FCP 101 + Green screen

I am new to FCP and was wondering if anyone knows where I can find FCP 101 tutorials online - I understand the concepts and have been using other editors on a windows system for a while however, the new UI makes me feel like I nothing about editing since I'm struggling to navigate around.
I have also been doing quite a bit of keying with a green screen however, the built in filters are...horrible - they cannot seem to handle anything fine like hair and, do not handle anything like shaddows.
I have a plugin called "ultimatte advantedge" which does an amazing job but, when I render the video, I get these annoying crosshairs which only appear when I've added the filter but, I cannot work out where they come from. I composited a video of my cat over a random image off the net to show the crosshairs at http://i29.tinypic.com/e892km.jpg
I'd appreciate it if you have any suggestions for better ways or plugins to key out the green screen, or any help at all.

I assume you have FCP 6, part of FCS 2? Here are some good tutorials:
http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/tutorials/#fcstudio
http://library.creativecow.net/tutorials/applefinalcutpro
http://www.kenstone.net/fcphomepage/fcp_homepageindex.html#fcp
If you have FCS2, you can get somewhat better keying in Motion,
But you've got Ultimatte!!! That's fantastic. I get the impression that Ultimatte the best,
but it's super expensive. Lucky you.
I took a look at the manual
http://www.ultimatte.com/UltimatteMain/Downloads_files/AdvantEdgeManual.pdf
and couldn't find anything about those crosshairs. Maybe they are part of the
demo version? Are you using the USB dongle?
Ultimatte support is 1-818-993-8007
Good luck!

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Working with green screen in FCP

Any clue why I'm having so much trouble? I'm trying to key out green screen in more than one layer.
I shot HD footage at 1080i30p. I have live characters on green screen layered over still psd backdrops.
Seems simple but the process seems extra slow and very glitchy.
One or two keyed layers sort of works, more than that is slow as mud or causes crashes.
Sometimes even one layer over a still backdrop will show a smear streaking defect.
Any help doing this type of compositing without having to learn Shake or After effects?

Keep in mind that the most important part of keying happens in production. If the lighting is not perfect, meaning none of the key light should spill onto the green screen, and the proportions of light from foreground to background, and the evenness of the background light: keying will be difficult.
To help yourself out, use garbage mattes to crop out any area that does not have action in it. That way you won't have to worry about pulling a perfect key for areas of your footage that don't matter. Only be concerned with the pixels just around your subject(s). You will not be able to do this well in FCP> Remember that FCP is an editing system, not compositing. Just because it CAN composite, doesn't mean that it SHOULD composite.
In Motion you can keyframe infinite points to your masks and you can use trackers to follow your subject(s) so you don't have to set manual keyframes.
I am sure you were looking for an easy answer, but unfortunately keying and copositing are not easy tasks.
Hope this helps.

Best codec for green screen in FCP or Motion

First--I tried to search for posts on this topic, but I swear I cannot figure out how to search -the discussion forums- on this site. Anyone want to tell me what I'm missing?
My main question is about codecs for keying green screen in FCP. I have always just worked with DV but it does not key very well. I am about to go into a project that involves editing 25-30 hours of studio footage down into about 5 hours of finished product, all of which is going to be shot against a green screen. We're using high-quality non-digital NTSC cameras for the shoot and encoding to hard drive, which gives us the option of using a different codec. Since we need to capture so much footage (various takes, camera angles, etc), I don't have the budget for the hard drive space required to capture it all uncompressed, but I'm looking for something better than DV.
I've seen some people are using DVCPRO 50 for green screen work, and I think I could get all the footage onto a single 1TB hard drive in that format.
Is DVCPRO 50 significantly better than DV for green screen? Is there another codec which would be better to use with FCP/Motion, but still keep my data under 10MB/sec?

Is the difference between 4:1:1 and 4:2:2 some part of what causes the blockiness in DV?
No...the DV compression is what causes the blockiness of DV. It is compressed 5:1, and how it is compressed is the cause of the compression. Mind you, if you shoot to DV tape, then capturing that as DVCPRO 50 will not get rid of the blockiness. that is there when you record to tape. It will convert the footage from 4:1:1 to a 4:2:2 color space for better color control when keying and color correcting. But much of the color information is already lost when you shoot to DV tape. Capturing as DV50 will certainly help, however...and be TONS better than keying as straight DV.
Shane

Can I use two different greens for green screening and keep one without it being keyed out?

I am using a green screen which is your standard light green fabric.
I am also wearing a bottle green cape.
I want to key out the standard green which is no problem. However it also takes out the bottle green on my cape.
Is there a way on either Premiere Pro or After Effects to ensure the bottle green stays as it is without being automatically keyed out?
Many thanks.

shooternz wrote:
rotoscope
There's your answer, most likely. I can think of a few methods you might try, but they're going to be labor intensive, and likely involve some roto.
Most keyers have a threshold setting that determines what colors stay and which ones go. You could keep tweaking that setting in very small increments, and if you get lucky, it might discriminate between two green values.
You might be able to precomp in Ae and use the Change Color plug to shift one of them to a more contrasty green or different hue altogether and create a luma matte.
But, you failed green screen 101, and you gotta' go to detention.
robodog, you're being a bit harsh on Jimmy Simon. He said "Might be worth a reshoot...." I can't disagree. Depending on arahman's situation, a reshoot might be easier and quicker. You never know.

G"Green Screen" codec problem viewing podcast videos in full screen! HELP!

I love the show "Surface" on NBC so I decided to download the first pilot episode #101 to iTunes for Windows on my computer. When I go to "full screen" mode to watch the program it goes to a "green screen" washout that is common when Quicktime is installed whether the version 1.68 alternative or the Apple Quicktime. How do I solve this common known problem?

I have the same problem, anything I try to do in full screen just pops right back down to the previous screen. If I play a video I can hear it, but I can't see it.

Green Screen Ball

I am trying to green screen a moving tennis ball so that it looks like a glowing orange piece of the sun. The tennis ball is being held by different people who are walking around carrying it in their hand. The camera is focused on the tennis ball the whole time. I tried using chroma keyer but doesn't seem to pick up the tennis ball very well as it's moving.
Any ideas on how to achieve this glowing ball effect?

You can do tracking and match-moving in Motion.
When chroma-keying in FCP, be sure to insert a Chroma Smoothing Filter
before your keyer: 4:1:1 for DV, 4:2:2 for DVCPRO HD.
If the tennis ball is white, you might have better luck with a lumakey.
The manual has some solid advice on keying, including how to use
mattes to simplify your work.
Of course, if the ball is yellow and the people are light-skinned,
it may be impossible to pull a good key. In that case, tracking in
Motion is your best bet.
In fact, the Primatte keyer in Motion is WAY better than FCP's keyers.
Just do the whole thing (keying, tracking, glow effect) in Motion.
Check this out:
http://www.larryjordan.biz/articles/ljchroma-keying_motionFCP.html
and this:
http://www.5min.com/Video/Motion-3-Motion-Tracking-in-Motion-Part-1-18629377

Using Green Screen tool after project roughcut complete

Hi peeps,
I know how to use the Green Screen tool in iMovie but my problem is I want to apply it to a project which I have already edited. So the usual process is drag your background into project then drag your clip from events on top... but I have already painfully edited my project and want to apply a background to it minus the green screens, can it be done at this stage?
cheers,
BB.

Also, try looking up the term "garbage matte." It's relatively simple concept that can be executed using many different tools and levels of sophistication.
Here's my workflow for standard greenscreen work, stuff that isn't too action-oriented, similar to conventional weather presentations:
1. Capture the footage in Final Cut Pro.
2. Seldct the takes.
3. IMport the best takes into After Effects.
4. Apply masking to the video to remove as much unnecessary stuff as possible using as few vertices in the mask as possible.
5. Apply Keylight.
6. Export to ProRes4444.
7. Import back into FCP.
Additional work might be required for wire or rig removal, rotoscoping for movement in front of or behind foreground objects, masking replacement layers to manage stupid costume errors like a green tie, light wrap, spill removal, reflection cancelation, shadow manipulation.

Green Screen Edge Problem

Wondering if anyone out there has dealt with this. I am keying a subject on a green screen. Full body wide shot of subject walking towards camera. I've spent hours tweaking the Chroma Key filter but I can't get those edges right. The edges around the subject appear jaggy, just how pixels look like in a picture in photoshop when you are zoomed in, and I still see green. I've softened the edges but that just gives the subject wiggles on the edges as she moves.
Ive watched tutorials but none mention something like this. Any tips appreciated. Thanks for any help.
G5 10.5.4
FCP 6.0.4
footage is 720p 30fps (960x720)

Try using Motion instead.

Common 'Green Screen" problem when trying to view videos in iTunes

I love the show "Surface" on NBC so I decided to download the first pilot episode #101 to iTunes for Windows on my computer. When I go to "full screen" mode to watch the program it goes to a "green screen" washout that is common when Quicktime is installed whether the version 1.68 alternative or the Apple Quicktime. How do I solve this common known problem?

Anyone have any ideas or need more info, if so please let me know. This is very frustrating.

Video does not play just a green screen

help.
i built a dvd project with several video (m2v) files.
then i did some changes in fcp and re-exported the files, same names etc.
then in dvdsp - some of the video files will not play, or play 2 secs only, or play as a green screen...
tried re-exporting, that worked twice, tried rebooting that worked about twice too, but now nothing works.
anybody had this problem?
btw the software is all up to date, fcs 2.
thank you

the bitrate is just from a dvd setting in compressor - i think i've eliminated that though, since this only happens to some files, whereas all the files are from the same compressor setting. i think it's 90mins draft qual.

Workflow for Green Screen Multicam, Color Correction. (CC 2014)

Hi
What is the best workflow to do a music video shot with 7 cameras (each with 4 takes) on a green screen which would also include green screen stills.
All shot with Consumer Grade cameras at 1920/1080 at the highest resolution (I think 30 fps)
The way I am going about is not efficient.
My tasks are:
Key each 20 minute clip (to get about 2 usable minutes)
Rotate my DSLR video (shot in landscape so I could take stills as well)
Color correct all clips
Create a new cleaned up movie for each clip including: Proper format. Keyed with new background, Color Corrected, Re-encoded as a new movie, Re-imported as 7 new movies, begin to edit.
I was watching some movies about pasting attributes which look helpful and also about nesting sequences which looks like it could save time.
What is the best workflow steps to do all this? Am I going about it the right way by creating new movie clips which are keyed with a new background, color corrected, and reencoded including all the garbage footage? Then create a new multicam project to edit the cleaned up footage?
HELP!

Temporary solution for this was "export xml" after all. I had to disable all graphics and textlayers and delete colorcorrections, and flatten multicam, so i had to redo all grading ja graphics stuff in older premiere after importin FCP xml. But got the work done in time. Won't use cc 2014 in near future unless someone figures out what is wrong with green frames. (well actually now im exporting from older AME, will she if the green frames pops out there too, wouldn't be too much surprised....)

Green screen filter and scaling down distorts image?

I captured footage from Digital Video Camcorder NTSC ZR30 MC (standard definition camera 2001?) through firewire connection. Footage was recorded in 12 bit rate. Captured in equivalent DV NTSC 32 kHz. Edited the footage using green screen, scaled down to about a quarter of the frame and used oval shape video generator.
Using FCP 0.6. After rendering all edited footage, it plays back digitally distorted (digital lines constructing the image are out of sync). When exported through Quick Time Movie the image remains distorted.
What can be the cause of that?
Please help,
Hazel

When you slow down footage you are creating frames where there were none before. I'd suggest you do this in a two step process:
1. Slow down your footage and render it. export selfcontained movie, do not recompress all frames.
2. re-import the slowed down footage and apply green screen filter.

Taking XDCAM 1440x1080 green screen to Motion to Flash???

I have an on camera segment shot green screen with an XDCAM camera. I edited the video in FCP and sent it to Motion as a 1440x1080 project. I did all of the green screen magic and now I want to export it so I can create a Flash video that is going to be keyed over the website using an alpha channel.The website dimensions are 1024x768. When I create a Flash for the web designers, it runs very clunky. I want to check to make sure I am doing things right. So here is my process.
In Motion, click export.
Export: Quicktime Movie
Use: Lossless + Alpha
Include: Video & Audio
Options:
Quicktime
Codec: Animation
Quality:100
Output:
Resolution: Full
Color: Color + Alpha
Render Quality: Best
Frame Blending checked.
Once that is outputted, I use Adobe Media Encoder CS3 to encode it into a Flash. Settings:
Video codec: On2 VP6
Encode Alpha Channel checked
Deinterlace checked
Quality: High
Max Bit Rate: I have tried 1000 up to 6000
Audio: 192
No cropping or resizing.
When I open the .flv in Flash CS3 and preview it. It plays slowly and choppy.
Any suggestions? I really appreciate the time!
Thanks,
John Schenkel

Don't export out of FCP at all then. Just open the color corrected-rendered-exported-as-native clips in Motion. Apply your keying and matting. You will export the processed clips out of Motion using ProRes4444, RGB+alpha.
There is no tangible gain trying to process individual, trimmed shots. If you apply the color correction to each scene, you will have a long clip that can be edited-cut-trimmed just like the raw clip, just be sure to keep the audio unless you're confident in marrying the tracks. That's just my preferred method.
If you have already trimmed your scenes (the clips that go from start to stop) into individual shots, you can assemble them into a sequence, maybe add some black between them, nest the sequence, and apply one color correction to the whole sequence. This, of course, is useless if you're already locked into or tied to timecoded edits.
All of this advice is based on my theory that complicating anything in FCP unnecessarily is not just asking for trouble, it practically assures disaster.
bogiesan

Compositing, green screen, cameras, codecs, tigers, bears, oh my...

I currently have a Canon HV30. From what I understand it records onto tape with 4:2:0 compression. I like to (try) to do keying work with it, but in all honesty the keys never come out all that great.... OK, but not great. I understand the reasons why (compression onto tape, 4:2:0 loses a lot of chroma data in compression, imprefect lighting conditions, etc.) but am wondering if the newer camcorders are any better.
I know that camcorders such as mine can record 4:2:2 if using an HDMI cable to record to an Intensity card, but I wonder if any current solid-state memory camcorders with large storage (and comsumer-level price tags) can record internally with 4:2:2 compression?
For the moment I capture to tape on my camera, transfer it to FCP my computer, then use Compressor to get it to the Prorez 422 codec. Is this the best method currently available to me for green screen and keying work (in fact, is changing it to Prorez 422 helping me at all), or am I going about this all wrong?

The only solid state cameras that record 4:2:2 compression are P2 cameras. And they start at about $5200. No consumer level camera records 4:2:2. HDV, AVCHD...those are 4:2:0. DVCPRO HD, AVCIntra...those are 4:2:2.
You can also look at getting external recording devices like the AJA Ki Pro, that records directly to ProRes via SDI, HDMI, component. No lugging the computer to the set. And you can use what you already have. No, there is no consumer level price tag on this.
If you insist on consumer level pricing, you'll get consumer level results.
Shane

Imovie 09 Green Screen Lag

I recently built a nice green screen to use with imovie 09. Everything with imovie 09 and green screening has worked so far except... when I select the green screen option, the green screen clip's audio lags. The words don't match up with the mouth.
Any help would be appreciated

I just received my copy of iLife '09 today and installed it this evening.
Like others, I was looking forward to being able to do simple green screen editing in iMovie instead of bogging down my system with FCP...
But so far I don't see how to do it. When I pull up the "Maps and Backgrounds" box I see the blue screen and green screen, but when I apply them to my movies they just get thrown in as transitions - not behind the actual video clip/subject itself.
Any ideas? Am I doing this wrong? Will I have to go back to FCP???
(Oh, and the "faces" featured in iPhoto takes forever to process a large photo library! My 30Gb library says it's going to take 240 minutes to process.)

FCP 101 + Green screen

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