J.R. Hudson
09-13-2004, 11:11 PM
IN all my time using Vegas I still have never attempted to Chroma Key or do anykind of "Green/Blue" Screen work. Can anyone give me a run down on how to apply the effect(s) once the footage has been shot?
I dont need tips on SHOOTING but once Ive captured and am ready to do POST.
Thanks!
Ok Hudson, I just spent the last 2 hours trying to find the answer to your question, and this is what I've come up with...
It seems that you're supposed to use an obscure plugin called "Sony Chroma Keyer". *Honestly, I don't know how they expected us to know that the "Sony Chroma Keyer" plugin was the best thing to use for Chroma Keying footage. *Sony really needs to up there game IMHO. *>:(
Furthermore, even if you did know what plugin to use, I don't know how'd they expect you to find it. *It's buried in, of all places, the plugins directory. *Even worse, it's hidden among a massive amount of other plugins. *Talk about lack of organization. *I honestly think there's some internal sabotage within Sony going on to get users to give up on Vegas due to the lack of intuitive workflow in the program. *At any rate, I recommend deleting all of the other plugins so that you don't accidentally choose the wrong plugin and end up color-correcting your footage to look like Lord of the Rings or something.
To sum it up, despite what Sony wants you to think, you can do Chroma Key work in Vegas. *The learning curve is extremely sharp, but once you figure out what plugin to use, it's smooth sailing from there...that is until you get to the point where you want to select the color range you want to remove from the footage (An eyedropper tool?! ??? What is this, a medical program?).
P.S. *I laid it on pretty thick, but I hope you took it in good humor. *You see, I had to do it for my last post here on DVXUser. *And I wouldn't have it be to anyone else but you Hudson! :)
P.P.S: I hear applying the Chroma Blur filter in Vegas 5 helps to smooth out the artifacts from the DV footage that could potentially be problematic when trying to extract a good matte.