Green screen and background

libertyunleashed wrote on 8/30/2010, 10:01 PM

I am new to using Vegas Movie Studio 9 Platinum and I'm not sure if it will do what I need. Hopefully I can give a full explanation as I don't have any formal training in video editing.

I am trying to make my own news segments for posting on youtube. Basically what I want to do is work with a green screen and a 3D model.

Here is the model http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPreview/Index.cfm/ID/189507

I want to have someone sit on a chair with a green screen behind them and then add the above model in to make my own news video. We have all things needed for the filming, i.e., the camera, lights and person. I just need to know if VMS will allow me to use the 3D model to do the final production? If so how do I do this?

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 8/31/2010, 4:00 AM

Vegas has a Chroma Key function so it can handle placing the green-screened actor in front of other backgrounds.

Vegas cannot handle 3D model files. If you want to use that background you'll need some sort of 3D rendering software that can convert it into still images or video files. The stills or video can then be used in Vegas as the background.

libertyunleashed wrote on 8/31/2010, 8:06 AM

Chienworks,
Thank you for your help. I will explore Chroma key functions and hopefully find some other ways to make my video.

disgruntledaswell wrote on 8/31/2010, 2:22 PM

I dont know if this is any help. I remember having some virtual sets on a Video magazine once and they were from www.virtualsets.com

I have just looked at the site and there are some free downloads. you enter an email and get allowed five sets. They say there is a faint watermark but i would not call it faint.
I think they are only the backgrounds though.

ADB wrote on 9/1/2010, 2:54 PM

Import the model into Blender (free - blender.org). Blender has been criticised in the past because of its UI. The latest version, 2.5 has an all new UI which makes the product much easier for noobs.

Green screen your person. You can do this in Blender or VMS. The former allows spill reduction and does a better job. Place a flat plane in the model behind the table and place the video on the plane with transparency set around the person.

Craig Longman wrote on 9/1/2010, 10:16 PM

You might want to look at some of the video "sets" that are available, rather than rendering your own. TubeTape also have some virtual reality sets available, with pre-keyed background screens also. They're at http://tubetape.com/

If you do render your own, you will need to render it in two pieces, what will be behind the talent, and what will be in front. Then, as indicated previously, put the background at the lowest track, your chroma-keyed talent shot above it and key out the colour you use, and then the top-most layer will be whatever is in front of the talent. Everything else in the top layer (except, for example, the desk) will just be straight alpha, so it shows everything underneath of it.

If you upgrade to VMS 10, you can use the newly available secondary colour correction to effect pretty decent spill suppression (as well as 10 video and audio tracks instead of 4), but the best choice is to keep the coloured screen as far away from the talent as possible, reducing the amount of spill on them in the first place.

Then, read up on using VMS, and watch lots of tutorial videos. Many of the youtube ones are junk (surprise, surprise =) but there are some good ones. And the Sony ones to get you comfortable in VMS in general are here:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/support/trainingvids.asp?prod=moviestudio

VMS v9 is entirely capable of doing all the compositing and rendering you need, just need to decide what you want to do about the set. And do some research on chroma-keying. Blue or green, it's important to have it well and consistently lit, things like that. There are many resources waiting to be google'd.

CraigL

ADB wrote on 9/5/2010, 4:01 PM

You could do an even better job than I suggested above by adding Voodoo camera tracking. Add some tracking markers to your green screen then move the camera around the person. Add the 3d model to the point cloud that is created. Remove the markers with a mask. Blender 3D has a Voodoo import script. The flat screen for the video should be tracked to the camera.