Filming tomorrow -Need advices (Chomakey, move and scall etc...)

[TheRealMe]

We're shooting characters in front of a green screen tomorrow. My job is to latter key/move/scale those characters in After Effects. The background plates have already been shot in Standard DVCPro. The characters will be compose as miniature peoples over the SD background . (Hence, there will be a lot of scaling down involve).

Tomorrow's shoot will be done on a HVX200 and we still haven't decided which format to use.

My guts tell me to shoot with the highest quality possible (DVCPRO HD, 1080P) -- Even though our plates are in SD, the keying will be easier done in HD and will benefits from oversampling when I downsize the characters. Another benefits is the higher Bitrate in which 1080P is recorded. However, one of my concerns is the changed FOV (from going Widescreen instead of Standard). Should I be concerned about that?

The DOP wants to shoot in SD. He seems to be worried about the fact that we'll need to scaled down the keyed shots and mentioned "stairstepping" if we shoot in HD. In my opinion, it shouldn't matter for two reasons : One, After Effects is pretty good in down scalling without messing the picture. And two, we'll eventually have to scale those shots down anyway since we're doing miniature peoples. Might as well benefits from the higher bitrate no?

Anyway,
Those are my concerns for now. I hope someone can comments/make suggestions on them...


Thanks a bunch!
Phil

[TheRealMe]

Well, after a test that I did on my own, it seems that I was right and that filming in 1080p does help, even if your background plates are in SD. The edges looks better when keyed and the 100mbit stream simply makes for a better look. It also looks sharper.

So far, I've only used the Keylight 1.2 plugin that comes with After Effects -- Are there better keying plugins out there for After Effects?


Cheers!
Phil

[Lee Wilson]

Well, after a test that I did on my own, it seems that I was right and that filming in 1080p does help, even if your background plates are in SD. The edges looks better when keyed and the 100mbit stream simply makes for a better look. It also looks sharper.

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:


So far, I've only used the Keylight 1.2 plugin that comes with After Effects -- Are there better keying plugins out there for After Effects?

I always use the 'colour range' keying plug-in - quick, dirty and effective, gets the job done.