Softimage Illusion

[Steve_C]

Most are not aware that Softimage Illusion can do compositing like AE. (it does not have all the same filters and settings as AE does.)
I did some experiments and found it could do quite well. Below is the results I made with an actor on a green screen.
Original file:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e89BzROVVt4
Final result:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htvMy_ZHszs

I am Red Green Colorblind so the colors are a bit off.
Otherwise I am fairly pleased with the results.

(Note Sofimage Illusion is not a seperate program. Its the built in compositor inside of Softimage the 3d package)

[Anhar Miah]

Not bad comp for a 3d application, but it still not as good as a real compositor :

not sure if its the youtube compression here, but there is significant stair stepping,

some green spill on the arms.

Matte seems a bit sharp, need to have a touch of feathing to blend it into the BG plate.

Also I think the perspective looks a bit off too.


Anyway its a good effort, and a suprisingly good result for a 3d app

Anhar

[Steve_C]

The footage was poor quality to begin with.
I am not a compositor by trade. I just dabble in it from time to time.
I would appreciate if you could share settings and workflows that would improve the process.

Thanks.

[Anhar Miah]

Hi Steve,

I'm not an expert myself :) however some common tips on green screening would be:

(a) get the best source possible, in the case of digital camera's 3 sensors are better (generally) than one, however the video format is also important, this is due to how different codecs encode the video (i.e. the color sub sampling). 4:2:2 would be great and 4:4:4 would be perfect.

Pay attention to even lighting, make sure that the greenscreen is placed back far enough.

In post, sometimes complex shots are best broken up and keyed separately then merged into one piece.

Color matching is a given

Time and time again I see people never seem to pay attention to perspective of the BG plate, the camera angle of the actor has to match the angle of the BG plate, otherwise the effect falls apart (even if the key is perfect).


Of course all the theory is little use without practice, thats the key! pardon the pun :)

Anhar

[Steve_C]

Ok I understand most of how to set up for keying in regards to the cam and lighting etc.. What I need help with the most is the actual work you do in the composting package. What lead to this first test was an article but it has no details in why or more in depth look at video. Just a few questions for here however.

1. How do I determine what the camera settings are if I do not have it in front of me and all I have is the footage? How does one determine if its 4:1:1:1 or 4:2:2:2?

2. What formats would be best for keying? AVI is the wrapper and the codecs inside can be several types. Which one would yeald the best results? I know already to avoid those that compress like Divix and Xvid.

3. What sort of books would you recomend on the subject of the video? Like I would like to understand the details of the video stream and how to work with it using expressions. Softimage has a math compositing node and I would have to understand the video more to utilize this powerful node.

Thanks for any imput you can supply. I like to learn new stuff. and this video stuff facinates me. :)