exporting a green screen key as transparency

Here goes: I'm using FCP 6 on a MacBook Pro with OXS 10.5.8. I have a Sony HDV 1080i camera model #HVR-A1U. I can also shoot in DVCAM or DV SD. I'm close to getting a job in which the client wants to put himself walking around on his web site. I'm thinking if I key out the background (perfectly) when I make the movie it will default to a black background. I need to know how to export a transparent background... hope someone can help. Margot

Export to Animation or ProRes 4444 or to a PSD sequence. But ultimately that will either have to be composited over the same BG color as the website or encoded using Flash with an alpha channel. You can see an example of the latter over at:

[www.2-popforums.com]

-Noah

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Thank you. She looked pretty good. That's the exact idea that my client wants. Same color background obviously won't work. It's got to be transparent. Are you saying I can rotoscope it in PSD? Maybe I don't know enough to pull this off. Do you know of a tutorial? And thanks again for your reply. Margot

Well thing is to make that work you need to have Adobe Flash and someone who knows a fair bit about web programming- both of which aren't cheap. You'd shoot greenscreen and key out the BG, then send to Flash with an alpha channel and encode Flash video with an alpha channel. If it were me I'd do the video portion and key it and then sub-contract the Flash video encoding to a Flash expert. You'll spend a lot less and get better results than trying it all yourself.

Noah

Final Cut Studio Training, featuring the HVX200, EX1, EX3, DVX100, DVDSP and Color at [www.callboxlive.com]!
Author, RED: The Ultimate Guide to Using the Revolutionary Camera available now at: [www.amazon.com].
Editors Store- Gifts and Gear for Editors: [www.editorsstore.com]

In addition to everything Noah said, let me emphasize that this is not just a matter of exporting an H.264 with the right settings. What you're talking about is Flash voodoo, pure and simple.

Find a Web developer who knows how to do this, then find out what that developer needs you to supply. It'll probably be uncompressed or ProRes matte and fill, or maybe a TIFF sequence with alpha and an AIFF for the audio, would be my guess. But it's just a guess. Your Web developer will tell you precisely what you need to provide.

thank you thank you thank you...Margot