Chromakey problem

stovas wrote on 8/31/2008, 11:27 PM
Hi there,
I have Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 6.0.
I shot an interview with a green chromakey wall behind the subjects. It's at a tv station so it's a good green wall with studio lighting.
I put the green screen video in the video overlay track, then my background shot (I've been experimenting with both a picture and a solid black background) in the video track. When I put the chromakey effect in the overlay track, I can't adjust it to look right. There are jagged edges around the interview subjects and the background looks bad too. I even tried a garbage matte, but there was still green around the edges of the subjects and the background still didn't look right.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance.

Comments

Eugenia wrote on 9/1/2008, 9:16 AM
The jugged edges might be just interlacing?
stovas wrote on 9/1/2008, 3:37 PM
The best I can get this makes it look like there's a halo around the interview subjects and it doesn't look right. Using the blur gets rid of the jagged edges, but I can't get anywhere near to making it look like my three interview subjects are pasted on top of a picture or a solid black graphic.
Any help would be appreciated.
Eugenia wrote on 9/1/2008, 5:37 PM
As I said, jagged edges are interlacing. You don't getting rid of them during editing, you simply export in progressive at the very end, and the jaggies will disappear.
stovas wrote on 9/2/2008, 1:42 AM
What do you mean by exporting in progressive at the very end. If you could tell me a little more about what you mean, I'd really appreciate it!
Thanks for your help!
Eugenia wrote on 9/2/2008, 8:37 AM
Open project properties and do a "match media" from the yellow icon. This will put Vegas into the right mode. Then, make sure that you use the "preview" preview quality in the preview window. Then, edit. If you see jaggies, ignore them, or just switch to the "good" preview quality (much slower preview though).

At the end, let's say you want to export in WMV, you export with "render as" and you click "custom" to customize your export, and there you choose "progressive" as a field order. This will get rid of the jaggies at the final product.
stovas wrote on 9/29/2008, 4:46 PM
Despite all the suggestions here and tons of time trying to adjust the chromakey, the best I can get is a dull gray background with unnatural-looking edges around my three interview subjects. I've used the dropper to match the green background, but without any luck. I'm to the point where I'm just going to leave the green background. Most people won't think anything of it, but some will know it isn't supposed to be this way.
Any other suggestions? This is for an anniversary party this Saturday(10/4).
Thanks!
Eugenia wrote on 9/29/2008, 4:55 PM
If you have a very small sample of the video, say 3 seconds, upload it somewhere and send me the URL and I will have a look at it. If you need to cut 3 seconds from an existing capture, please make sure the video is unprocessed, and you export in the native format (e.g. HDV mpeg2 for HDV footage, miniDV AVI for miniDV footage).

Although it's possible that your app craps up because of the old 6.0 version. Download the Platinum 9 trial version, and retry.
stovas wrote on 9/30/2008, 2:49 AM
Hi there,
I downloaded the Platinum 9.0 version and ended up with the same results.
I posted a clip on YouTube. Here's the link :
I really appreciate you checking this. I even tried the chromakey feature on Pinnacle with the same results. This is all frustrating to me because the chromakey wall is at the tv station where I work, so you'd think it'd work, but I just can't adjust it to look good. I've even tried it on a different computer with the same results.
Thanks for your help!
OhMyGosh wrote on 9/30/2008, 8:18 AM
Hi stovas,
Looked at your clip. Seems like the lighting for the green screen isn't the best, but was still able to get pretty good results. Follow this link and see if it helps. Cin
http://www.sundancemediagroup.com/articles/chromablur_by_kolbo.htm
Eugenia wrote on 9/30/2008, 2:30 PM
the people cast a shadow on the back, you can't have good chromakey with that shadow.
stovas wrote on 9/30/2008, 4:21 PM
Thanks everybody for your replies. Following the tutorial mentioned a couple of posts ago I did have better results, but still not the quality I would like. Knowing my subjects were too close to the wall makes me feel better that it wasn't the software or my computer. I've had good luck in the past, but not on this project.
Thanks again! I've learned a good lesson!