How to use Back Drop?

Audioicon wrote on 2/26/2008, 1:03 AM

I'm shooting a home video, basically I have a white wall as a back drop or background. I was under the impression that if I use a solid color as a background, I could remove that background and replace it by using the "backdrop" effect in Vegas 8 Platnum Edition.

So what are the backdrop effects for? When I insert a back drop it doesn't display or it covers the entire video on the screen.

Bottom line is this, can I change the background of a video by using effects or the backdrop effects??

I know this questions sounds dumb but I make music not videos and just learning.

Audioicon

Comments

Andy C wrote on 2/26/2008, 4:25 AM

Unfortunately you can't easily use white as your backdrop colour. You will need to use pure green or blue as these colours don't often occur in nature.
For example , if a person with a white T-shirt is videoed in front of a white wall then Vegas won't know which bit of white is the backdrop, or the person. You'll end up with disembodied head and arms. Use green or blue and Vegas will know exactly what to key out.
HTH
Andy.

Chienworks wrote on 2/26/2008, 4:53 AM

White may work ok as long as your subject doesn't have any bright white.

What you are looking for is the effect "Chroma keyer". Use the eyedropper tool to choose the background color. You can then adjust the sliders to have Vegas identify the range of tones in the background without affecting the subject. As long as the background is a significantly different color than anything in the subject it should work well.

Audioicon wrote on 2/26/2008, 10:59 AM

Thanks so much, in a short statement, I have learn a lot.
I will give that a spin. :)

Audioicon