**Sorry about the weird links. Not sure if you can imbed stuff on this forum, but hopefully you can figure it out...***
Howdy...
I'd read many topics about using HDV for keying, and how terrible it is due to the MPEG compression and such. I decided to do a few tests... Here are the results...
I shot some quick and dirty footage (didn't white balance, didn't light the scenes with much care, etc...) The scenes were shot indoors with a flexi-screen. Twin flourescent lights lit up the screen, while I was lit with fairly rudimentary 3-point lighting with three softboxes.
I shot basically the same thing first with my Sony DSR-390, and then again with my Sony Z1, in HDV mode. Most settings were on auto on both cameras.
The screen basically looked like this:
[IMG]http://www.rooproductions.com/keytest/grnscrn2.jpg[/IMG]
First I shot with the DSR, captured with DVRACK, and took it straight into Serious Magic Ultra to key. This is the only app I key with generally. The results looked pretty good for 20mins worth of work:
[IMG]http://www.rooproductions.com/keytest/dvkey1.jpg[/IMG]
Then I shot the same thing again with the Z1, captured to HDVRack, compressed with Cineform, imported into Vegas, and shrunk to DV Spec, rendered and brought it into Ultra. I found this key to be just as easy to work with as the DV key. Probably should have white balanced, but I was in a hurry...:-)...
[IMG]http://www.rooproductions.com/keytest/hdvkey1.jpg[/IMG]
Finally, I took the same footage and blew it up 200% in Vegas before rendering, too see if I could get a '2nd camera' close up from the original HDV footage:
[IMG]http://www.rooproductions.com/keytest/hdvkey2.jpg[/IMG]
My conclusions? HDV keys just fine, thanks very much. With these quick and dirty settings, I was able to get very acceptable keys. Much of what I do these days is delivered via flash for internet delivery, and I think the quality of these keys is quite acceptable for that. With more time and care, even better keys could be produced...
If you're intersted in seeing the actual footage, you can find it here:
[URL=http://www.rooproductions.com/keytest]Ben's HDV Keying Test[/URL]
I hope this helps folks who are worried about keying wiht HDV. I now feel that the HDV format is just fine for creating acceptable keys, at least with Serious Magic Ultra.
Best,
Ben
Howdy...
I'd read many topics about using HDV for keying, and how terrible it is due to the MPEG compression and such. I decided to do a few tests... Here are the results...
I shot some quick and dirty footage (didn't white balance, didn't light the scenes with much care, etc...) The scenes were shot indoors with a flexi-screen. Twin flourescent lights lit up the screen, while I was lit with fairly rudimentary 3-point lighting with three softboxes.
I shot basically the same thing first with my Sony DSR-390, and then again with my Sony Z1, in HDV mode. Most settings were on auto on both cameras.
The screen basically looked like this:
[IMG]http://www.rooproductions.com/keytest/grnscrn2.jpg[/IMG]
First I shot with the DSR, captured with DVRACK, and took it straight into Serious Magic Ultra to key. This is the only app I key with generally. The results looked pretty good for 20mins worth of work:
[IMG]http://www.rooproductions.com/keytest/dvkey1.jpg[/IMG]
Then I shot the same thing again with the Z1, captured to HDVRack, compressed with Cineform, imported into Vegas, and shrunk to DV Spec, rendered and brought it into Ultra. I found this key to be just as easy to work with as the DV key. Probably should have white balanced, but I was in a hurry...:-)...
[IMG]http://www.rooproductions.com/keytest/hdvkey1.jpg[/IMG]
Finally, I took the same footage and blew it up 200% in Vegas before rendering, too see if I could get a '2nd camera' close up from the original HDV footage:
[IMG]http://www.rooproductions.com/keytest/hdvkey2.jpg[/IMG]
My conclusions? HDV keys just fine, thanks very much. With these quick and dirty settings, I was able to get very acceptable keys. Much of what I do these days is delivered via flash for internet delivery, and I think the quality of these keys is quite acceptable for that. With more time and care, even better keys could be produced...
If you're intersted in seeing the actual footage, you can find it here:
[URL=http://www.rooproductions.com/keytest]Ben's HDV Keying Test[/URL]
I hope this helps folks who are worried about keying wiht HDV. I now feel that the HDV format is just fine for creating acceptable keys, at least with Serious Magic Ultra.
Best,
Ben