Semi-Transparent Keying

September 19th, 2011

I've been experimenting with some advanced chroma keying methods to specifically deal with reflections and subtle details like this car plate.

Often times we use keylight to get rid of everything that is green but in some cases we want to keep some of the reflections to make a shot more realistic. Some of these tips are quite noteworthy because the footage being used is from a Canon 5D which can be particularly noisy due to compression artifacts. Pulling a good key is already challenging enough but leaving in small details without flicker is even more problematic. I think I have figured out a few good methods and we even filmed another behind the scenes video to show how we setup the shots. Look for the video and tutorial soon.

Andrew Kramer

POSTED:

14 years ago

143 Comments

Eli Rezik

8 years ago

Hey, Is this tutorial up somewhere? Can't really find it

Alonso

9 years ago

Hi Andrew!

Do you have a tutorial for this?

Thanks!

David

13 years ago

Andrew gets pulled over for drinking and driving. Police man confiscates 10, 6 packs of Coke.

sam

14 years ago

hey, andrew plz upload the tutorials,,,,,i need dude

mike

14 years ago

when? is so awesome

iZak

14 years ago

Steve Jobs 1955-2011. We will miss him.

David

13 years ago

True, but random comment...

strangesponge

14 years ago

Recently been dealing with more subtle keying from a DSLR source too, neat video denoiser saved my ass big time. Interesting to see what techniques you guys have com up with

DaveW

14 years ago

I was under the impression the usual way to do this is to use glass to provide a much stronger reflection, to make keying easier? Then manually tone down the intensity of it.

faizan

14 years ago

I also need this

mohammad

14 years ago

ok nice tecknic

aftermathvfx

14 years ago

i can't wait to see the semi transparent tutorial, presently i've been experiencing alot of problem keying DSLR 7D footage...but this will help...thank Mr Andrew!

Duri

14 years ago

Hi Andrew can you tell what picture profile do you use when you shoot with a Canon DSLR?

Michael Reedy

14 years ago

why must i scroll ALL the way to the bottom of these mile long comments just to say... "Can't wait!!" Any tutorial by Andrew is and always will be entertaining and informative!

hitman

14 years ago

nice

need this tips

amrietok

14 years ago

Give us this video as soon as possible, our great teacher!!!

boulbadaoui

14 years ago

We are waiting for a new

Gaylor Maliya

14 years ago

I can not wait to see this tutorial!

can???t wait to watch it.

aj_steven

14 years ago

Dear Andrew Kramer,.
Thank you for all your tutorials, please never delete them,I would appreciate everything,your too kind giving your tutorials free,with your time and effort, I'll PRAY for you even if you don't know me.
Yours Truly,
Steven

masters3

14 years ago

when this tutorial is gonna out? :d

Mayowa

14 years ago

Many thanks Andrew.we look forward to it.

shady

14 years ago

Hey can you tell us what color correction tool you use, or if its just after effects then can you teach us about some advanced color correction techniques?
P.S .. that color correction you did looks awesome...

Brett Turner

14 years ago

We've just shot a music video with a 7D and 5D, with a band in front on a massive wall of green screened TV'S...so I'm sure this coming tutorial will be handy.

I've been having trouble with keying the same footage from Adobe Premiere to After Effects CS5.5...tis annoying.

Keep'em up Andrew...you are awesome

Cheers

NicoSoftx

14 years ago

ME llamo Nicolas Carvajal y vivo en Colombia.

Es espectacular el hecho de compartir tu conocimiento. Que Dios te bendiga y te conserve para qu sigas tan magistral labor.

Felicitaciones y gracias nuevamente.

supun lankage

14 years ago

i all so need this tips

Casey Schoch

14 years ago

Stoked for this one!

mst2007777777

14 years ago

Good work ! i have a work to do now!
wait my deleting scenes.

NEMESIScreator

14 years ago

I can't wait !

Chriskaar

14 years ago

Looks awesome!! :3

amy

14 years ago

cool.... I cant WaIt.....

gabriel

14 years ago

supa dupa stuff just

wolve

14 years ago

flawless without flickering or noise? this i have to see :O

LEO M3DD

14 years ago

I would like to see it !!

i am doing some experiment like that, but the difference(little one) is that i am not Andrew

Where ir your 7D?
have u ever tried the panasonic GH2?
u should give it a try, but , i think u will prefer the color of canons when color grading.

Andre Friedman

14 years ago

My advise, stop using keylight and move on to Primatte, would probably save you few thousand hours from your life!!

John

14 years ago

I think the purpose of this was to inspire ideas. He pretty much told you how to get the semi-transparency in the video. It is a video to give you ideas for shots of your own.

Joe

14 years ago

can't wait to watch it.

SharkouS

14 years ago

Harry up Andrew i need it now

JonMar

14 years ago

Where are your tracking points?

John

14 years ago

I may be wrong but I believe they used 3d camera tracking for the swing shots

Anthony

14 years ago

Seriously guys I bet it is mostly linear color key! 100$ I bet!

Maidenman

14 years ago

This is just great. I just started to work with my greenscreen and here you are again with great news about new tutorial. Couldn't be better timinig!

Frederik Barington

14 years ago

Hey Andrew! I love you videos and everything about this site! You are really the reason why i kept up making videos! My biggest dream is to be a pro direction and live of what i love! My videos on my youtube channel are getting so much better thanks to you, mate! I wish you all the best and im sure i can say this for all of us - how can we every repay you!? You are creating experts! Keep it up Andrew and the rest of the VideoCopilot crew!

illd

14 years ago

challenging task. I would first denoise the material...Csnt wait to see the solution VCP style

Matt

14 years ago

I've been shooting reverses & comping them in or using the same shot in reverse for reflections. This'll be quite a helpful tool!

AndrÃ©

14 years ago

GREAT!
I can not wait to see this tutorial!

Fred Raimondi

14 years ago

This IS an important tutorial. Really it will work for any keyer, but I'm convinced Keylight is the best I've ever used.

Sometimes you REALLY don't want to push the key too hard.
It's COMPLETELY counter intuitive, but it's the right thing to do.

Basically it comes down to looking at the matte in Keylight when you're tweaking the key and instead of pushing it so that ALL the green is knocked out, you back off until you see what should be reflected in the window in the matte.

When you go back and look at the final output, you'll notice that now, there is a ton of green in and around the window. The supression in Keylight is VERY good and usually all you have to do is activate it (it's off by default) and select the proper color to supress.

Been doing greenscreens since Max Headroom (and even before that) and Keylight is the best I've used.

Luke

14 years ago

Got some dark edges going on around his nose... Can't see them on the plate - how would you remove them using this method?

Awesome

14 years ago

Hey, has anyone seen the website maxafter.com ? That dude totally copied videocopilot.net; the website designs, the way tutorials are displayed....
I don't like that ;(
What has Andrew Kramer got to say about it????? ;?

Jay

14 years ago

Can I vote for you as President? Fantastic that you share your knowledge....Great stuff!

Glynn

14 years ago

Awesome, Am looking forward to this. Have always wanted to know how this could be done so that you could key things out, but yet leave glass and reflections in the picture..

davu3D

14 years ago

this is the man!

john

14 years ago

amazing! I tried to do the same with your screenshot
http://xmages.net/i/3116062

Sohaib Zizane

14 years ago

Really Awesome Andrew and mostly the reflection

SCOT

14 years ago

It would be very useful for me! hope you make it in short time!!!

jotaime

14 years ago

Cool can't wait to see the tutorial.

riki

14 years ago

sweet!!! can't wait!

Ø¢Ù‚Ø§ Ø±Ø³ÙˆÙ„

14 years ago

karet 20 baby
pls send me bb

Dan Allen

14 years ago

DSLR + chroma key = hell on earth.
Enough with the 5D, you were using the Sony F3 for the commercial. Steer clear my friend

.

Oh and 'Neat Video' is my best friend. Goodbye compression artifacts and noise.

Anton

14 years ago

YOU ARE RIGHT !!!
good cam + neat video = perfect key

Buwaneka

14 years ago

I sense something revolutionary is coming to the DSLR users...

Himesh Bhargo

14 years ago

Really dude !!!!!
How can you be sooo hi-tec... Is it even legal???

James

14 years ago

cool!Andrew, your works are always awesome!!

Metroeast

14 years ago

Great one to get tips on. Maintaining reflections while keying is so... Key lol

aamir

14 years ago

DEMON CAM TUTS!!!!!

Muhammad

14 years ago

Amazing stuff....keep coming

Can you please make a tutorial of falling down from a high floor and hitting the ground.

Or a car explosion. Something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcPM6Ripbu8&feature=related

Steve_E

14 years ago

Ahhhhhh, long have I pondered these things...
looking forward to that video!

Les Galusha

14 years ago

Andrew, your results looks hauntingly familiar -- After Effects Keylight and the Optical Flairs Plugin. (SEE LINK)

http://www.vimeo.com/29336924

HERE'S A Simple GREENSCREEN Breakdown of a short film we shot In February 2011.
The film called "The Orderly", shot on a CANON 5D, contains a good 5 minutes of Greenscreen driving.

The results hold up on a theater screen projected with a HD Projector.
The noise/compression seems to be due to the compression from converting on VIMEO -- likely from the film-grain added to the footage.

Originally were hesitant to shoot this on the 5D due to compression/artifacts when pulling a greenscreen, but wanted to use specific lenses so went for it. I feel that ultimately with some TLC, I was able to get surprisingly good results, especially considering the loss of information with the native H264 codec.

Kurt Richardson

14 years ago

Hey Video Copilot! This is some good stuff, but I'd really like to see some more tutorials from the "Demon Cam" promo.

wantedeffect

14 years ago

I dont have any car(((

Ted

14 years ago

I LOVE that you're using the 5D!

Josh Antonio

14 years ago

looks cool keep the tutorials and great ideas coming

Lalsinh zala

14 years ago

cool Andrew sir...!!.....i need this tutorial.....!!

TomSolid

14 years ago

I need this tutorial sooo bad! HELP!

Miguel Carrera

14 years ago

Great! I've been looking for a tutorial on doing chromakeying work with HD-DSLRs!

Dan

14 years ago

Can't wait to see what you came up with

Simon Box

14 years ago

Drive Angry, Sam! Drive angry. Looking forward to the new tutorial, Mr. Kramer.

-Simon

Apo

14 years ago

Hi Andrew, U are my Idol

JimIndy

14 years ago

Perfect i need this tutorial for a future show !

LoveVC

14 years ago

hi master Andrew

this is cool, thx

Matt

14 years ago

YES!!! Exactly this i need.

liam bauckham

14 years ago

thats going to be really useful. it seems as though you guys make a tutorial roughly at the time im thinking the same thing "how can i greenscreen through a window using my canon dslr" Get out of my HEAD!!!!!

Angelo Licata

14 years ago

To make Dark Resurrection (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQzOQI1Rdn0&feature=player_embedded) I tested all the plugins to do chroma key. The best solution that does not generate noise, and allows a semi-transparent, stable even at the edges is dvmatte pro (dvgarage.com). plugin which unfortunately is no longer supported. This forced me to use AEcs4 only to realize all chromatic keys.

jam

14 years ago

Im having trouble with shadows also.i hope shadows will work too.

adewizard2

14 years ago

Please, i need the tips for this effect

Piermay Gregory

14 years ago

Cool! You are extra!

The real smithy

14 years ago

I know what you mean, keying with noisy footage is a pain.

Wizzay

14 years ago

Can't Wait For The Tut!!!

Derrick van Niekerk

14 years ago

Nice, looking forward to the BTS video and the tips.

thanks,
Derrick

Patrik

14 years ago

sory not RB but RG (red and green]

Patrik

14 years ago

One small tip for keying of DSLR.
Neat Video is very good tool for removing compression artefacts. And best solution of keying are using lumas from RB and lighness channels.

Daniel Allen

14 years ago

I second that about Neat Video. I mentioned that too.

JTMR Films

14 years ago

Looks great as always, just wondering though, a while back you said we could expect a few "demon Cam" tutorials based on its making and i havent really seen anything since the reveal video. Any updates?

Greg Cervall

14 years ago

Thanks Andrew.
You're right. Sometime, it's really hard to have a cool, realistic chroma keying.
Now, you seem to have THE solution!
Can't wait watching your tutorial...

Martin

14 years ago

This looks great, Andrew! It'd be very helpful

Web Agency Milano

14 years ago

Very nice! BTW I prefer the shot without the reflection

Shuva

14 years ago

That's Cool.Waiting for the VIDEO..

Ian

14 years ago

I'm going to take a guess:

Don't key.
Use the greenscreen to create a matte precomp (outside.pre). Desaturate the green channel and Screen blend the result onto your background plate.

OddWord

14 years ago

@Ian - Wow!!! What a great Idea. "A matte Precomp" I have to try it.

I like your website, you did some AWSOME animations for NatGeo!!!

Rashed

14 years ago

and of course I am waiting . tut and your new blugin

klaus brandenburg

14 years ago

I really enjoy how you jump from topic to topic but what about your new plugin? Any confirmed date so far?

darrik baker

14 years ago

looks interesting! cant wait

Asä¸¶å¼‘

14 years ago

Hi...AK !!!

I come from China!
You have many fans in our country.

We love your tutorials....

Guilherme

14 years ago

I am from Portugal and i am probabily the only one who watch this amazing tutorials made by Andrew.

Pedro

14 years ago

I am also from Portugal.Andrew has fans everywhere.

MehranCG

14 years ago

That's look Great.
(tutorial Please)

sing

14 years ago

Looking forward to your tutoial.
Glad to see Sam again,AK,I think you should let hime do more acting,and I like that guy.

Buwaneka

14 years ago

Wow...cool! Another great tutorial coming....

Theworst24

14 years ago

Awesome, can't wait.

Kazlyan

14 years ago

Yeah, I've always wanted to know how to do such a subtle keying. That will be very helpful!
By the way, Andrew, do you use any kind of additional camera software, like Magic Lantern or something else?

Joshua

14 years ago

sams been working out! :O

Sansar

14 years ago

Can't wait for the tutorial. Andrew plz share it soon.Thanks for all your tutorials.

Roo

14 years ago

This is going to be awesome!

maxi

14 years ago

wow, you are really so generous sharing all this tips with us...

Joe F.

14 years ago

Looking forward to it!!

21 abu adel

14 years ago

Good job. We are waiting

AJ_21

14 years ago

Simply awesome.
Just one question, if you change the angle, and the camera´s lens is reflected, could you still apply this same technique?
Saludes desde Honduras y muchas bendiciones.(Greetings from Honduras and many blessings)

James

14 years ago

this will be very helpful. i've tried this numerous times. looking forward to this.

Dan Evans

14 years ago

This is definitely helpful. I'm working on something similar which requires a tear from someone's eye to roll down their face and freeze. To shoot it I got a face mask used in theatre and painted it green. I then dripped water onto the eye and tilted the mask so it dripped. I would then composite this onto the actors face. Keying wasn't so bad but it practically leaves nothing behind as water is clear.

Anthony

14 years ago

Linear Color Key!!!!

Thane Pierson

14 years ago

Now that is impressive! I can't wait

Chris

14 years ago

The key looks really good in the picture. But people calm down... there is no "awesome" or "never seen before" thing its just daily work for a pro like Andrew Kramer.

Sebi

14 years ago

Wow! That's going to be really awesome! I'm looking forward to see this...

Shawn

14 years ago

Thanks Andrew. I'm setting up my studio and will be putting a greenscreen in it. I've managed to chroma key in the past, but i'm always looking to improve my skills so i'll be looking forward to your tutorial. Thanks.

Tincho

14 years ago

Great! I need a tutorial for this!

Josh

14 years ago

Awesome, that would be great. I'm not a great keyer so I need all the help I can get.

Joni

14 years ago

Great! I need it, cause I had problems with flickering in chromakey these days

R-CANE

14 years ago

The infamous Quick Matte ?!!

Rebecca

14 years ago

Not been having much success with chroma-keying even though I full green and blue screen backdrops and lighting set which should get good result but the backcloth colours always look washed out when transferring it to my PC I hope this will give me some better insight into what I'm doing wrong.

Grant

14 years ago

What type of camera are you shooting on? and what are you doing in the "tranfer" process to your PC that would change the way a video file looks? Misunderstanding your color balance could be as simple as the wrong color settings on your cameras LCD. If you are completely in control of your lighting in a set situation the only thing you can blame is your own error.

Rebecca

14 years ago

I'm using a Canon HF100 white balance usually set to auto and looks fine in the viewfinder but when I import to my pc in AVCHD format then it looks very washed out. I've no doubt it's because of my lack of knowledge on the subject thanks for your curt acknowledgement of my stupidity this is why I was asking question and not glowing with pride at my fantastic successes

Rebecca

14 years ago

Excellent, I can't wait.

roger

14 years ago

kool is time

thanks Andrew

dwaine

14 years ago

when is element 3d going to arrive?

Dan Wood

14 years ago

Awesome, thank you! I've been waiting for this!!

James

14 years ago

I have Panasonic sdr -45 and i can't deal with green screen....
it's cause a big consequence to me for filming

Dipo Dipe

14 years ago

what about Element 3D? hope u re almost done?

Edward

14 years ago

look at that epic face

Clayton Light

14 years ago

Hi Andrew,
I'm surprised to hear about the 5D compression artifacts. Can you elaborate?
Thanks,
Clayton Light

thierry

14 years ago

Good!
It's true that chromakeying has not evolved since a while.
And compressed images increased a lot.
But for me the most challenging is melting sharp and blurry key from The same plate. (like on the right of your image)
I always key the reflection separately.

Can't to know your way A.K !

OddWord

14 years ago

@thierry - I think you should make some tutorials on your website, About building real models and green screens, and lens fx with cutouts and such.
Everyone should visit thierry's website.

thierry

14 years ago

i hope you read : can't "wait" to know your way AK!
My mistake.
So sorry to not have the time to create a English version of my site.
On some pages, i describe my job, sometimes the way i get it, or analyze the work more in depth .. but all in French..so too bad, i know

Create a making of each time with my work (and i don't show all of them) takes time..And i try to make them clear.
(And, has you can see, my english is not perfect)

Of course, i thought of it, but i prefer to spend my time to try to write scripts (for animated movies). it's a long process, not professional yet, and take years to get a go.
so wait and see...

By the way, i have recently multiply the visit score of my site by 50, because of my reply few days ago.
So it's proved... there is a VC effect ! !

Alberto

14 years ago

woow very good .. just one question that has nothing to do with it but that is AFTER EFFECTS want to know why when I open parking after effects HAS CRASHED AFTER EFFECTS? or something ... nse if it is well written because use a translator ... I expect an answer I really want this much special effects .. lol sere as a graphic designer like you can give me an answer .. hehehe Bye

Alec

14 years ago

...what?!

LuiSerrano

14 years ago

Very interesting Andrew!!

I thinking about this... waiting the tutorial

Adam

14 years ago

I did that few days ago. I'm really curious how you made it.

Haggai Nwokolo

14 years ago

Am here on time although not the first. Andrew you are a good mentor... God bless u real good...

Edgar

14 years ago

Very nice! Would this be with AE's built in tools or using 3rd party plugins?

Kyle Brosius

14 years ago

This is cool, but every time I see that Video Copilot is updated I'm hoping it's because Element 3D is available. Release date?

Franco

14 years ago

I think in september but there's no date, we're waiting!!
HURRY UP!!!

Brock

14 years ago

Awesome, I've always tried this and failed miserably. From the pictures above it looks great, much better than anything I've been attempting. Can't wait!

Kenneth Sebastian

14 years ago

Always wanted to know more on how we could get small details like these back when keying. Looking forward to it

Jared

14 years ago

Nice. Transparency's always tough...

Dzed Dan

14 years ago

my guess would be: added technics to extend the control of the alpha bias and "Magic Glass" tricks for realism in the glass reflections.
Andrew you're a genius, thank you for your dedication

Scooter

14 years ago

Wow!... that's gonna be, like, totally Awesome... Can't wait!

Raouf Loua

14 years ago

Cool Mr . Andrew

... I'm waiting impatiently for this Tuto

Brent Pierce

14 years ago

Very interested in seeing this.

Ninja Contra

14 years ago

I can't wait!
Andrew, President of Awesomeness!!

doraemon96

14 years ago

Cool... i need this tutorial now!

kvins

14 years ago

me too

grey corection too cool

Tanner

14 years ago

Patience.

Michael Wentworth-Bell

14 years ago

sounds like perfect timing for me also! working on a project using stereo3D go pro cameras, will have to try and pull an acurate Greenscreen key for both the left and right cameras to match properly! Think your tutorial's really gonna help me!

alemotion

14 years ago

Me too, I seriously need this... Can't wait!

Brent Dunn

14 years ago

Pulling Key's with the DSLR cameras are challenging

deepak

14 years ago

same here....it's difficult to save a mirror effect..if u have a chroma with mirror...plz Mr. Andrew we need a tutorial for this..

Simplysam

14 years ago

AM looking forward to getting this tuts. cos its driving me crazy not perfectly keying my subjects always. it annoying sometimes.

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