Removing the background from video clip

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DVX100Shooter

Veteran
I was attempting to remove the background from a clip in Final Cut Pro but I was told I should use AE instead. I have AE but I have not used the software yet! What is the best way for removing the background. My clip is only no more than 7 seconds. I just remove the background and I will replace it with something else in FCP. I do have a AE book (Chris and Trish Meyer) but I couldnt find anything in there that talks about removing the background except for the Auto Trace option which I did try but I didn't notice anything happening on screen. Is it similiar to how you do it in Photoshop?
 
Those 7 seconds will turn out to seem alot longer when you are having to roto every frame. If the footage isnt against a green or blue screen, you will have to like I said before rotoscope the background out. It will be a very tedious process but worth it if you have the time. Next time around consider compositing options during the shoot and use a green screen.
 
To do this lovely task you must draw a mask on 168 individual frames to remove your object from it's "background". Have fun at that one. After that, I would stay in AE to comp your footage, much better control, and if you make a mistake or have to correct something in FCP, then you have to go back to AE to fix your mask.
 
Can you post the clip. Depending on what you are trying to do it might not be so bad. But just saying you need to remove the background is a little vague. Some things are harder than others. It really depends on what the background and foreground objects are.:undecided
 
The clip is a singer on stage at a concert. The concert was in an old movie theater that still had the screen on the wall. I wanted to remove the background and replacing it with something else I have in FCP.

- I know Photoshop isnt meant for moving objects, I was referring to do you perform the effect the same way you would in photoshop for a still image.

The shoot was back in May 2005 and I am just now starting the editing process. Had I known then that I wanted to do this 7 second effect, then I would have set up a Green screen at the concert. I guess I will be in for the long haul and have to rotoscope frame by frame!
 
there are 2 ways to roto:
1 use mask with bezier. give the points of the mask at the 1st frame, then at the last frame, and let the AE to count the frames between. of course you will have to add new frames inside of the sequnce, because that mask won't be proper, so you will have to correct it with new keyframes until is is good.

this is works well with less motion, but if you have more motion, you will have to use method 2:

(I have seen tutorials about this on creativecow.com)

so you will have to draw a kind of shape which you want to roto with the painting tool for every frame, and trackmate it
 
Mask in AE = Paths in Photoshop but these animate. Create multiple masks. One for his torso, one for left arm, one for right, etc. Take a look at the action. Take the most complex frame and roto it. Now move to the next action extreme frame and set the shape there. Jump ahead to each major motion frame. Now step through the frames and adjust as need be.

You want to avoid painting 7 seconds worth of footage unless you want it jittery.

There will be a video cast on rotoscoping probably in the next week. For now you can take a look at video breakdown part 2.
http://effectcorner.blogspot.com
 
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