Color grading talent, but not background

briggs wrote on 7/12/2006, 10:59 AM

I have medium to wide shots of my talent, surrounded by a black background. I'll be using Ultimate S Reelpaks to apply a color grade. Problem is, the vid effects and grading applied also cause changes to the black background. How can I apply color grading to just the talent?

I'm wondering if a copy of the take on a higher track with a luminance mask would block changes to the black background... but then where/how would the color grading effects be added?

Thanks.

Comments

GlennChan wrote on 7/12/2006, 12:32 PM

One way of doing it:
Duplicate the clip onto an upper/lower track. Hold Crtl as you click-drag the clip, and release.

On the upper track:
Apply the color corrector secondary.
Isolate the black background.
Set alpha to 0.
Apply the Reelpack.

That should work? (Ok I haven't played around with the Reelpacks myself.)

farss wrote on 7/12/2006, 3:09 PM

You can use Beziers to mask the the talent, of course that might involve a lot of keyframing depending on the amount of movement.
Bob.

GlennChan wrote on 7/12/2006, 3:30 PM

What Bob is saying is to rotoscope... this is an option, but it is very time-consuming (unless the subject doesn't move). And Vegas is not the best program to do it (something like silhouette roto is better for rotoscoping).

In this case, try a luminance key first since it would take less time.

briggs wrote on 7/12/2006, 7:51 PM

I think that's going to work....

Secondary Color Corrector to top copy
-select black background
-limit by luminance (tweak settings and smooth)
-set alpha to zero

Apply color grading to top copy.

Thanks!

-Les