• Wondering which camera, gear, computer, or software to buy? Ask in our Gear Guide.

Chromakey - Green screen

J

JTQ

I'm in a predicament, simply put. Oh yeh, by the way... first post here, new to this place :)

I'm working on a production where I'm going to be filming about 10 people in one particular scene. It's not possible to get more people to be in the scene (long story and specific reasoning for it). But what I will need is lots of people in the scene... I know that doesn't sound like it makes sense, but I'm hoping to use a green screen or something to have multiple layers of the same people. So instead of 10 people, there could be 100 if I were to use 10 layers, right?

1. First issue I have, is anytime I've filmed with a green screen, the end result always has a jagged edge around where the green screen has been taken out. I use Adobe Premiere or Adobe After Effects for this editing... does this make sense to anyone, and can suggest how to avoid this issue? I'm filming in full HD, 1920x1080p, direct to hard disk. Camera is JVC GZ-HD7.

2. Hoping for some simple suggestions how to compose this multi-layered shot. I have a green screen, it's cotton, 10ft x 12ft. I also have a few bright halogen lights for lighting... although they do have a very slight yellow tinge to them (as normal 'house' lights do). This scene will be filmed indoors in a large hall at night.

Any help would be much appreciated! :yes: :lol:
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Sounds like a slight feather on the edge of the matte will help. You should get a fine key in either app, if lit properly (assuming you are shooting against ulitimatte green). I don't see how cotton would work well. A good poor man's cyc is a roll of linolium painted with ultimatte blue or green on it's bottom side. You can roll it up when not in use then roll it out and hang it with c-stands to shoot. It'll even fit int he van, man. ;)
Don't light with halogen. You can find very capable and affordable light kits on BandH. I have a complete Lowel kit that cost me less than a grand. The home-made cyc dosn't have to cost ya more than 100 bucks, including the proper ultimatte paint.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Make sure you have a nice even wash of light over your screen, avoiding hotspots & shadows.

Keep your people far enough away from the screen to avoid light bouncing of the screen and backlighting them. (That light will be tinted green)

Watch this tutorial: Video CoPilot Keying

Good luck :)

.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
If the blocky edges you're seeing appear to be from the image compression used (DV formats can have horrible blocky edges, depending on what greenscreen matte program you use) you could try blurring just the chroma channels a little before applying the chromakey.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I'm not an expert w Green screen but I have played with it. Your editing program should have settings in the chroma filter you apply to the clip. Somewhere in there should be a blur or blend level that will smooth out the transition between foreground and background. That should help with the jagged edges. And as Zen said, the screen needs to be uniformly lit and very bright. I put one set of lights only on the green screen, and then a separate set of lights on the people in front of it.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top