lights but I still have this problem. Two lights pointed at the ceiling so they reflect the light only on the green screen (no shadows) and one light behind the camera pointed at the ceiling too so it lights me.
I'm not looking for a perfect key, just something acceptable. Are there any tricks to solve my problem?

Here's a video of what it looks like when I've keyed the footage:

In the completed video I put a garbage mask around my drums then used selective color to boost the green then keyed it. Duplicated this layer 3 times with a separate mask around the two cymbals so I could correct them some more.
Then put an adjustment layer on top with more color correction.

And here's a still shot of the original footage:
http://s144.photobucket.com/albums/r192/ace-tones/?action=view¤t=0000...

I'm using a Canon Vixia HF R20 to record, 30fps, and it's in mts format.
I use After Effects 5.5 to edit footage.
Thanks for any help.

Re: Problem with green screening drumkit cymbals

by Chris Wood

on Apr 28, 2012 at 9:10:56 pm

See I had a big college project that used this, and I had the same problem. My drummers cymbals reflected so much green screen I just had to scrap the entire thing.

My 2 cents is that you should try and keep the drums as far away from the screen as possible.

Other than that, if the camera is locked you can use feathered masks to cut out the cymbals from the footage, but then you're looking at a mask for the Hi-hat, crash and ride, and however many times they get hit. Not fun!

Re: Problem with green screening drumkit cymbals

on Apr 30, 2012 at 3:09:06 am

Thanks for your reply.
I tried and moved the whole drumkit forward about 2 meters and that made a big difference.
Thanks again for your advise!

Re: Problem with green screening drumkit cymbals

by mathew fuller

on Apr 29, 2012 at 10:21:35 pm

I cant imagine why you have an entire song on a drummer in front of green screen... but that's another topic.

Cymbals and metal on desks and chairs can be a big problem.

When shooting cymbals the best thing to do is believe it or not... dirty up the cymbals. No drummer is going to want to do this to his good cymbals so you will need a pair of crappy cheap cymbals. Then rub brasso or something like it all over the top but only clean it of lightly this will muddy up the green reflections.

Since the footage is shot already.... this is for next time.

People I think are delusional about keying footage. If you want a perfect key every time, sometimes you will have to bite the bullet and roto. I have had to roto many a painful keying situation due to poor prep by someone else on a set I was never on.

Tips for the future.
- It usually takes multiple keys to get a good final key
- You will be rotoing something.
- If a part of them has holes... simply plug them with a layer on top.

~ Good luck.

The higher they fly... the much.
My Reel:

Re: Problem with green screening drumkit cymbals

on Apr 30, 2012 at 3:13:35 am

Thanks for your reply.
You'd be surprised how many people like to watch videos of just drummers :-)
But it's also for projects me and some friends are doing. Playing music at home, shooting a video of that and then stick the whole thing together as if it's a 'real' band.
But I'm not gonna dirty up my cymbals. They're gonna sound terrible that way. But I guess I will have start roto-ing some stuff.
I hadn't thought of just plugging up the holes with a layer on top. Thanks for your advise!

Re: Problem with green screening drumkit cymbals

by Jeff Brown

on Apr 30, 2012 at 2:15:36 pm

You can buy (I'm not making this up) "dulling spray." It's removable, and is used in film/video production to kill specular reflections. Might damp down the GS cymbals enough to help. One version brand is Krylon.

-Jeff

Re: Problem with green screening drumkit cymbals

on Apr 30, 2012 at 6:09:54 pm

Thanks, I'll go and look for that spray.

Re: Problem with green screening drumkit cymbals

by Darko Djeric

on May 1, 2012 at 12:42:12 pm

Hi,

lots of people say this,
however you can succesfully shoot this metal and high frequency stuff,you ll need lots of defused light to throw on drum kits,

stuff that is not keying and looks funny in your video,
it is sign of not enough light from the top.
it is tricky,but doable without rubbing metal or spraying and dirting...

Best regards