New Sky Replacement
July 13th, 2007

I'm pretty sure the next tutorial is going to be on advanced sky replacement.

We're going out to film today, but here is an example on some behind the scenes footage. Notice the telephone poles on the left side still appear in front of the clouds even though they are small and nearly transparent. Using a procedural matte allows us to control the blending between foreground and backgrounds. This Matte generation can be used for so much more as well, I promise this will be a must see tutorial.

I figure it is about time to update that old tutorial with some new tricks and treats. Not even a single joke in that tutorial...

Sam Loya said he be in the tutorial but that it would cost 20M... All I had was a warm root beer, so filming begins at 4pm.

Andrew Kramer
POSTED:
18 years ago
61 Comments
It's amazing how much a new sky can improve a shot.
squardis
18 years ago
why not just keylight? works exactly the same. clip black, clip white, etc
ore just make it grayscale with hue saturation and then curve the black and white.
and maybe a gaussianblur.
Pierre
18 years ago
That is what I need: lucky me.
I wrote earlier about my camshots in a thick mist (fog) I had to mix up with some sunny scenes. Andrew, I have big expections to see how you will manage this new sky replacement. Thnx man.
Jason
18 years ago
Cant wait. I actully requested you to do this tutorial in the request blog so I am excited its coming.
Orc Master
18 years ago
Wow, an updated sky replacement tutorial! That'll totally rock... Those matte techniques also seem useful for stuff like keying or cleaning edges on a mask. Really looking forward to it

Also, please consider the day-to-night combination with the sky replacement; 'course, only if you want...

LOL, Sam will probably be happy that sky replacement is a safe effect... Is it?
Some Guy
18 years ago
Andrew, how about a shot with replaced time-lapse sky from Real Clouds (I mean that sunset from the Real Clouds Promo) and a Day for Night at the end of the shot as an idea for the tutorial after this one. Some kind of a conclusion to the Sky Replacement Technique plus the Day for Night Technique with a smooth transition from day to night... That would be awesome!
18 years ago
cant wait, the last 1 was a bit poor lets say, i have tryed to use it, but as u mentuned here, some thin peaces get cut off, that is bad, especialy if there are many relevant peaces on that roof, argh

keep up the good work

P.S. bottom pic is nicer IMO, 2 dark couds, but, that is just me..
Some Guy
18 years ago
Cool! I've been waiting for this so long.
Check out some pretty nice sky replacement and color grading in the demonstration of Fusion 5:
http://www.eyeonline.com/web/eyeonweb/marketing/21reasons/21reasons.aspx
It begins after approximately 40 seconds.

PS: I hope there will be a Day for Night Tutorial in the near future. Maybe you can use the same footage to show us the effect.

PPS:
I promise this will be a must see tutorial.

Amen.
Hi there.
I've been watching your tutorials, and I must say I'm impressed. I won't spam your E-mail box so I'll write a thing or two here^.
First of all I would like to thank you for everything you done for me. I want to be a graphic and FX designer, and with your help I finally made some progress . Oh, there is so much I could write here, but it would be, erm... odd xD. So..., keep up with your work, you are really amazing... Well, I wish you good luck.
And thanks for everything
Novastorm
18 years ago
Hahahah the warm root beer does it every time ;D
Dan
18 years ago
Hi andrew
will this be like in your reel where the stadium have different sky?
something like a stormy sky
Yva
18 years ago
Hello Andrew and everybody!
I had to replace sky in one of my oppening shots, it looked easy to do, but it wasn't. The picture vas slightly moving, it had sort of a little wiggle. Not only that I had to cover some new buildings with trees, couse the film was set in early 20th century. It was pretty tough to, I used motion track to match it with new sky and I must admit I'm still not to happy the way it looks.

This is why I am really looking forward to this tut, 'cause I believe is an common problem.

PS. I can't believe Andrew that you are 22 ... you are so young man. I would give you 32
18 years ago
It's great that Sams rise to fame here is all about how Ak beats the crap out of him... that and his ability to weld a light saber like no other.
18 years ago
hey its Sam Loya!
18 years ago
Hey Everyone, We had a great shoot today!
Cant wait to see the final stuff!
-Sam
هـــــــاشم
18 years ago
Hey Andrew, you are the best in after effects
cant wait....
Sandy
18 years ago
Hey it looks cool, can't wait 4 it. Thanx in adavnce.

Warm Regards
Sandy
Ezequiel
18 years ago
cool andrew
cant wait!
18 years ago
easy on the spam ET... Let keep the blog relevant ; )
18 years ago
Iâ??????m relasing a new movie I made yesterday with a few friendsâ???¦
it includes a suitcase full of money, a limo, and 2 kidnappersâ???¦
Go to www.et-films.net to see what happens!!!

Here are some links:

www.et-films.net
www.myspace.com/etent

check it out!!
18 years ago
Nice
18 years ago
Hey Andrew, This was my suggestion!

Thanks for taking it into consideration, can't wait!
I'm truly looking forward to this, bigtime....
Rubix
18 years ago
procedural mattes? i'm way jazzed to hear a tutorial's coming about that but are you still gonna do one on DOF mattes andrew?
18 years ago
Sorry.....

Hey Andrew you should make a donate page on your site.
Alexander Jansen
18 years ago
I hope VCP releases some candy that I can buy for christmas, that would be aweeeesome. Also; Updating some old tutorials ain't a bad idea.
Keep it up Krame-nator (tihi), just had to rip that off!
Helge
18 years ago
Awesome, I need this so bad You're the best Andrew!
18 years ago
Looking forward towards this tutorial. I really enjoyed the last one but I never was to successful with your methods in Tutorial #1 when I applied your techniques to my own footage. That was about a year ago though so it'll be good to get familiarized with this process again. Looking forward to it.

forums ... ;p
18 years ago
Just got back from shooting. The footage should work well. This tutorial will be out soon.

Remember lets keeps this blog light and 'mind' our table manners.
18 years ago
Can't wait!!! Are you going to revamp any other tutorials? Some more using action movie essentials would be very nice.
18 years ago
nice one, i tried to do this a few weeks ago but failed, so it will be good to see where i went wrong.
Minl
18 years ago
cool.
18 years ago
Lol, does he work for free. Do you pay him in medical bills, lol. Give me a call anytime you need more crew or cast members.
Magnusfaz
18 years ago
Good idea Andrew!!! Give Sam what he wants. He deserves it after so many guns shots and explotion.
Alexey Pekarin
18 years ago
I wonder what Andrew will prepare for AK 47
Excuse my Russian humor
Jacob Wall
18 years ago
Number 42! W00t! Thats what andrew is going to be known 4. Number 42.

42 aka Andrew Kramer
Dustin James
18 years ago
That original tut. was the first I watched of yours.. its what made me find your site ~2yrs ago...

mmm...

Can't wait to get it on my new PHONE! (not so subtle hint... hehehe)

@John Paite

I think Andrew is working on having a new tutorial every week on monday or tuesday...
18 years ago
nice one andrew

Gonna be cool to get some compositing tricks!
18 years ago
I'm sure the 20 Mil would cover the hospital bills and perscription meds.
Etduur
18 years ago
That's exactly what I was expecting for a sky replacement tutorial. I wanted to know how to remove the original sky from a footage and add another one, because it was kinda unclear to me how to do that and I've been wanting to do so for long, so it'll be a great if you could teach us how, so thanks in advance!
18 years ago
Oooo, Superville is right This looks really cool.
Hi Andrew.

I have never used this cind of effect, but when i think about it, it is a pretty usefull effect. But is it possible if you can jus e-mail me with some pictures of some cool background i can use for a commercal i am going to make for the local TV-Station, like som grunge or ice texures. That would be great, if you dont mind me using them, by the way, the TV-station is in Norway, and it is pretty bad. He he, with your help it would be fantastic!!!! really!

But thanks anyway Andrew
JonL
18 years ago
This is good news, I find the tutorials where you manipulate footage the most useful.
Ben
18 years ago
Oh, Andrew, you are such an AE genius...I love you, man...cheese and all...in a purely heterosexual, professional way, of course.

Can't way for the tutorial!!
Guatcha
18 years ago
thanks, I loved the idea

but don't forguet the nigth effect ok??

can u also consider the idea to make some tutorials about
cinema special fx composition like last harry potter film wen they are fighting or super powers

(sorry for this coment, I know this is not a tutorial request forum)

sorry for the bad english too I'm a portuguease fan
thanks again
tryx
18 years ago
Hey Andrew, i see on ur reel the basball camp, whit thunder and bad clouds, this on dvd tutorial? and i question for u, is possible whit after effect create a big water waves?

Regard
18 years ago
Great, sounds really useful .
18 years ago
Root beer good. Kramer even better.
Looking forward man

MM.
Scott
18 years ago
Cool, thanks for tutorials Andrew, lately your site has been blowing up, congrats on that. I'm still waiting for that getting hit by a car tutorial though

-Scotty
18 years ago
That looks terrific. Very excited about this one, I have a feeling I'm going to be able to use it for a lot.
18 years ago
Long time reader, first time poster

I have greatly enjoyed the tutorials and they have really helped immensely, both in solving particular issues, but also in helping me quickly grasp how to use AE.

I'm very much looking forward to this tutorial because I shot a short film last summer, but was unfamiliar with the camera and ended up blowing out the sky in every shot. I later shot some nicely exposed blue sky with soft fluffy clouds, but there were so many trees in the shots I couldn't figure out how to do a good replacement.

So, I'm really counting on you this time!!

BTW - if you want to see the film, it's here (6 minutes): http://www.nrestudios.com/movies/leapoffaith/
Kyle Shields
18 years ago
He probably just takes some pain killers afterwards, lol.
18 years ago
I'll let Sam chime in on his methods, I can't speak for his genius.
18 years ago
Dude sweet! I've been wanting to learn more about sky replacement. I think its a nice effect that can really enhance a shot. cant wait!
18 years ago
Looks good.
John Paite
18 years ago
This will be pretty cool...is this the next tuts? when when when??
Kyle Shields
18 years ago
Cool.
Chip
18 years ago
Cant we get a tutorial on Sam's Method acting and the process he goes thru before he's roundly kicked around in your films?
Gonads
18 years ago
This should be quite cool.
18 years ago
by default, tutorial 42 will be the answer to life, the universe and everything!
Spiderman8656
18 years ago
Im first to comment! Sweetness. But I'm glad you're updating for the "new age" and all. Its good to bring back the classics and make them better. Always a build a better mousetrap.