Sunday, October 25, 2009

Re: [FCP-L] Best way to Matte White Screen

Robin sez:
> Since this is getting *way* OT...

Not sure how editing technique is OT... if it is, Jim will step in.

Ed sez;
> Hmm, and all these years I thought YUV, YCbCr and YPbPr white is, in
> fact,
> *all* the colors, just as in RGB, add red, green, and blue
> together, and
> you get... white.


I'm with Ed. We edit in the additive world of light. In that world,
white is all colors. The subtractive world of CMYK is for printing
and not relevant here.

Mel sez:
> Keylight will *NOT* work for luma keying. It's a color-difference
> based keyer, so there needs to be color contrast in the RGB channels
> in order for it to generate a matte from something.

I just sat down with Keylight and a clip of a woman with a blue jacket
on with a white blouse under it. I keyed out the white, cut rough,
soft masks to hide the "defecation" ... and changed the blouse color
to pink. To your point, Mel... it must be a color key.

I sez:
For all the lovely discussion about theory, the simple fact remains
that "white keying" is NOT a practical form of keying to be used in
lieu of Blue or Green, as Shane pointed out. It's something I've used
in one very limited circumstance... keying multiple Interviews shot on
white seamless onto a clean, white BG for the purpose of creating a
clean, homogenous white background for all clips. I discovered it
after shooting interviews on white seamless in 5 different locations
and the slight variations in the white background were obvious cut-to-
cut. When I removed the FG white and replaced it with a clean, white
BG plate, all the things that were white stayed white... but
importantly, the SAME white. Yes, I cropped the subject tightly, had
to add a few masks on a few of them, the matte densities were anything
but "normal"... but it worked. Say what you want about theory, the
proof is in the link I posted.

Again, this is a cheat I discovered..., a trick, a technique that you
can stick in your bag and use if somebody walks in with a bunch of
stuff shot on white in different locations and wants the white to look
"cleaner". Use it or not.

Be well...
---
Bob
------
Robert Griffiths
http://www.FireDancer.tv


On Oct 25, 2009, at 8:36 AM, Robin S. Kurz wrote:

>
> On 25.10.2009, at 15:07, Ed Dooley wrote:
>
>> Hmm, and all these years I thought YUV, YCbCr and YPbPr white is, in
>> fact,
>> *all* the colors, just as in RGB, add red, green, and blue together,
>> and
>> you get...white
>
>
> No. Technically, pure white is *the absence of color*. In other words,
> you can't mix colors to create white. Therefore, white is the absence
> of color in the strictest sense of the definition. But it's one of
> those 'it's who you ask' things... and probably yet another otiose
> tangent at this point. ;-)
>
>
>> (unlike CMYK where you get black).
>
>
> No. With *K* you get black. CMY mixed together give a very dark grey,
> that's what the "K" is for, which is pure black (but also for the sake
> of saving ink when printing). The "K" in CMYK stands for "key" since
> in printing cyan, magenta, and yellow plates are "keyed" or aligned
> with the black key plate.
>
> - RK
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> To learn more about the FinalCutPro-L group, please visit
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FinalCutPro-LYahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

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[FCP-L] Re: MPEG-2 Playback Component - Busted in QT10?

 

This spurred me to use the Final Cut Studio Install disc to reinstall the MPEG-2 component. It worked! Reminds me that it's probably a good idea to do a fresh install of FCS after the Snow Leopard upgrade.

For the record, to find the installer package on the new FCS (FCP 7), Go To: /Volumes/Final Cut Studio Install/Installer/Packages

Pacifist will work, but it's not necessary.

Also for the record, I see that my old Quicktime Library with all the old components still exists on my hard drive after the Snow Leopard install. It's in the Volume/Library; the Library that is used, however, is in the System/Library. For whatever reason, simply copying the old component into the correct Library didn't work; a new install was necessary.

-- MB

--- In FinalCutPro-L@yahoogroups.com, "MarkB" <eatapc@...> wrote:
>
> This is a known problem that has been annoying me on my laptop since installing Snow Leopard. There are countless threads on Apple Support, and Squared 5 has an explanation of how to get Streamclip working again. I'll past it below for posterity, but I haven't been able to get it working myself.

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Re: [FCP-L] Best way to Matte White Screen

 

It's who you ask...and whether they're pushing half the story.

Additive color mixing, like light and video and things that emit,
mixes all colors into white.

Subtractive color mixing, like paint and ink and things that reflect,
mixes all colors into black.

--
Jeff Cook
jeff@cookstudios.com
CookStudios.com
703-980-1104 (cell)

On Oct 25, 2009, at 10:36 AM, "Robin S. Kurz" <robin.kurz@mac.com>
wrote:
> No. Technically, pure white is *the absence of color*. In other words,
> you can't mix colors to create white. Therefore, white is the absence
> of color in the strictest sense of the definition. But it's one of
> those 'it's who you ask' things... and probably yet another otio
> se
> tangent at this point. ;-)
>

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Re: [FCP-L] Best way to Matte White Screen

To be more precise I guess, no AND yes, it's a question of which
*color model* you ask.


On 25.10.2009, at 15:36, Robin S. Kurz wrote:

>
> On 25.10.2009, at 15:07, Ed Dooley wrote:
>
>> Hmm, and all these years I thought YUV, YCbCr and YPbPr white is, in
>> fact,
>> *all* the colors, just as in RGB, add red, green, and blue together,
>> and
>> you get...white


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[FCP-L] Re: Best way to Matte White Screen

What about a difference matte? If you have a shot of the background
without the foreground subject. Not saying it will be beautiful but
might work.

>
>
> On Oct 24, 2009, at 7:36 PM, Robin S. Kurz wrote:
>
>> No matter how you put it, you‚re painting the infamous lipstick on
>> the
>> pig. White does not key. Period. It screens, it overlays, it does
NOT
>> „key‰, it is a practical impossibility by definition. If it were a
>> mere question of „avoiding a color‰, then the colors blue and most
of
>> all GREEN would not be standard as key colors. Look at a color wheel
>> or even video scope and you might catch why...
>>
>> You will NEVER pull a usable matte based on WHITE unless of course
>> your foreground plate is *completely* black. Not without a massive
>> amount of garbage mattes that is, in which case you might as well
>> roto.
>>
>> - RK

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[FCP-L] Re: MPEG-2 Playback Component - Busted in QT10?

 

This is a known problem that has been annoying me on my laptop since installing Snow Leopard. There are countless threads on Apple Support, and Squared 5 has an explanation of how to get Streamclip working again. I'll past it below for posterity, but I haven't been able to get it working myself.

I tried the "easy" way of simply copying my old AppleMPEG2codec.component back into the Quicktime Library from a backup, but it still didn't work. Many people on the Apple forum reported that this did work for them, but a few (like me) had no luck. Others said that reinstalling the component was the cure. For the record, I also tried a Restore from the Time Machine application. (I have two backups of my computer from before the SL install: Time Capsule and a FW hard drive.) No joy with the Time Machine Resore either. For good measure, after the restore, I restarted, which resulted in a spontaneous "double-restart" as happens with OS upgrades sometimes, and did the usual rebuilds and maintenance routines (via MainMenu, which has a new update that finally cures its SL bugs.

I haven't had the time to reinstall the component from my Final Cut installer discs. -- Mark B

From Squared 5:

The Snow Leopard upgrade DVD released on August 28 may wipe the content of the /System/Library/QuickTime folder during the upgrade process, and delete your MPEG-2 Playback Component installed in that folder. To use MPEG-2 files with MPEG Streamclip you have to reinstall the MPEG-2 component or restore it from a backup copy.

If you are going to upgrade to Snow Leopard

Open the /System/Library/QuickTime folder and drag the QuickTimeMPEG2.component file to your desktop to make a copy of it. Then upgrade to Snow Leopard. When the upgrade is complete, open the /System/Library/QuickTime folder again and move the QuickTimeMPEG2.component file from the desktop to the /System/Library/QuickTime folder (enter your administrator password if necessary).

If you already upgraded to Snow Leopard

You have to reinstall or restore your MPEG-2 Playback Component.

If you have a Time Machine backup of your System folder, then open the /System/Library/QuickTime folder, enter Time Machine and go back in time until you see the QuickTimeMPEG2.component file; select that file and then click Restore.

If you purchased the MPEG-2 Playback Component from the Apple Online Store, then you probably still have the DMG file that contains the installer. Use Spotlight to search for "QuickTimeMPEG2.dmg": if you find a file with that name, double-click it and then in the disk image, double-click the installer package for Intel Macs.

If you purchased the MPEG-2 Playback Component from the Apple Online Store but you can't find the QuickTimeMPEG2.dmg file, you can download the file again from the Apple Online Store if you remember the Apple ID used when you originally purchased it (if you forgot your Apple ID then go to Apple iforgot). Visit the Apple Online Store, click on "Account" in the store menu, then click "Downloadable Software Purchases," enter your Apple ID and password, and click the link to the QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component to download it again.

If you obtained the MPEG-2 Playback Component from the installation of Final Cut Studio, then you can reinstall it again from the Final Cut Studio DVD. Insert the DVD and use the Finder's Go menu > Go To Folder... command to get to the /Volumes/Final Cut Studio/Installer/Packages/ folder inside the DVD. Locate the QuickTimeMPEG2.pkg or the QuickTimeMPEG2Pro.pkg installer: double-click it to reinstall the MPEG-2 component.

--- In FinalCutPro-L@yahoogroups.com, Jeff Cook <jeff@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks for the consult, Philip. I'm bailing out to other methods and
> will dig into this later.
>
> --
> Jeff Cook
> jeff@...
>
> Cook Studios Inc
> Freelance Video Editing
> Washington DC, Baltimore, Richmond
> http://www.CookStudios.com
> 703-980-1104 (cell)
>
> Video Podcast Series at
> http://CookStudios.TV
>
>
>
> On Oct 24, 2009, at 6:21 PM, Philip Hodgetts wrote:
>
> >
> > On Oct 24, 2009, at 2:56 PM, Jeff Cook wrote:
> >
> >> And you force MPEG Streamclip to default to using QT7 instead of
> >> QT10...how??
> >
> > Well, a quick lesson in the QT API is required.
> >
> > MPEG Streamclip *should* be calling the QTKit API but it is more
> > likely calling the old QT C API (deprecated, ie do not use, except
> > there's still often no alternative). The Snow Leopard install includes
> > *all* the API from QT 7 plus QT X, so anything that worked on QT 7
> > should continue to work.
> >
> > that it doesn't suggests there's something no-kosher in the way MPEG
> > Streamclip calls the QT API and that's why it's failing. I expect MPEG
> > streamclip will need to be "updated" to the appropriate API calls.
> >
> > But test the MPEG-2 playback in the QT 7 player (in your Utilities
> > folder I believe or install from the Snow Leopard folder - you only
> > need the player, the API is already installed). If playback doesn't
> > work in the QT Player (7) it's unlikely to work in MPEG Streamclip and
> > is likely an incompatibility with Snow Leopard.
> >
> > Philip
> >
> > Philip Hodgetts
> > President, Intelligent Assistance
> > AssistedEditing.com Fast First Cuts, Metadata Worfklows
> > Big Brains for Rent bigbrainsforrent.com
> > HD Survival Handbook 2009-2010
> > The New Now - Grow your business - ProAppsTips.com
> >
> > Personal Blog http://philiphodgetts.com
> > Cell 818 335 3916
>

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Re: [FCP-L] Best way to Matte White Screen

On 25.10.2009, at 15:07, Ed Dooley wrote:

> Hmm, and all these years I thought YUV, YCbCr and YPbPr white is, in
> fact,
> *all* the colors, just as in RGB, add red, green, and blue together,
> and
> you get...white


No. Technically, pure white is *the absence of color*. In other words,
you can't mix colors to create white. Therefore, white is the absence
of color in the strictest sense of the definition. But it's one of
those 'it's who you ask' things... and probably yet another otiose
tangent at this point. ;-)


> (unlike CMYK where you get black).


No. With *K* you get black. CMY mixed together give a very dark grey,
that's what the "K" is for, which is pure black (but also for the sake
of saving ink when printing). The "K" in CMYK stands for "key" since
in printing cyan, magenta, and yellow plates are "keyed" or aligned
with the black key plate.

- RK

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Re: [FCP-L] Best way to Matte White Screen

> You said it was impossible. I (and others) offered solutions that
> suggested otherwise. OF COURSE it wont be easy. OF COURSE the results
> will most likely look like relative ass, compared to a proper
> greenscreen. But the question wasn't "Is it theoretically possible to
> key shit out of a white background?".


Again, if you reread my last post, that was pretty much my point, only
with a different choice of words and I, too, concluded with a
suggestion for an approach. Tho maybe I took too much offense to the
term KEY in this context, yes. My bad.


> The basic question was "I've
> been handed a pile of shit that happens to be in front of a white
> background. What are some ways i can effectively defecate this shit
> from the background?"

I like the "defecate shit" part. :-D
At the same time I'm not exactly sure how you come to that somewhat ad
hominem interpretation/conclusion from reading the rather
undescriptive "I'm trying to key some footage that was shot over
whit" [sic], since I don't really see any of that in there.

And again, we're arguing "solutions" for a problem we know practically
*nothing* (essential) about, since the actual CONTENT and overall
desired result are of utter relevance to be able to give any
*constructive* suggestions whatsoever in a case like this. First and
foremost because, you guessed it, we are not talking about a COLOR key!

- RK

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[FCP-L] Best way to Matte White Screen

 

Hmm, and all these years I thought YUV, YCbCr and YPbPr white is, in fact,
*all* the colors, just as in RGB, add red, green, and blue together, and
you get...white (unlike CMYK where you get black).
Ed

> Posted by: "Robin S. Kurz" robin.kurz@mac.com robin_kurz
> Date: Sun Oct 25, 2009 3:49 am ((PDT))
.......... (though white is in fact not a color) for creating
transparency. Which, again, is nothing more
> than what Overlay or many of the other available blend or composite
> modes do, only with more control over matte density, threshold etc..
> Hey, why not use BLACK next time for the same effect? Same difference.

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Re: [FCP-L] Best way to Matte White Screen

On Oct 25, 2009, at 12:48 AM, Robin S. Kurz wrote:

> Since this is getting *way* OT, I'll post this last one on the
> subject, even though I don't actually see how what you say differs in
> any way to what I wrote. You make my point perfectly.
>
> You can *or course* pull a matte based on an images LUMINANCE.
> Therefore defining WHITE as the "key"-color (though white is in fact
> not a color) for creating transparency. Which, again, is nothing more
> than what Overlay or many of the other available blend or composite
> modes do, only with more control over matte density, threshold etc..
> Hey, why not use BLACK next time for the same effect? Same difference.
>
> For that matter you can even "key" an entire SKYLINE, given nothing
> more than a clean BG-plate and a DIFFERENCE matte. So, why EVER bother
> with that green-screen silliness? :-P


Hello, Pot? This is Kettle calling...

This only started "getting off way OT" when you turned it into a
pedantic lecture about proper screen matting basics that I would
assume even the OP knows about.

Of course, luminance based keying is about the most awful way of
keying there is. Everyone knows this. But Brett was asking for a
possible solution to a specific problem he has that no amount of
grandstanding about how technically improper the concept of keying
luma is will change.

You said it was impossible. I (and others) offered solutions that
suggested otherwise. OF COURSE it wont be easy. OF COURSE the results
will most likely look like relative ass, compared to a proper
greenscreen. But the question wasn't "Is it theoretically possible to
key shit out of a white background?". The basic question was "I've
been handed a pile of shit that happens to be in front of a white
background. What are some ways i can effectively defecate this shit
from the background?"

If your airplane runs out of gas over the Pacific Ocean because the
ground crew miscalculated your flight plan, what you want to hear
coming through your radio headsets are possible solutions to the
problem of impending death. You DON'T want to hear the air traffic
controller tell you that you're screwed, gonna die, and that you
should have packed a parachute ahead of time.

Just saying...


--
Mel Matsuoka

http://twitter.com/melorama
http://twitter.com/hawaiifcpug
http://twitter.com/LiftGammaGain


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Re: [FCP-L] Re: Slightly OT: shooting NTSC for PAL conversion

> well, if you know ANYTHING at all about PAL, that assumption should
> be that people like
> the look of progressive material.


Well Tony, unfortunately you seemed to have missed the small detail
that I in fact AM in "PAL-land", even in the one that *invented* the
television for that matter, and have fortunately (near) never had to
deal with NTSC professionally, even during my FILM studies in the U.S.
20 some odd years ago, so I very much know what I'm talking about,
thanks. So that already nonsensical argument doesn't in apply, no
"facts" included, sorry. And if you actually do the math, then you
might notice that, if ANY of the two formats will suffer from stutter
due to deinterlacing, then quite obviously *PAL* more so than
*NTSC*... think about it.

And the "most folk in Europe now watch TV on LCDs or Plasmas" is
utterly soliptic, aside from the fact that I really have no clue as to
what the reason in pointing that out could even be, since an LCD/
Plasma displays interlaced material interlaced also... as well as
stuttering due to completely unnecessary deinterlacing btw.


> quality is subconsciously associated with film and hence 25P


Oh wow... there it is :-D Hate to say I told ya so, but I totally saw
that one coming.

You have never worked with actual film a day in your life or even know
how film recording or, even more so, projection works in comparison,
right? The ol' "Film progressive, therefore video progressive = FILM!"
logic. Since, as we all know, that's of course the only mentionable
difference between the two mediums! ;-D ... that's so... well, we'll
just leave it at that, shall we? I'm not actually up to that old,
painful discussion. Windmills come to mind.


> Guess what their first words were as they
> sat down in the suite? "We need this defielded."


Um, yeah, sure. If you say so. Don't doubt it for a second.
You of course wouldn't want to share who that person was or which
project, right? Only since that was the only thing my friend at the
BBC (known producer/director whom I'll gladly name off-list, where the
rest of this should take place btw, if even) wanted to know when I
sent him this. I won't repeat what he thought of the overall claim. No
point.

But really, Tony, if you and your clients truly believe that reducing
the resolution of your footage by half and making it stutter is a
*good* thing, for nothing but the sake of the ultimate urban myth of
video... all the power to ya.

cheers,
RK

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Re: [FCP-L] Best way to Matte White Screen

Since this is getting *way* OT, I'll post this last one on the
subject, even though I don't actually see how what you say differs in
any way to what I wrote. You make my point perfectly.

You can *or course* pull a matte based on an images LUMINANCE.
Therefore defining WHITE as the "key"-color (though white is in fact
not a color) for creating transparency. Which, again, is nothing more
than what Overlay or many of the other available blend or composite
modes do, only with more control over matte density, threshold etc..
Hey, why not use BLACK next time for the same effect? Same difference.

For that matter you can even "key" an entire SKYLINE, given nothing
more than a clean BG-plate and a DIFFERENCE matte. So, why EVER bother
with that green-screen silliness? :-P

> It is quite possible to pull a usable procedural matte by keying off
> the contrast in individual color channels of the original image.

Which is merely a more technical way of saying "luma-key", yes. Only
it's not the contrast.

Bottom line: if you are using WHITE, therefore the BRIGHTNESS (aka
luminance, no?) of an images pixels to pull a matte, you are *not*
pulling a color or better *chroma* key, since white, again, *is not a
color* to begin with. You are (at best) pulling a LUMA-key. No matter
how complicated you want to make it sound. I was not trying to make
any other point. Is it a possible workaround, compromise, expedient
for a "late idea"? Sure. Would I *ever* want to *intentionally* shoot
something like that knowing that I need a matte in post? Of course
not! Never! And it has absolutely nothing to do with wanting to "get
down and dirty" or not. Just to prove what a crafty magician I am? If
you're fine with that, be my guest. I just prefer not to advocate the
idea that there is anything "okay" about shooting and wanting to key
off white, cause all you have to do is find someone in the end who's
not "lazy".

> Keying is NEVER a one-click process, even on professionally shot
> green-
> screen plates.

Sorry, but *that* is simply not true. At least if I interpret that
correctly to mean "never with just one fine-tuned keyer applied". In
which case I can only assume that you in fact have never actually had
a *professionally* shot green-screen to work with. I for one can show
you several such shots in e.g. "Life and Death of Peter Sellers" or
"Rome" that I did, both of which won Emmy's for VFX btw. Surely not
one FILTER (in the final), but one key and no additional matting, yes.
Quite often. But sure, the 20-plus-mattes-needed ones dominate
overall, yes.

But honestly? This whole thing is completely otiose in the end, since
we have absolutely no clue as to what the footage we're talking about
even looks like or how/why/with what actual type of subjects etc. etc.
etc. is was shot.

Bottom line, for Brett: if you're not getting the results you want
with any of the composite modes and/or simple luma key, then your only
other option in my opinion (again, without even knowing what it is
we're even talking about here of what the actual visual goal is... at
minimum a screen-shot would have been very helpful) would be to dive
into an app like Motion, AE, Silhouette, Nuke etc. etc., but something
tells me you'd be wasting a lot of time.

cheers,
RK

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Saturday, October 24, 2009

Re: [FCP-L] Best way to Matte White Screen

 


On Oct 24, 2009, at 9:41 AM, Robert Griffiths wrote:

> I've always treated it like a key, so Keylight or any
> good keying software will help.

Keylight will *NOT* work for luma keying. It's a color-difference
based keyer, so there needs to be color contrast in the RGB channels
in order for it to generate a matte from something.

--
Mel Matsuoka

http://twitter.com/melorama
http://twitter.com/hawaiifcpug
http://twitter.com/LiftGammaGain

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Re: [FCP-L] Best way to Matte White Screen

 


On Oct 24, 2009, at 3:36 PM, Robin S. Kurz wrote:

> You will NEVER pull a usable matte based on WHITE unless of course
> your foreground plate is *completely* black. Not without a massive
> amount of garbage mattes that is, in which case you might as well
> roto.

This is simply not true.

It is quite possible to pull a usable procedural matte by keying off
the contrast in individual color channels of the original image. You
can use the resulting hicon matte as a holdout matte for the FG, which
allows you to concentrate on just getting the edges keyed out decently.

Of course, this will generally not work for hair or any sort of detail
that requires fine transparency. And if you're dropping the keyed FG
onto a dark BG plate, you're in for a world of pain as well. But I've
done this sort of thing often enough to know that depending on the
cricumstances it's totally possible to pull things like this off. Far
from ideal, of course, but also not impossible.

If you're willing to get down and dirty in a dedicated compositing app
like Shake, you can get even better results by using the keyed white
fringing to your advantage as an edge matte to comp in the original
color of hair using color solids (similar to how greenscreen spill
suppressors work. albeit in a much more brute-force way)

Keying is NEVER a one-click process, even on professionally shot green-
screen plates. You will almost always have to do some roto,
articulated g-mattes and multiple key passes in order to get a great
key.

Never say "never"!

--
Mel Matsuoka

http://twitter.com/melorama
http://twitter.com/hawaiifcpug
http://twitter.com/LiftGammaGain

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Re: [FCP-L] Best way to Matte White Screen

OH, white keys. But then the actors/objects might all have a bit of
white on them. or a brightness level that hits white and BOOM, you
see right through it. And the edges of the actors/objects... they can
be pretty horrid too. There is a good reason people use green and blue.

-shane

On Oct 24, 2009, at 9:00 PM, Robert Griffiths wrote:

> Sure white keys... any color can "key"... and for traditional keying,
> some much better than others. I never said mine was a usable matte in
> the traditional sense... I said it looked horrible. The situation I
> described is a cheat. And the few times I've used it, a pretty good
> one. If you want to see what it looks like, go here:
>
> http://www.firedancer.tv/
> - Click Reel
> - Click Page 2
> - Philanthropy/School Nurse Fellowship
>
> That is a white key. A 14 year old white key. First version of
> Primatte, if I remember right... or Ultimatte.
>
> Brett was looking for a way to get out of a tight spot. I offered
> one.
>
> ---
> Bob
> ------
> Robert Griffiths
> http://www.FireDancer.tv
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Oct 24, 2009, at 7:36 PM, Robin S. Kurz wrote:
>
>> No matter how you put it, you're painting the infamous lipstick on
>> the
>> pig. White does not key. Period. It screens, it overlays, it does NOT
>> "key", it is a practical impossibility by definition. If it were a
>> mere question of "avoiding a color", then the colors blue and most of
>> all GREEN would not be standard as key colors. Look at a color wheel
>> or even video scope and you might catch why...
>>
>> You will NEVER pull a usable matte based on WHITE unless of course
>> your foreground plate is *completely* black. Not without a massive
>> amount of garbage mattes that is, in which case you might as well
>> roto.
>>
>> - RK
>>
>>
>>
>> On 25.10.2009, at 01:31, Robert Griffiths wrote:
>>
>>> Not entirely... it works if you key back onto a white background and
>>> go with that as the look.
>>>
>>> Years ago, I shot interviews (waist up) with people in various
>>> locations with different crews on white seamless backgrounds. The
>>> goal was to create the "Mac vs PC" look. Green or blue keying at the
>>> time resulted in too much clipping and ringing to get a clean,
>>> natural
>>> look on white. So we shot them on white and softly keyed the various
>>> shades of white backgrounds out and keyed in a common white
>>> background. If you looked at the mattes, they were horrible with
>>> bits
>>> and specks you would never put up with in a normal key. But it
>>> worked. Strict rules: NO white clothing, buttons, silver jewelry,
>>> etc. One clown showed up in a white shirt under his jacket that I
>>> fixed with a holdback matte. Anything near white like eyeballs and
>>> teeth just seemed a little bit shinier that day. ;-)
>>>
>>> Of course, this was in the land of SD. I don't think I would try it
>>> in HD. Brett, if you are going to put your subjects on anything but
>>> white, you better start rotoscoping as Shane suggests.
>>>
>>> Hope it's a very short piece either way.
>>>
>>> Be well...
>>> ---
>>> Bob
>>> ------
>>> Robert Griffiths
>>> http://www.FireDancer.tv
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------
>>
>> To learn more about the FinalCutPro-L group, please visit
>> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FinalCutPro-LYahoo! Groups Links
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
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>
>
>

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