Help! Footage looks terrible after keying

P

Peter Reynolds

Well-known member
Hi there.

I'm having a terrible time with some footage keyed in AE.

The footage was shot with the DVX100b, 30P mode, Thin.

I've edited the sequence in Premiere CS3, exported as AVI, imported into AE, keyed the footage (using Keylight), exported as AVI and imported back into Premiere.

The resulting file looks terrible. A severe image quality reduction and a "shimmering" on the image.

I've tried a couple of different techniques, including importing the AE file directly into Premiere, but still get the same result.

I'm not that familiar with AE, so I keep thinking there must be something very basic that I'm doing wrong. I assume I should be able to key video in AE and re-incorporate that footage in my edit with no loss of quality.

Please help! Any suggestions, or step-by-step instructions would be appreciated. I've shot all my clients interviews green screen, so I'm up against the wall to get it right.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Best.

Peter
 
Have you shot on green before? Was your lighting for a green screen shoot setup properly? Lighting is a very important part of making sure your going to be able to pull the best key and it's different to lighting that of an ordinary set.
I'm not that familiar with keylight, I use DVmatte Pro which is a AE plugin, but from what I hear Keylight works pretty darn good.
If you post a still I'm sure some AE pro's here might be able to tell you where your going wrong.
 
Hi Gary. Hi Filthrich.

Thanks for you comments.

I don't believe keying is the problem, it's the overall quality of the output. The green screen setup was properly lit.

Regardless of keying technique, the original image should be the same quality going in as going out - correct? I've seen it countless times in independent films and the quality is always fantastic.

Can either of you (or anyone else reading this post), tell me your workflow? There has to be an explanation for the quality drop.

1. Should I be keying the original video capture? Rather than an export from Premiere?
2. Shoudl I not be exporting from AE as AVI, but some other format?
3. Is the an AE setting that I'm just not familiar with?

Thanks again in advance for any assistance.

Best.

Peter
 
Try exporting it in a lossles codec as quicktime animation codec. How does the image look, could you upload a screengrab?
 
Me Myself & I said:
...
2. Shoudl I not be exporting from AE as AVI, but some other format?
...
Click to expand...

AVI just like QuickTime is not a single format but a container for temporal data. Within each of these containers you choose a specific format. That's your biggest problem right there. Editing is different from compositing.

Export your file from Premiere as uncompressed avi. Uncompressed is just one of many formats that can be contained inside of an avi. Do your keying and compositing in AE and then render back out as uncompressed for import back into Premiere. That will keep the quality intact. What you've been doing is compressing a compressed file, piling one compression artifact on top of another.

Until you educate yourself thoroughly on graphic and video file formats you're going to end up wasting a lot of hours producing garbage for reasons you'll be completely oblivious to.
 
if you have prod. premium CS3 in premiere highlight the clip and then click 'export to AE' or something to that effect...I don't have the software on this computer. It should automatically open a new AE comp without compression. Then anything you do in AE will automatically update in Premiere without the need to render and import like going from AE to FCP would make you do. The Production Premium CS3 workflow is a beautiful thing.
 
Thanks. I'll try the uncompressed and see if that works better.

Ilauzirika - I exported it as a Lossless Quicktime (progressive) and that vastly improved the quality. Thank you very much for that suggestion.

The next hurdle will be exporting to DVD. I've posted a query in that forum, as my exports using Encore turn out soft and of poor quality. If anyone knows what I'm doing wrong, please post in that thread.

Thanks again. I'll keep you all updated on my progress.

Best.

Peter
 
Update - I followed Craigbowman's suggestion (exporting as uncompressed, keying in AE and then exporting again as uncompressed.

The quality was vastly improved. Basically the same as the original, with only the background changed. Thank you for that.

Jrmiller - Though I have CS3 Production studio, I couldn't find an export to AE option in Premiere. Anyone who does know how to work on AE and have it auto update in Premiere, please post. It would be a great option.

Now on to DVD export and transparent flash encoding. Joy.

I'm sure I'll have some more questions.

Thanks for you help.

Peter
 
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