Then we went through and tried to key the footage as well as we could, with attempts being made to tint the footage to match the background based on the included tools in the programs. While each keyer could doubtless be tweaked for better results, this gives you an idea of what some basic adjustments in the keyer may look like. Most experts recommend putting a final 1 pixel matte choker around the matte, which we did not do so that you might see what the actual edges tend to look like without this. Again, we started with the problematic footage and moved on to the professional footage.
If you wish to download all of these pictures in one packet, we have created a .zip file of them that you can download and compare yourselves. Just download it at: greenscreen.zip
Here is a comparison of what lightwrap looks like from programs like zMatte vs. what can be logically keyed from footage produced by programs without lightwrap, like Keylight, with a simple After Effects glow adjustment layer overlaid. (Both the footage and the background are courtesy of Elsevier, with the background being designed by Natiq Aghayev.) Obviously, you could also combine these options for even more control.
Finally, as I was going a bit stir crazy from all this testing, I decided to create a quick composite with our summer intern, Richie, who has always wanted to throw fireballs. I decided to create a firefight in a kitchen to give birth to his dream. The kitchen background is from dvGarage and the keyer is dvMatte Pro. Particle Effects were created with Trapcode Particular, sound effects are from the Sony Pictures Sound Effects library, and music was created with SonicFire Pro 4.5.
Yes, I did go a bit overboard on the shadows! Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to pull the separate video layers into Photoshop CS3 Extended and paint in the scorch marks on the walls! However, it wasn’t too bad for an evening worth of playing around.
