Green screen

Proper lighting.

You can spend a bunch of money on green screen plug ins, but without proper lighting of subject and green, they won't help much.

That being said, the best value I believe is:

http://www.dvgarage.com/dvmatte-pro

Fast, simple to use, and nearly RT.

So, like, we see this question often so, like, just search the forum and google the plugins you think you want to investigate and you will find user reviews from people who may have even used them.
For us to, like, tell you what to buy would be, umm, like totally and dangerously irrelevant unless we knew what you were shooting and what you were shooting it with and what you were shooting it onto or into.

bogiesan

I saw something about CS5 in aftereffects.

the subject (a man talking) can be keyed out of the background with a simple click without the use of greenkeying.
that said i join the "good lightening is the key"

Regards

Purchasing CS5 as a keyer for FCP is an unusual suggestion but entirely practical if one has the money and the patience.

bogiesan

I really recommend Primatte Keyer by Red Giant Software, available for Final Cut Pro, Motion and After Effects.
I did a job at the beginning of the year and was in a real pickle because the green-screen was poorly lit. Primatte Keyer literally saved the job from going down the pan. I can't recommend it enough. It's extremely powerful, easy to use, and versatile with settings for DV up to full uncompressed HD.

It is quite pricey, but well worth it.

http://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/all/primatte-keyer/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6zG_HeYjI0

It's all nonsense until the OP describes what format and codec they're using.
The keyer in Motion is adequate for most tasks. The vasic keyer in FCP is even useful for many formats.

bogiesan

Yeah, I suppose you're right. No point in getting carried away and suggesting expensive pro keyers.

That dvmatte keyer that David S recommended looks pretty good though, and not too pricey.

James, you suggested Primatte Keyer Pro for FCP. I am using it and it is very good, but I have two problems with it. Maybe you have a work-around. First, I'm working with HiDef footage (Panasonic HMC15) and the render times for a 4 minute green-screened lip-synched track are very long: hours. Second, after the render, it seems that the rendered track can't be moved to improve the synch with the original audio channel. If I move the Primatted track one frame I have to re-render the whole **** thing. Nesting doesn't help. Exporting as ProRes444 preserves the Alpha channel, but if the re-imported 444 track is moved in the timeline, it still needs to be re-rendered. Is there a solution for this? Thanks, Robert

The term HD does not answer the only part of the puzzle remaining: what's the format and the codec? The camera can also be set to record in numerous formats.

Rendering speed is always a problem with HD. It's becoming unrendered because you're rendering the timeline, not the clip. You want to export the rendered clip and reimport it as new media. Best to do that with the PR4444 codec.

bogiesan

David, Thanks for this tip. Your question reminds me that I've not been consistent with the camera settings. Part of the footage is from a Panasonic dvx100B, in NTSC 24p; part is from the HMC150 in PR422, 24p;and the new green-screened footage is in 1080, 30p, ProRes422. The Sequence which appears to be handling these varied formats is 24p, NTSC 480. So your question makes me wonder if I should downrez the HiDef green screen footage first, to 480, and then bring it into the timeline (how would I do that?). I'm assuming that the 24p, NTSC 480 timeline can handle the 30p footage, but maybe that's one source of the huge rendering time. If all this sounds right, how would you bring the varied codecs and frame-rates to some common ground? By the way, I have found through direct experience that what you say is true, that exporting in PR444 and then re-importing DOES retain the Alpha channel of the key, but the downside is that this re-imported file does not retain the Primatte Alpha key controls. Thanks for your help!
Robert

ZenFlute wrote:
David, Thanks for this tip. Your question reminds me that I've not been consistent with the camera settings. Part of the footage is from a Panasonic dvx100B, in NTSC 24p; part is from the HMC150 in PR422, 24p;and the new green-screened footage is in 1080, 30p, ProRes422. The Sequence which appears to be handling these varied formats is 24p, NTSC 480. So your question makes me wonder if I should downrez the HiDef green screen footage first, to 480, and then bring it into the timeline (how would I do that?). I'm assuming that the 24p, NTSC 480 timeline can handle the 30p footage, but maybe that's one source of the huge rendering time. If all this sounds right, how would you bring the varied codecs and frame-rates to some common ground?
Robert

Good lord. Your project is a terrible mess. Your workflow is based on groundless assumptions and erroneous presumptions. Your instincts are clouding your judgment.

ZenFlute wrote:

By the way, I have found through direct experience that what you say is true, that exporting in PR444 and then re-importing DOES retain the Alpha channel of the key, but the downside is that this re-imported file does not retain the Primatte Alpha key controls. Thanks for your help!

Robert

This is the precise issue with everything you have said: your assumptions are all so very wrong. That's not a crime, we were all new to this video stuff at one time or another. But the situation you have built for yourself is too complicated to even know where to begin to help you get out of it.

Conforming all of your disparate sources to a single editing format is crucial but that's based on your output needs, not your origination decisions. Why you allowed your photographers to give you so many different formats and frame rates is either a creative decision or a monumental screwup. If ti's creative, you must have known why you wanted those scenes shot that way and you must have known how you were going to deal with the post production weirdness.

bogiesan

Got it. Thanks David.