The material is easy to understand because the host shows you exactly what she is looking at and explains the problem she sees in it. Then she shows you how to use a technique. Most importantly, she shows you what she is doing. Most tutorials that I’ve watched on keying include shortcuts. The host might say “For this setting I think we need to use 28”. And I’m left wondering where in the world this number came from and what “28” does in that setting. I didn’t experience this kind of omission even once in the whole training.
Of course, at times, the multiple attempts to solve a problem can be confusing. I recalled after one section that the host had shown me three approaches to solve a particular problem. I appreciated that I now knew about all these techniques, but I couldn’t remember which of the three had worked in the example. On the balance, I prefer to know the limits of the approaches and what alternatives are available. Without this information it’s possible to reach “the end of the road” and not know what to do next. On the other hand, I appreciate that some people want a straight-through tutorial that just explains simple direct steps.
While the coverage is deep, it lacks some critical elements.
As with most green screen training, the tutorial omits advice on how to acquire the footage. There is no guidance on what kind of material to use for a green screen, how to light it, how big it needs to be, the distance of the actor from the screen, camera settings – and the whole set of problems that comes with acquiring decent footage to key.
This training demonstrates footage shot in the Panasonic HVX DVCPRO-HD format. While it is true that most filmmakers will buy, beg, or borrow this camera to shoot green screen footage, it is also true that many microfilmmakers will be working in SD (NTSC) or in HDV or AVCHD rather than DVCPRO-HD. And in case you didn’t know, that makes a big difference. Because DVCRPO-HD records in 4:2:2 color, twice the color resolution of SD (4:1:1) or HDV (4:2:0). And its been my experience that these more common formats are A LOT harder to key. So although the techniques demonstrated are still valid, the use of a single high quality demonstration is kind of like cheating. It makes compositing look easier than it really is when you have footage shot in these other formats.
Another issue is that the training covers keying one clip to the nth degree of quality. The example never changes. This is a mixed blessing. It’s good because in each chapter the host develops a deeper analysis of the image. However, the training isn’t tailored to a specific case. If my goal is to composite people being knocked down by an explosion, then I’m going to have to absorb the knowledge from the example and adapt it to the specific case. There may be more detailed advice for these cases. And there may be shortcuts that the pros use in specific cases. And these aren’t covered.
Finally, the training doesn’t address workflow efficiency. It teaches how to get quality, not how to get speed.
