A Touch of Green Sceen...

CallaghanFilms

CallaghanFilms

Veteran
Question for the Chroma Key maestros...

I have a limited number of Green Screen notches on my production belt (and even less in relation to Vegas 6.) I do have a grasp on the set up itself though (even lighting, iris setting, and so on and so forth.)

I am trying to shoot in KISS mode (Keep It Simple Stupid - cliche, I know) I have written a scene involving a room with a window that I'd like to key out, and replace with a different view. That's all...just the window itself. To make life even easier on myself, there are no actors standing, or even walking in front of it.

Herein lies my question. What would be the best way to set up this very small green screen?
Would I:
a)cover a window itself?
b)place the screen outside the window?
c)forget the bloody window, and set up a green "patch" on the wall where I want to key in the faux window?
-or-
d)utilize some even easier solution I am not thinking of?

Thanks in advance for any tricks you'd like to share. :beer:
 
I like C.

A good key depends on -- demands -- consistent lighting. If you're trying to shoot a greenscreen -- inside OR outside -- and depending on natural light to do it, you'll end up with a chore. Exterior lighting (sunlight) fluctuates too rapidly.

A fake window where you can absolutely control the lighting seems better.

But the best KISS option would be to put whatever it is you want outside the window and don't do a greenscreen effect at all.

If you can do it that way.
 
The easist and best lookin way to do this is to place the screen outside the window. Why? First off, you can use the outdoor light to your advantage, giving the screen a very flat lighting across the whole thing. Second, you don't have to build a window frame this way, it is already there. Third, if you have a big enough screen, and the camera is moving, you can put tracking marks on the screen to create a true 3D background, that will look pretty convincing using a good motion tracker. Since you are keying a window, it should be pretty easy and straightforward, as all of your keyed areas will have straight lines, this should be pretty easy to do in vegas.
 
I wouldn't do this as green-screen at all. If the shot's a locked-down shot, and nobody's passing in front of the window, then just do it as a simple bezier-mask cut-out. No reason to go through chroma-keying's hassles, just cut a hole in your video where the window was.
 
I'm late on this thread, but my first thought before Barry chimed in was the same ... Bezier Mask.

That said, however, I love scharky's suggestion of putting the greenscreen on the outside of the window ... perfect lighting, theoretically.
 
Envision said:
That said, however, I love scharky's suggestion of putting the greenscreen on the outside of the window ... perfect lighting, theoretically.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, not usually in practice.

Clouds, wind, shadows, the shifting of the sun in the sky . . .
 
Good point ... I suppose there's always BLASTING it from behind with a 500w - 1Kw light ... just as a good way to not have to worry about lighting it from the inside with talent walking past, etc.
 
Sorry this took so long, but I just got back from Disney World (took the kids for Halloween festivities/trick or treating).

Thank you all for giving me so many ways to approach this shot.

I think I'll try the bezier-mask cut-out to keep things as headache-free as possible.

I knew yuz would come through! :thumbsup: :beer:
 
Barry_Green said:
I wouldn't do this as green-screen at all. If the shot's a locked-down shot, and nobody's passing in front of the window, then just do it as a simple bezier-mask cut-out. No reason to go through chroma-keying's hassles, just cut a hole in your video where the window was.
Click to expand...
OK...
I am experimenting on this type of simple bezier, only I am not finding it all that simple. I have sought guidance from the normally all-knowing Vegas 6 help window, but I am still missing a step somewhere along the way.

The "parent and child tracks" I get (at least I'm fairly sure I do anyway.) I think my problem lies within the "Compositing Mode" and/or "Transparency" settings. I am quickly getting to the pulling-my-hair-out-of-my-head stage of frustration. Is there a recommended bezier tutorial (Masks 101) posted somewhere? I tried searching every which way both here and at Vasst, and came up empty.

Thanks in advance.:beer:
 
You don't need any parent-child tracks or compositing mode. Just put your window clip in an upper track, cut a hole in it, and put whatever you wanted in the window in the track below it.
 
All of these things considered, how does Major League Baseball get away with the green screen advertising behind the plate? People walking though the shot, etc.
 
So if there is ever a new expansion team, John, they should avoid
0040001_hitch_covers_alien_little_green_man_martian_et.jpg

as their team logo. The Allentown Aliens may have some chromakey issues with their team uniforms.
 
Really?
Thanks, Barry - I didn't know that. That is actually a pretty cool team name. I guess I should have checked first to see if there actually was an alien ballclub.
 
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