ANyone using Serious Magic ULTRA 2 for greenscreens?

G

Gang_Green

Active member
Anyone who is using Ultra 2...

How do you like it? Does it work well. I need the inside scoop.
With any software ive ever used for DV you can pull a composite but I wouldnt say any of it is 100% belivable all of the time.
 
I've been looking at that product as well. It has rave magazine reviews. Anyone tried it? The demos on their site look incredible. Try downloading the "chiffon" video.
 
It works better than most NLE keyers. But, that's what -- and all -- it's for.

Only tried it in 60i, though. I don't know what it's 24p capabilities are, if any.
 
Well, I downloaded the demo. I'm going to run to the store to buy some green art board. Will post some frame grabs later tonight.
 
I just checked out the website and it looks incredible. I'm downloading the demo now. The master sets are expensive, but look pretty good. I'm curious to see how it works and if it will work on any green screen setting or if it requires something truer...

I'm going to run a couple of tests with some green fabric and the DVX as well as my GS9 to see how true it is. Also, I don't know what the functionality of the demo is.
 
The demo has a watermark on output. I had a chance to use a friends full version and I found it really user friendly. Kind of point and click - Maybe too point and click. Works very well and easy to mask and adjust out the junk. You can zoom in and fine tune around hair making the end result nice. I can't see any use for the built in sets, but that's just me. Great for basic chromakey for sure - Not sure how well you could use this for complicated shots involving tracking and such or multiple layers - It's pricy but most chroma software is. I think Barry Green gave it a run last summer. He might have some thoughts on it.
 
NY1.jpg


Here's an Ultra greenscreen composite that I just threw together (yeah, it's kind of a "poo pootie" one). I think the built-in greenscreen effect in Adobe Premiere Pro is just as good, just more difficult to use.
 
I tried it and didn't like it all that much. I don't know, maybe I'm just not experienced with it enough. It just doesn't give me enough control over the final composite for my liking. I tried pulling keys on some footage I have laying around that really isn't all that bad and I couldn't get a decent key for the life of me (sliders maxed out).

I'll stick with Primatte and AE.
 
One cool thing with Ultra II besides that it is easy to use and does a really good job at keying is that you don't have to add the background in Ultra. You can actually export a keyed Ultra project as an uncompressed AVI with alpha channel. This means that you can throw it in on your timeline and then replace or change backgrounds the way you want without having to re-render the keying. Once you've done a proper key in Ultra, you just treat it as a regular clip with alpha channel activated.

Really neat feature, especially when working with longer interviews and when you can't make up your mind =)
 
OK, I have some really nasty green fabric that is Xmas color (very dark and forest like). Tonight I am going to record someone standing in front of it, talking, and then drop the clip into Ultra 2 and see what it can do. I am not going to balance the light throughout the background and will try to light with just a single light and see how everything comes out... I think that is a nasty test that should show what the highpoints and low points of this product are.

I looked at the master sets, and while they look interesting, they are just not... not for filmmaking as much as presentation or industrial applications.

I will post the results to my test tonight with some screen grabs. My hope is that Ultra 2 can perform as the ad promotes it, professional results for lazy lighters...
 
I think it works pretty well. Just used it last week to composite some Jeff Gordon screenscreen footage (supplied on BetaSP) for a TV spot. For me, I can pull a faster, cleaner key than with Keylight in AE or other plugins.
 
Live preview is another neat feature. I often use it together with DVRack on my laptop. In DVRack I can see exactly how even the light on the chroma screen is, and if I alt-tab to Ultra I can see how well it will key. Being able to watch the scopes when setting up a chroma set really is a big help. After all it's all about doing a good job with the lighting.


chroma1.jpg

chroma2.jpg
 
I just ran a test with quite possible the worst framed green screen in history and it came out ok using this software. It takes a little while to get everything keyed, but it seemed to be pretty efficient. I will render out the results and post it for people to check out tomorrow.
 
My Test

My Test

MY TEST:

OK, I figured what the hell and uploaded my test of what I did. These are just raw AVI files, but each of them is pretty small (25mb)

The first file is the original footage 24p on the DVX. It was shot with on light full on with no diffusion. I had crumpled up the forest green fabric, didn't iron it or worry about lighting the back drop at all.

The second file is with about a dozen keyframe points added in Ultra 2. I applied a general background. There are three things that come out pretty poor:
#1: where the camera shoot and you see the wall above the TV. Can't key that
#2: the shadow in the lower right hand corner of the corected file
#3: the eyes, I don't know if because there was so much black that all of the pupil is gone, but it happened.

In total I spent 10 seconds filming the clip, 10 seconds capturing, and did this setting in about four to six minutes.

These take about 45 seconds to download with a high speed connection, try to right mouse click -> save as.

ORIGINAL FOOTAGE

BLUE SCREEN FOOTAGE

Like I said, these were done very quickly just to demonstrate the product for anyone interested.
 
If I could figure out how to use the greenscreen effect in Premiere--it seemed to do as good a job with the key as Ultra did.
 
I did some quick and dirty tests after buying Ultra 2 this summer for a project that I'm still working on and I got this as my first out of the gate test shooting against a loose floppy green screen curtain in my living room. I only had a few seconds of looping image to stuff into the matte screen but I was interested at the time in seeing how the composite would look around the edges.

http://24.71.78.45/mentor/op1.html
 
What I like about the little test footage I posted is that this is the worst greenscreen setting most people would shoot in. A dark room, one practical light, greenscreen wrinkled, hard shadows throughout the screen, and most relevent: not a true greenscreen, just green nylon fabric.

Ultra actually did a pretty good job, all things considered. It's a nice project. I haven't gone deep enough into it to see if the results are going to be better if I iron and hand the screen instead of just throwing on top of a big screen TV, but I think this is a good testament to this product. It makes keying pretty easy and interesting.

I am going to try to run some more tests this weekend and see what I can come up with. I will try to post at least one other worse case scenerio and one ideal scenerio.

Neat piece of software, very fast and nice results. I need to read the manual and see how to work with 24PA footage because I don't know the frame rate of what I outputted in those files.
 
Okay, I just shot some properly lit footage on a greenscreen and brought it into Premiere Pro 1.5 . . . and it looks AWESOME. I would LOVE to post a frame grab here, but it would give away my sci-fi short. Anyway, my low-res, standard-definition, 4:1:1 DVX100 signal is keying just FINE! In fact, I can't believe how good the key looks! I already own Premiere Pro and Adobe After Effects Pro (but don't know how to use it yet), so, duhhhh, I don't need a separate keying/compositing program.

I just stopped by Barnes & Noble on my way home from work (they suck, but it was on my way), and I found a great AE book all about compositing for film/TV applications (Adobe After Effects 6.5 Studio Techniques, by Mark Christiansen).
 
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