why am I getting noise the moment I begin chromakeying with Keylight 2.0???

Nicholas Natteau said:
Hi Bruce,

Here's one link. The guy seemed to have done a much better job than I did and he used an AF100 with Atomos Samurai and Reflecmedia:

https://vimeo.com/35373230
Click to expand...

He also used a guy with short black hair that's not in fine frizzy strands, whereas you're using a blonde mannequin with fine hair detail.

Did you ever wonder why so many of the characters in the Matrix have short black hair? Look: green-screen keying frizzy blonde hair is difficult.

He also has more, better lighting whereas you are using less, worse lighting.

However when I look at the video, you'll notice: the green screen shots are pretty soft (visibly softer than the non-greenscreen shots, even when viewed on Vimeo at 720p) and also there is definitely still hair detail being lost.

My advice is still:

1. try to get better lights / lower f-stop / less gain. Try a better lens. Try some Kino-flos or the never, higher-output LEDs.

2. try a normal green screen (or a blue screen if you're filming mostly blonde people).

3. try a camera better suited to recording fine hair detail (pretty much anything except AF100) if you want to film blondes with frizzy hair.

4. try noise reduction before keying.

I think that you could change all of those things without much cost to you. Swap lightpanels for fluorescents (or cheaper brighter LEDs), swap reflectmedia for normal screen (you could probably get both blue and green and it'd still cost less), swap AF100 for 3CCD 2/3rds cam that actually resolves 1080p (again, cheaper). Neat Video is super cheap.

Or just rent this stuff and figure out a combo that works for you?

Bruce Allen
www.boacinema.com
 
Hi Bruce, thanks very much for all these tips. I've got different wigs I can try on the mannequin. I had no idea blonde hair was more difficult to key. But that makes sense. Dark hair would show up better against green screen naturally.

I actually have a small (7'x7' traditional green'blue collapsible green screen). But I have to be sufficiently far from the screen in order not to cast shadows. Anyway, I'll definitely try it as well with my traditional setup. I had turned to Reflecmedia after reading that it's a much easier faster setup and above all great for on the go interviews and when you don't have much space.

Regarding f-stop I had read that it was important to have at least f4 to f5.6 or above for aperture as a shallow depth of field would make it more difficult to key. The lens I used was a Zeiss ZF prime 85mm f/1.4 at f4.

When you mention trying noise reduction in After Effects, which noise reduction filters are you referring to??? Which one would be most effective?

Thanks again for following up with my noise issue.
 
NIcholas

I took a look at your AEFX technique in the vid and you only seem to be using the basic setups in Keylight.

The Keylight tool set is far more comprehensive and you need to work harder for a successful key on some images . A key is rarely obtained perfectly with the amount of work you showed you were doing on this tricky subject.

Personally I doubt that Reflecmedia thingy is up to a decent key with a tricky subject.
 
Hi Shooter,

Thanks very much again for your input. Understood about Keylight. Regarding noise filtering, which noise filter(s) were you referring to. I only found one in AE in the Noise and Grain Removal section.
 
Hey folks - Keylight is notorious for adding noise when you use all the bells & whistles - particularly spill suppression.

Mark Christensen's AE books mention this; his workflow in the latest version is really killer. Get a copy and learn it.

Basically, use AE to create your screen matte, and then use only the matte as a track matte for a duped layer. If you have spill, fight it with masks, etc (and try not to get any in the first place).

There's a great tip for selecting your key color using a second, non-rendering window while watching the "status" Keylight view; I prefer to watch the "Screen matte" view when doing this.

His workflow is dynamite for Keylight, and the book is worth every penny - it covers tracking, compositing, color correction... very deep.
 
I know this is an old topic, but wanted to drop in my experience from today:

I have a project due Monday morning, and I was saving the keying until (almost) last. It suddenly became a terrible situation. Like the OP stated, it became super noisy with Keylight. So I tried the "create an alpha channel" trick, and it worked ... until I had talent with wispy hair. It wouldn't key even close to clean.

Long story short, I purchased Red Giant's Primatte Keyer, and with a little tweaking it saved my butt. I definitely recommend it. It's $500, though, so it comes with a price tag.
 
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