Chroma Key question

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kyleb

Well-known member
since i saw Barry's Chroma Key Smackdown here. i thought i'd ask my chorma key question also.
would you use muslin or chorma key paint ? i have a spare bedroom i'm thinking about turning into my chorma key room. mind you i'm only doing one wall and adding lighting.

any ideas ?
 
I'd initially go with fabric. It's as temporary or as permanent as you want, and if you move you won't have to repaint the wall. Plus, paint has to be retouched every now and again after light stands, props, etc. have put dents, dings, and scrapes in the surface.

Do you own or rent? If you rent and you go with the paint, you may need to talk to the landlord before painting and you'll certainly be responsible for repainting later. If you own, you'll want to repaint if you decide to sell.
 
I started using a muslim, but after two years I've switched to paint as it is easier for me to get a clean key with it. I use rosco digicomp green paint (pricey but worth it). It impressed me because previously I used some cheap paints and It was a pain in the ass... But now.. two click keys (I also give lots of credit to the hmc150).

You also have to take into account if you will paint the floor, because Previously when I used a muslim it was a pain in the ass to key the floor now painless....
 
i own this house. i'm leaning toward the fabric but i just wondered if anyone had ever use the chorma key paint. as a beginner to chorma key, i just want to do it right from the start. no cheap walmart or target green fabric....LOL
 
I feel that the chroma paint (if you prime the wall right) gives you a nicely saturated clean green if you light it well. You don't have to deal with wrinkles or gripping systems. But that said, a muslim is way more portable than a wall painted in green:). If you work on location and want to use your chroma screen anywhere besides your house Go for a good muslim and hanging system.
 
A bedroom is too small to do anything effective with chroma key. You want your subject to be at least 10' away from the screen, and many bedrooms are barely larger than that.

If your subject is too close to the screen, the green light will spill onto them and make it difficult to impossible to pull a good key.

If your bedroom's 20' deep, then go for it; otherwise you're much better off looking at a garage, or using a hanging system and setting it up in the living room occasionally, etc.
 
Does anybody have some thoughts on this theory?

"Ceiling White" paint is flatter then flat... literally... it actually has some black mixed in (crazy, but true) and the composition of the paint itself is designed to hide imperfections in a ceiling surface, since tapers typically do a far less refined finish on ceilings.

Which came first? The worse tape job on the ceiling or ceiling white paint? Who knows... but:

What about getting chroma tinted ceiling white from your local Lowe's vs. using Rosco? I'm theorizing that might very well be what Rosco sells as chroma.

Ceiling white paint is ultra-white, high-hiding, flatter then flat... and can be made in green or blue for around $13-$15 per gallon (on sale)... and a little minor persuasion of the guy at the paint counter to ignore the computer's suggestion to use some other base to get to the desired color. Perhaps the computer will even suggest "base 1" which, at that point, is "ultra white" anyway... and should easily equal the same end color regardless of using ceiling white, or base 1. (Normally ceiling white paint is 20% or more higher $$$... so most stores will most
 
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Barry_Green said:
A bedroom is too small to do anything effective with chroma key. You want your subject to be at least 10' away from the screen, and many bedrooms are barely larger than that.

If your subject is too close to the screen, the green light will spill onto them and make it difficult to impossible to pull a good key.

If your bedroom's 20' deep, then go for it; otherwise you're much better off looking at a garage, or using a hanging system and setting it up in the living room occasionally, etc.
Click to expand...


Totally true, but in my case I use a 10-13' deep room for the chroma, but as usually do full body shoots I always have to deal with spill, so if you are doing full body chroma you don't really have to mind about that separation..logically... and if you don't have anywhere besides that bedroom to do the chroma stuff try to use minus green filters in your rim light, that saved me a lot of times.
 
Well a permanent room like that is going to cause some problems with space. You needs lights for the keying and you also need lights for the subject. After all those lights in the room, plus your camera, and what other gear you have you can start to see just how limited shots you can get now. I too had thought of a permanent room at one point but after factoring in all the other equipment I would need inside that room I knew it just would be more of a problem than a solution. Just something to think about. I would set up everything inside first along with the camera and see just how it would work. Can you get a wide enough shot to have your subject and no lights in the shot? ;)
 
Y'all can do whatever you want, of course, but I think trying to get full-body greenscreen in a 13' room is going to be a very frustrating experience. The only way I'd even consider attempting something like that would be with the ReflecMedia Chromatte system. I don't like that system at all because of the gray halos, but where it redeems itself is in small-space environments. No green spill, no need to light the background, no need for separation from the screen, and in fact the LESS separation you have from the screen, the better your keying (because the closer the subject is to the fabric, the smaller the gray halo will be)...
 
Barry, wow 10 feet ? i do have a big basement i could used with a hanging system (was my original plan) but i had heard you needed only 4-5 feet for chroma key.
i would have been really stupid to paint that wall and then find out i couldn't even use it.

now, do some people do 1/2 body or 3/4 body shots chroma key ? what purpose would you use that in ??
 
This was my first attempt to a full body key in a small room,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJqYjAlQxBQ

I was pretty happy with the results (keep in mind that some of the shots don't have same quality than they had before going into youtube sd format, To view at full quality clink in hd). at least I got an A (it was an assigment for my media studies career.)

I think that in this case the HMC150's nice wide lens helped a lot. and I shot with the camera tilted horizontally to get the most out of the chips, instead of zooming out tilting the camera to get the body in the horizontal line (1920 vs 1080 not reals) gives you more definition to work later.

Sure you'll find lots of frustration, but I think that that is just when you are starting, in my first chroma key attempt (you can find it in my sig) I found out too late that filming a short film in greenscreen with a handycam wasn't a good idea... that caused me over two years of roto.....hahaha

I think that Barry is right, that's why I recommend starting with a muslim and seeing if you can pull good keys in a small place and if you can and you like the workflow and you feel comfortable with the muslim use that, you will always be able to paint it afterwards when you feel comfortable working in small places.

sorry for the long post hahaha I'm editing a small doc and sometimes I have to stop to clear my mind...
 
kyleb said:
Barry, wow 10 feet ? i do have a big basement i could used with a hanging system (was my original plan) but i had heard you needed only 4-5 feet for chroma.
i would have been really stupid to paint that wall and then find out i couldn't even use it.
Click to expand...

That idea is great! way better than using a small room.
 
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