Best software choice for HD green screen keys

Hi All,

We have a shoot coming up that involves shooting a host against green screen. The camera is a Sony F-900. I've got the latest versions of FCS and AE Pro version 7, and am wondering which software would be best to deal with keying the footage? I'll be new to keying green screen, but am guessing Motion 3 or AE due to the additional compositing (but I'm halfway through learning Color via Andrew's new DVD and it seems pretty impressive). Also, with a past 5 min. AE project, I tried to render out and ran into some image cache issues - I learned how to access a "secret menu" that allows AE to purge the cache so that you can render out in chunks, but it's a pain.

Thanks for any thoughts and advice,
~Chris

After Effects and Keylight will blow the doors off ANY of the FCP built in keyers. Seriously. To get close to what AE offers, you need to buy Conduit or DVMatte Pro. But AE will be your best bet...as you already OWN it.

Shake and Keylight does a great job too. KEYLIGHT...love it.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

Cool, thanks for the info Shane!

I'll second Shane's opinion on using Keylight. I use it for HD Chromakey and am generally happy with it.

One warning. If you have a lot of green spill from an over-bright background you may find that your foreground image is a bit noisy. Keylight has an aggressive de-spill algorithm that does a great job with well lit shots. However not all shots are well lit! If you do have too much green in the foreground try removing some prior to putting on the Keylight filter, then replace as necessary after the key.

-Vance

Thanks Vance - nice to hear from those who've been there before.

Cheers,
~Chris

Another vote for Shake and Keylight here. I tried all the options in FCP and Motion on my footage but wasn't able to get a perfect key. The trick seems to be applying TWO key filters at a time, one for the main body of your subject and one just for the edges. Shake and AE will allow you to double up the filters like that.

JK

_______________________________________
SCQT! Self-contained QuickTime ? pass it on!

a vote here for dvmatte pro (FCP plugin) fastest, simplest and best keyer out there for the dollar.

there are better keyers but they cost more, are more difficult to use and in my experience, not always worth it.

Thanks for the replies, and good note on the double filters John.

dv matte pro or dv matte blast. Great results for the money and zero learning curve.

Kevin

thanks Kevin, I'll start with AE and Keylight seeing as I already have them, but nice to know of back-up options.

cheers,
~C

I heard some good things about DVMatte Pro, but if you have After Effects Pro then "for the dollar" you can't beat Keylight since it comes free in the CS3 installer (or a separate installer on the app disk for older "Pro" versions).

As far as learning curve, a lot of the keys I do in Keylight takes one click of the eyedropper (select the greenscreen on the clip) and a few slider tweaks to tighten up. I use a steady combination of filters in AE CS3 Pro to pull super-clean keys (especially on blue / green screens): Keylight / Spill Supressor / Matte Choker. Tweak them out...awesome results.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

great info - thanks Joe