Hi, I've been wanting to use a blue screen effect for some time now. I was just curious as to the cheapest method. I'm running FCP on a mac with just about every related Adobe product if that helps. Thanks.

what are you trying to do with it?

Effects>Video Filters>Key>Blue and Green Screen

Greenscreen construction tips from Spaul:

http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?t=6629

For a good, cheap, easy keying program try Chromanator from:

http://fxhome.com/chromanator/

For a good, cheap, easy keying program try Chromanator from:

http://fxhome.com/chromanator/

Spatula,

Have you used this and found it to work? I've tried a couple of demo versions and been disappointed with the results, took a TON of cleaning up. I began to think I'd have to pony up some big bucks for viable software, I'd love to have something that works for under $100.

We used the program for all of our greenscreen effects in MB3K. In the trailer, there are a few shots that use the effect.

It's actually quite effective, and I would highly recommend it as a cheap, first keying program. It doesn't do everything as well as it says as far as using a "bad greenscreen" though. If you have properly lit footage, Chromanator does a great job.

For an "amatuer level program", I would say it's cream of the crop. The demo might not do it justice. If you want to see what we did with it, check out the Macbeth trailer (www.superguncinema.com/mb3k). The shots that use a greenscreen are:
-the jet pilot cockpit shot
-the newscaster
-the parachuting shot
-the shot of multiple zombie-Banquos turning around

We used thier other program, AlamDV2 for all of our effects, as well.
I think, for the price, Chromanator is a great program for cheap, effective greenscreens.

Thanks, the effects look clean, especially the zombies. I'll play around. And NOBODY can fix bad greenscreen as far as I can tell. If you screw up the shot, you'll pay for it!

Good looking trailer, as I'm sure you've heard before. The pacing is very good, great action.

Wow, thanks a lot for all of your help.

Pretty much getting a good chroma-key from DV footage is quite hard. Even lighting is imperative - even more so than on higher formats due to the low chroma sampling of the DV format. Even high end software can't always pull a good key. With DV more than anything else its about the setup.

Yes, Rrk, I totally agree- you can't fix a bad green-screen.... but you CAN help it.

For our "lighting kit" we had three diffusers on three photography lights. Nothing special... not even a proper lighting kit. We played around and did a helluva lot of tests to get the look right... but if you see the raw footage, the greenscreen was NOT properly lit... and on top of that it was MiniDV (1CCD)... so for that reason alone I push Chromanator.

Thanks for the comments on the trailer, by the way. I wish we had some of the original score when it was cut.. we can't put it on the DVD because of the music... bah. Next time. :)

You might want to pick up a couple of those 'painters lights' they sell at places like Menards, Home Depot and Lowes.. it's basically like the rectangular halogen lights you can get, but it has a frosted lens to cut down shadows by diffusing the light.

Ultra Key from Serious magic is supposed to be able to pull a good key from even the worst source video, not sure if there's a demo available or not though.

I wish we had some of the original score when it was cut.. we can't put it on the DVD because of the music... bah. Next time. :)

You could always re-cut it to the new score.. ;)

You could always re-cut it to the new score.. ;)

There were plans for that, but the director/editor doesn't have the time, and it would have to be mixed again... and the sound editor is going to Boston for school. It's unlikey, but it could happen. You never know. They're too busy finishing the behind the scenes documentary anyway.

you can't fix a bad green-screen.... but you CAN help it.

So true. :)

Bad/uneven lighting can wreck any greenscreen set.

If you don't have even lighting to get rid of what you want gone (if that made sense), you can still salvage footage.

After Effects, (as an example), allows one to place multiple chroma-keys on top of one another. This is very helpful when there are clearly several shades of "green" (due to lighting), and when using a single chroma-key to cover that range (in a basic editing package) means opening up the threshold to cut out a lot of what should remain.

:cool:

Yes, Rrk, I totally agree- you can't fix a bad green-screen.... but you CAN help it.

For our "lighting kit" we had three diffusers on three photography lights. Nothing special... not even a proper lighting kit. We played around and did a helluva lot of tests to get the look right... but if you see the raw footage, the greenscreen was NOT properly lit... and on top of that it was MiniDV (1CCD)... so for that reason alone I push Chromanator.
Dear Spatula,

Do you actually have any tutorial for the Chromanator? I just need to try it, but cannot see any proper one around.
Thanks anyway.
Alex.

The fxhome website has a forum with lots of tips... here are a few links:

Tutorial links:
http://fxhome.com/support/tutorials/list.php?cat=1

Forum links:
http://fxhome.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=32

The tutorials go in depth with anything you might want to do with the program (lots of uses) and the forum is a good place to get additional help. Watch out for the rampant 12 year old "hAcKz0rZ" though. They're everywhere...

Thanks a lot!!!