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I know - vague subject line. Here's the situation. I have a video of a flag waving against a black background. I would like the black background to disappear so it appears like the flag is just waving without a background. How can I make the black portions go away (transparent)? This is a flag over a lower third gradient rectangle that is white, so I want the white to appear and the flag edges to be touching the white vs the black background they are on.
try a Luma key ......
I've tried Luma Key and the regular Key filter. Both of them, with every setting I try makes the flag look horrible. Not passable - just horrible. I've tried every setting on the filter possible. I then tracked down a waving British flag with an alpha channel and can't get that to look right either. I have a white gradient stripe under the flag video so basically the flag is almost a logo in the bottom left corner. I want it waving on top of the white gradient stripe with a text crawl on top of the gradient disappearing under the flag. Layers are easy enough so the words don't go under the waving flag but the flag is the issue. Beating my head against the wall for something so simple.
Sooo, I picked-up a flag-on-black-video on YT.
Added to some scenery, luma key (chroma key for black is nonsense), out-of-the-box settings = looks nice. imho.
Checking the scope: the black of the flag-video is 0, zero, zil = good for luma keying ...
Luma isn't the latest in keying-technoloy, it could happen, you notice a black 'border' ...
But first of all: the black has to be black... try some color-corrections...
I see that. I also see that you are in FCP vs Motion 5. I'm trying to do this in Motion. I just did what you demonstrate in FCP and it looks fine. In motion, the flag looks like garbage. I just tried your example in FCP and it works great - in Motion, it's garbage. With the same video and filter and settings. I finally gave up and did the lower third stripe in Motion and added the waving flag in FCP. Thanks for your help. If you have suggestions on Motion, I'm all ears.
Keith Cooley wrote:
I see that. I also see that you are in FCP vs Motion 5. …
oops, lost orientation, my fault. <where are my glasses?> 😉
2nd try, same material, in Motion:
somehow, the Luma-Keyer works with a lil' difference, asks for lil' adjustment in the whites, otherwise the flag would be a bit 'transparent' ,,, but then, same result ...
Again: try to adjust the flag.mov to have the black parts on the bottom line.
by chance your source is video? Not an animated .gif?
My source is video. The blacks were bottomed out but the flag went transparent and grainy. When I did it in FCP, it worked great. I'm done with my project but I'll have to play more to understand this. Thanks for your help. I don't understand why the filters would work differently in two pro products from Apple. Seems like the dev teams aren't on the same page.
Keith Cooley wrote:
Seems like the dev teams aren't on the same page.
well, randys team delivered 14 (?) updates within 2 years FCPX
M5 had a 'service update' And lately that 3D upgrade
speculation not not allowed here, but Im sure a big one comes soon. Imho the UI needs some overhauling....
You can adjust the Luma Keyer > Matte Tools > Levels > White all the way down to 0.0001 (dial down the Levels disclosure triangle and double click on the White value and type it in. Then adjust the Shrink/Expand if necessary.
If you don't need exceptional realism, you might consider using a flag generator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYs5B8uemF8 or
an older version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqn711l4ido?
HTH
make black portions of clip transparent?
