Moving Subject Extraction
- Thread starter eklassen
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Barry_Green
Moderator
Re: Moving Subject Extraction
I'm no keying expert, but if the shot is absolutely locked down and the background is perfectly stable, shouldn't you be able to use a Difference Matte to make a perfect key? I remember in the old Premiere there used to be an option for a Difference Matte, where you'd supply a still as the background, and it would go through and compare the two shots, and wherever they were identical it would make it transparent. Seems like exactly what you'd want.
Barring that, once upon a time Ultimatte was demo'ing a program called KnockOut, which was unbelievably amazing, it could extract a foreground object regardless of the background. You went through and drew around the object, a person or whatever, and it would just "know" what the transition points were, and it'd perform some sort of math on the image and extract just what you wanted it to, regardless of how much the foreground or the background moved. I saw it at NAB a few years ago, it was mac-only and I think it was going to be expen$$$ive, thousands of dollars... I don't know if they ever got it worked out to the point that they could release it though.
I'm no keying expert, but if the shot is absolutely locked down and the background is perfectly stable, shouldn't you be able to use a Difference Matte to make a perfect key? I remember in the old Premiere there used to be an option for a Difference Matte, where you'd supply a still as the background, and it would go through and compare the two shots, and wherever they were identical it would make it transparent. Seems like exactly what you'd want.
Barring that, once upon a time Ultimatte was demo'ing a program called KnockOut, which was unbelievably amazing, it could extract a foreground object regardless of the background. You went through and drew around the object, a person or whatever, and it would just "know" what the transition points were, and it'd perform some sort of math on the image and extract just what you wanted it to, regardless of how much the foreground or the background moved. I saw it at NAB a few years ago, it was mac-only and I think it was going to be expen$$$ive, thousands of dollars... I don't know if they ever got it worked out to the point that they could release it though.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Re: Moving Subject Extraction
Okay, update... I was curious, so I searched on it. Looks like they sold KnockOut to Corel, and they're selling it as a still-image-only program (although now for Mac and Windows). So, never mind...
Okay, update... I was curious, so I searched on it. Looks like they sold KnockOut to Corel, and they're selling it as a still-image-only program (although now for Mac and Windows). So, never mind...
Re: Moving Subject Extraction
Thanks for looking into that Barry.
If I'm hearing you right, if I have a lock down on the background, take a shot of that, then the shot of the moving subject, then there's a way to make all the background pixels transparent thus leaving the subject untouched? That sounds good but can FCP4 do it? I'm thinking if Premier does it, FCP probably does too.
Thanks for looking into that Barry.
If I'm hearing you right, if I have a lock down on the background, take a shot of that, then the shot of the moving subject, then there's a way to make all the background pixels transparent thus leaving the subject untouched? That sounds good but can FCP4 do it? I'm thinking if Premier does it, FCP probably does too.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Re: Moving Subject Extraction
Hopefully some FCP experts will chime in here. It's my understanding (but not experience) that Premiere does that...
Hopefully some FCP experts will chime in here. It's my understanding (but not experience) that Premiere does that...
Re: Moving Subject Extraction
if i read your post correctly, you want to take a person and extract him/her from the background and put him/her on a different background setting w/o greenscreening? if this is the case, the answer is commotionpro. the process is called rotoscoping where you create splines on the moving object and extract it from the rest of the background. a good example of rotoscoping is from the movie pleasantville where people were rotoscoped and then color corrected into black and white while the background remained colored. boris red and after effects 6 can do this as well but commotion pro is the best in rotoscoping.
if i read your post correctly, you want to take a person and extract him/her from the background and put him/her on a different background setting w/o greenscreening? if this is the case, the answer is commotionpro. the process is called rotoscoping where you create splines on the moving object and extract it from the rest of the background. a good example of rotoscoping is from the movie pleasantville where people were rotoscoped and then color corrected into black and white while the background remained colored. boris red and after effects 6 can do this as well but commotion pro is the best in rotoscoping.
Re: Moving Subject Extraction
Thanks boo,
What makes commotionpro better than After Effects 6? Is AE6 out yet? I'm going to be taking the human subjects and color bleeding them down to mostly silouhettes. I'm wondering since the subjects will be losing a great deal of detail if AE6 will work okay or if I should invest in commotionpro. This effect will be a common creative element in the production and will need to look sweet. I can get AE6 with an upgrade and I'm sure will be much cheaper going that way. Not to mention I already know AE so there's that continual learning curve to deal with on new software.
Thanks boo,
What makes commotionpro better than After Effects 6? Is AE6 out yet? I'm going to be taking the human subjects and color bleeding them down to mostly silouhettes. I'm wondering since the subjects will be losing a great deal of detail if AE6 will work okay or if I should invest in commotionpro. This effect will be a common creative element in the production and will need to look sweet. I can get AE6 with an upgrade and I'm sure will be much cheaper going that way. Not to mention I already know AE so there's that continual learning curve to deal with on new software.
Sol M.
Veteran
Re: Moving Subject Extraction
Commotion is really good for rotoscoping (which it sounds like you want to do). That said, perhaps it would be more valueable to do as much of your FX work in the same application. If you already plan to do other things within AE to your footage, it may be a good idea to learn up on how to rotoscope in AE, as it can be done in AE to great effect.
AE6 has made some nice strides in terms of AE's ability to rotoscope, and as you'll be starting from square one (concerning rotoscoping at least), which program you use is really up to you.
Commotion is really good for rotoscoping (which it sounds like you want to do). That said, perhaps it would be more valueable to do as much of your FX work in the same application. If you already plan to do other things within AE to your footage, it may be a good idea to learn up on how to rotoscope in AE, as it can be done in AE to great effect.
AE6 has made some nice strides in terms of AE's ability to rotoscope, and as you'll be starting from square one (concerning rotoscoping at least), which program you use is really up to you.