black silhouette creation

clang

clang

Veteran
I'd like to create video of black-silhouetted figures moving in front of a background. Doing it old-school (filming the unlit figures against a bright background) isn't an option, I need to do it in post.

My first thought was to film the figures against a greenscreen and then use Vegas's Chroma Keyer FX to separate the figures from the background. This works fine - but then how do I turn the foreground layer black? My best effort so far is to then add a Brightness&Contrast FX and turn Brightness down to minimum. That seems to work fairly well, but is there a simpler option? Fiddling in Chroma Keyer, I saw the Show Mask Only option which creates lovely silhouettes, but unfortunately they're white, and I can't see any options to change the Mask colour.
 
In the keyer, click the "Show mask only" button. You'll get a white silhouette against a black background. Then throw on Invert at 100%. Put whatever you want underneath.
 
Thanks, David, I didn't know about Invert - at a guess, that will be a bit faster than using Brightness&Contrast. Just a shame I can't do it all in one FX...
 
In the keyer, click the "Show mask only" button. You'll get a white silhouette against a black background. Then throw on Invert at 100%. Put whatever you want underneath.
Click to expand...

Will the mask actually render? I think I tried this a few years ago because I was trying to emulate the iTunes/iPod effect. If I remember, Vegas ignored the mask and rendered the footage with my actor in regular and a black background.
 
Yeah, I've had no problems rendering with "Show mask only" on, the output looks as it does in Preview.

"Show mask only" can also be a cute way to generate 'ghost' special effects, if you dial down the mask to be semi-transparent - I'm still waiting for a ghost story project to use it :)
 
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