Chromakey effects on Live Action CD?

[jobusfest]

I am jonesing for chromakey/green screen effects. I was always assuming that I would need to invest in software other than Hash to get them. The Klee Miller 2d portion of the 2004 SIGGRAPH training CD had some stuff on it that makes me think otherwise although that portion of the CD didn't answer most of my new questions. And now the Sam Buntrock CD thing has hit the ground running. I plan on eventually getting the Live Action CD but will surely get it quicker if I knew that extensive chromakey/green screen issues were covered (i.e. putting a live actor on an animated background). The knight demo that I watched on your website did not appear to go into this area.

[Sevenar]

Not sure I follow your question. I've often rendered AM clips against a green screen for overlay on live video and had no problems. Chromakey is usually more a function of your final video editor than A:M. Although there's nothing stopping you from making an A:M background, greenscreening a live actor in front of that, then greenscreening some A:M props/scenery over the top of the actor. It's trivial to do chromakey in a multitrack video editor like Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, or Sony Vegas.

[jobusfest]

My current video editor is Adobe Premiere LE which lacks a chromakey function. Being a newspaper graphic designer with a family I am broke but was looking at video editors in the price range of Pinnacle Studio Plus v9 or Vegas Junior anyway. Both of these consumer grade editors have chromakey. Animation Master amazes me with all the things it can do. Before going on e-Bay or to CompUSA or, heaven help us, the computer show to get one of the other editors I just wanted make sure I wasn't buying something that would duplicate Hash's capabilities. I promised the kids I'd put them in a movie. With the help of chromakey I want to slap the little buggers into outer space. If chromakey is one of the few things that A:M can't do, that's fine, I'll buy a multitrack editor.

[Sevenar]

Pinnacle Studio Plus 9 will probably be easier to use, Vegas "junior" will probably have more functionality. Both will work. I use Studio 9 and full Vegas 5.0. I shot a little movie with my grandson and did all the chromakey and split screen effects in Vegas. Here's a tip--go buy a bright green tablecloth (we even used a paper disposable one) and use it as an "invisibility cloak". You lock down your camera, take a shot of the background then stop and let a kid walk in wearing the tablecloth like a cape. Lay that track above the first one you shot, set chromakey to the color of the table cloth, and boom--floating head, or total invisibility.

 

Now, Animation Master will let you make all sorts of cool outer-space ships and monsters and stuff. You just render them with an all-green (or blue) background then take that into your video editor and overlay it onto your kids' video. Easy-peasy.

[Parlo]

jobusfest -

 

A:M doesn't do greenscreen, or atleast it's not a feature and though you can set a key colour for an image or image sequence this can't really be used to get satisfactory results. My tutorials cover the various aspects of putting different components together in A:M, and the considerations people should take in doing so. However actually getting a shot of a person infront of a blue/green screen seperated from that background is something that you'd have to achieve in a secondary app before importing the footage into A:M

 

Sevenar -

 

Now, Animation Master will let you make all sorts of cool outer-space ships and monsters and stuff. You just render them with an all-green (or blue) background then take that into your video editor and overlay it onto your kids' video. Easy-peasy.

 

It's even easier peasier than that - all you have to do is render said object with an alpha channel, which means that it contains transparency information for the background. It's a built in matte if you will. This way you get crisp images seperated from their background without the added hassle of chromakey work. Now if only someone invented a camera that could film with an alpha channel. They'd be a rich person.

[jobusfest]

Thanks, guys. Your guidance is most helpful. I'm going to purchase Vegas "Junior" and get busy. The Live Action CD would make a most excellent Father's Day gift.

[ZachBG]

However actually getting a shot of a person infront of a blue/green screen seperated from that background is something that you'd have to achieve in a secondary app before importing the footage into A:M

That said, with the exposing of the Post Plugins architecture in the SDK (which is due to happen sometime after v12 is released, I think), it will be possible for someone to write a "green-screen" plug-in for A:M. Or so I've been told. And wouldn't that be cool?

 

But for the moment: yes, an external video app is needed.