How to: Removing background from video....

This gets tricky.

After Effects can do this with multiple types of keying. IF -- IF IF IFIFIFIFIFIF you happened to get a shot of the background without the talent and the lighting was the same and the camera's locked off then you can use a simple difference matte to knock it out.

If you email me a still I might be able to help you out.

Good luck,

CaptM

Hi

I have the same question, I have video of people walking in an open space. It was shot ussing a tripod and the camera position is stationary. I want ot be able to remove the background. can I do this through differance matting. I am using FCP 4.5, I have two clips:

1. Track 1 (top Track) A still from the video of the background.

2. Track 2 (bottom track) The video footage of people walking.

I have dragged the difference matt filter to Track 1 and loaded track 1 into the ink well what do I do after that?

Hello... you seem to have things a bit back to front...

apply the difference matte to your footage of people walking...

the still image/freeze frame doesn't have to be underneath the moving footage, but drag it to the 'ink-well' in the difference matte settings... you can then delete the still image from the timeline, leaving you with your footage with the background removed...

place your footage on V2 and whatever background on V1...

be warned... unless you have a perfect plate shot (still image clear of foreground subjects)... the results will look a bit rubbish...

Hi

Thanks for this, just so I am clear,

1. I load the still in the ink well leaving the video on V1
2. Once the still is loaded in the ink well that should remove the background.

Do I need to do anything else, like load the background from the ink well into V2.

Thank you for you help again

Abdul

1 - load the still into the ink-well applied to video clip

2 - yup.

... the still image that you place in the ink-well is to tell your clip what to remove... once that is done you don't need the still image anywhere... you can move you clip onto V2 over a background...

Hi James


Thanks for the tip (sorry for the delay in replying), I'll give it a go, I'm getting nearer to getting this working.

Abdul