Mostly talking head stuff. I've tried using the chroma key effect, but the results seem unnatural. I'm wanting software war that will better blend the subject with the background.

Before spending big bucks I'd be thinking about a few things first.

There is some very good info on how to get chroma keying to work well in the forum, do some searching.

Assuming you've got a good background to key off and the key is working as it should then start to address the issue of it looking natural.

Lighting would seem to be the key, axcuse the pun. If the subjest is lit differently to the background then its going to look unnatural. Maybe some very fancy software can to some extent correct this but a much better approach would be to get the subject lighting to look right in the first place. If its too late to fix that then you may be be able to use any number of additional effects that you already have with VV to adjust the appearance of the subject / background.

Take a hard look at what make it look unnatural, what are the cues telling your brain something isn't rights, depth of field is another one apart from lighting, again you really cannot fix this 100% but to some extent you can fudge it. Again I remember some discussions about simulating depth of field on this forum.

Color balance would be another area to consider.

If you still feel you need to apply more power to the problem get a demo version of whatever tool you think you need and try it with your footage to see if it looks any better. I'd bet the demo footage they have was taken with all the factors I've mentioned being taken into account.

Good thoughts. Thanks.

Look at this website:

http://www.film-and-video.com/broadcastvideoexamples-greenscreen.html#GREEN%20SCREEEN%20ARTICLE.html

I am an UltraKey user and the program is awesome!

The Good:
Getting an awesome key has never been simpler. Forget about expensive lighting setups and time consuming set preparation. With very uneven lighting (one light on backdrop, hotspots, background wrinkles), I was able to get a great key in minutes. In our business time is money and UltraKey saves a lot of time on set preparation. The output is also top notch and depending on the output codec used, no re-rendering in Vegas.

The Bad:
The final renders can take a long time to process. I am using a P4 1.4 GHZ with 700+ mb ram. A 1.7 minute project took 30 minutes to render in UltraKey using the default codec. I am going to test the MainConcept codec and suspect the render will be much faster. A more powerful pc I am sure would cut the render time also.

I know this thread is a bit old but I just looked at the Ultra demo video.....holy bat turds Robin! Ok - so here is a question - Spot, SonyEPM, SonyDennis or anyone - how 'easy' is it to get the exact same results in Vegas Video as the demo video seen here: http://www.seriousmagic.com/ukvidsamples.cfm. When you are on the page look at "View Video 1". I am a bit blown away by what I see being done. In paticular the "ease" of background improvment - not green/blue screen, just removing an existing background. The Depth of field concept sort of gets me thinking about the whole video > film look. And they point out that all the video was shot on mini-dv using the Panasonic DVX100 and Sony TRV900 with a crew of one.

And you might want to check out the video at "VIew VIdeo 3" - the one that breaks down the fly in shot. Shot a sloppy green screen in Mini-Dv with the Sony - locked down camera shot. Pop it into Ultra and you now have a flying camera sweeping shot from a roof down to the talent walking in. Again - wow.

http://fxhome.com/chromanator/
these are the same guys that do alamDv2 (3)

>>> http://fxhome.com/chromanator/<<<

yes I am well aware of that. :) I have used AlamDV since version 1. Looking forward to AlamDV 3. Chrominator just came out, sort of kind of, and am looking forward to a demo of it that we call all try out. I just posted the same question over there - about if Chrominator can do the same thing as Ultra. Are you one of the Chrominator/Vegas users I told should post here? I am kind of suprised about people asking Vegas questions over there.

not me if thats who you were refering your question to, filmy, I too have alamDV2 but dont have" Da Chromantor"(use your best Arnold imatation).
Been waiting for the demo too.
I havent posted on their forum , only lightly browsed through it from time.
Most my answers to my questions,learning come from this Great Fountian Of Knowlege
the Sony vegas forum.
I did check out the Ultra site, perty darn cool, but a bit more $$, guess it all depends on what you wanna do.

Hey Filmy, I am the one you ran into on FXHOME. I did get the Chromanator and although am still learning its features, I was able to get very good results. I would love to see someone do a side by side comparison of Ultrakey and Chromanator though.

hey RafalK - glad to see you here in the civilized world of the Vegas forums. ;) You know what I really love about this forum? Free speech.

I have been a huge fan of Schwar, CSB and AlamDV for the last 4 or so years. CSB has more or less grown from him to 3 other core people, it is still small and, I thought, much like a family. But the users who post over there now act like an elitist bunch of snobs. I read through posts and if anyone asks questions you see these "You are stupid" type of replies and when someone asks a comparison type of question you get "This is the CSB forum, their products are better than anything else" answer. Last night, after seeing the Ultra demo, I posted on this forum and on the CSB forum. I thought it was a simple question to understand but it turned into this flame war with the CSB 'elite' trying to insult me. In my first post I asked for people to *not* say the obvious things such as "Chromanator is better" and "why spend $800 when Chromanator does the same thing for oly $80" yet the first response was "Go here to decide yourself:" with a link to the Chromanator info page. Another early responder asked "Chromanator is really cheap for what it can do. So if you have the money to pay for something like that then why not spend a bit more even and get what the pro's use?" Than I got the non-user but loyal to CSB replies: "Well I don't have Chromantor but clearly it is better than Ultra". A few people, in so many words, called me stupid for even asking such a question. Another person came off as a know it all by saying I could not read and was easly manipulated because my question clearly had no bearing on what the Ultra site talked about. He went on to say I knew nothing about chromakeying at all, and this was echoed by a few other people. I had wanted Schwar to repsond because back in November he metioned in another thread that he was going to look at Ultra so I wanted to get his feedback. Needless to say he never responded and only one poster, Axeman, even came close to being nuetral and answering my question - along the lines of "Yes you can do the same thing with Ultra that you can do with Chromanator except some things may take longer to do [in Chromanator]." The overall response was that my post, and thread, were deleted all together by this morning.

What I find even more ironic is the attitude that all other products suck and must bow down to the CSB products that are not even out yet. Before Chromanator was even out in a RC1 version (And then only for those who had pre-ordered it) people were answering questions about "should I get it?" with "Yes it is awesome. It is so great." Based on what? "Hey it is CSB! I read the specs!" The guy who told me I couldn't read, after I responded to him, came back at me with the fact he was professional editor and used After Effects and had no need for Chromanator - yet he felt the need to call me uneducated to what Chromakey was and tell me just how Chromanator worked. (Anyone else see the strange cult like mentality in that?) When I again replied to him, and everyone, what the main software was that I used (including After Effects and Vegas) and that most of the effects work I do I learned from Tom Anderson and Gene Warren *and* that I was currently finishing up editing on one feature and was in pre-planning for another one and that was my intrest in Ultra - he responded that I should go back to my 'teachers' because if I had After Effects I clearly should know that I had no need for any other Chromakeying software and that "I find it hard to believe you are a "pro"."

Needless to say I won't be returning to those forums anytime in the near future, at least not in posting mode...and chances are I will not be getting Chromanator or AlamDV 3. I stated that these were not very good sales pitches to make anyone want to buy the product. Some people may like being called unprofessional and ignorant as a sales pitch for a product, to me it is a sign to go elsewhere...but I am weird that way.

*UPDATE - PS* - LOL So some little birdy must have seen this post because now my question and the thread had been put back up, although the orginal subject has been changed. Much to my shock 4 new posts have been put up - one from Schwar even. One of the new posts even 'defends' me - although they do an underhand dis by saying I post in a 'tabloid' way. (Do I? Have I made any posts anywhere about 5 headed aliens abducting Baby Spice?) The funniest new response was simple and, I feel, ironic - 'Aculag' posted "You are all wrong. Go buy an Ultimatte system and hire an operator, then create your virtual sets in 3DS, then create a camera tracking system to fit in your green screen stage, and link it to a computer so that you can film your actors in your sets all in real time, and buy the sony 24p high def dv camera and mount it to a technocrane. That will get you the best results."

Filmy I have thought about Posting films ect there in the past but after seeing the way they carry on. OK I know they speak in there own lingo, bt its really disturbing for ordinary people. Thank goodness for all the good folk here !

Filmy,

FWIW I read the entire thread and for the life of me I CANNOT understand the reactions to your questions. I'm completely baffled by some of the comments the other posters made. That said I've got to take a second look at Chromanator - if it really works as well as advertised… then it's a tool that should certainly be added to the arsenal. At that price point, you could easily buy a copy for each effects workstation and laptop in the studio.

Shawn

A lot of the regulars over at fxhome's forums are teenagers. That should explain some of the reactions.

In comparison though... How do you think it stands up to the ChromaKey abilities of:

1) Sony ChromaKey (free)
2) Boris RED 3 ($1000)
3) After Effects ($500)

I only listed these because they are what I have in my arsenal for ChromaKeying. I definitely agree with the pricing. Not too shabby.

Lamont