Unable to Chroma Key in FCE

I am having a devil of a time trying to get FCE chroma key to work. I have followed every tutorial I can find on Youtube, all with the same result, nothing.
It doesn't matter whether I use a still picture or a video clip nothing happens. I can use the eyedropper to select the colour. I can manipulate the bars but all to no effect onscreen. This is obviously very frustrating for me.
Would anyone be able to help?
Thanks,
Brad

Well, I guess you have already the “background-clip” on V1...?
Drag the “green-screen- (or blue) clip” on V2 above the background-clip...
Select the clip on V2 / go to Effects / Video Filters / Key / Chroma Keyer...
Double-click the green-screen-clip on V2 / the clip should open in the Viewer...
Select the Chroma Keyer Tab / Select the Eyedropper and click the green colour
in the Canvas / hold down the shift-key and use the Eyedropper again,
until all green colour has disappeared (or nearly)...
Fine-tune with Saturation and Luma if necessary...
Switch to the Filters Tab / Chroma Keyer / and try further adjustments...
Regards
Nolan

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Chroma Keying - FCE good enough ?

Hey Guys
Because I will be producing video interviews that will be based on chroma keys, I'd like to receive your thoughts on whether the chroma key functionality on FCE is comparable to the one in FCP.
I will be using the Canon Vixia HF S10 (AVCHD camera).
Thanks!
-Max

I think I'll be using AVCHD.
My usage will mainly be informal. However, it is my intention to create simple but professional video interviews, such as the one below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTbY4VOlTI0
It will also be helpful to know whether FCE will be capable of producing that "video splash screen" or intro clip.
Thanks!
-Max

Chroma Key--iMovie w/3rd party vs. FCP vs. FCE

Apple's pro audio and video tech support department can't seem to answer this question and they thought someone here in the FCP forum might be able to give me some guidance.
I'm an independent trainer and I've been trying to put a "simple" head and shoulders shot of me in a nice backdrop using iMovie HD and various 3rd party green screen / Chroma Key plug ins. The results have been disappointing. I evenly lit a green background (a piece of green fabric), shot the video, and adjusted the tolerances. The background dropped out ok, but so did tiny bits of me, and the green was still visible along the edges of me. Any further adjustments would make me transparent. I know it may be a lighting issue (or the fact that I'm using a generic green cloth background), but I'm a fine art photographer as well and I'm being pretty careful about the lights.
Are there any pros who do Chroma Keying who can tell me if buying FCE or FCP will solve this problem? Does FCE have a dramatically improved way to accomplish this green screen thing or is it likely using the same math as the iMovie 3rd party plug-ins?
Really, I'm hoping that FCE will have the same features in this area, since FCP is out of my range right now and hard to justify since I only want to do this one thing.
If I buy FCE, will I be missing some project-critical Chroma Key features only found in FCP that will force me to upgrade or are the features in this category identical?
For example, a tutorial on Chroma Keys for the Pro version says that it has a Chroma Smoothing 4:1:1 filter that might help when using mini-dv cameras.
Any thoughts on this from people who understand both versions of Final Cut and get good Chroma Keys would be greatly appreciated. Any other approches or software to get this done would also be appreciated. Thanks.

Hi Bob - this is a copy of the answer I sent you in the FCE Forum.
I have never used iMovie for Chromakey as I believe that once you start buying third party filters etc. you can soon end up paying as much as if you had bought FCE outright!
FCE has numerous additional features (besides the Smoothing Filter) for fine-tuning the picture to get rid of colour fringing and other extraneous nasties. I would imagine that iMovie plugins would not have as many - though I do not know that for a fact.
As Tom says FCE and FCP are virtually identical in most respects. FCP's main differences are connected with the way professionals work - like feeding video from several cameras simultaneously etc. Most of us can manage without that!
Ian.

Could I have changed a setting that is not allowing chroma key to work

Very frustrated....I know how to chroma key (the process) but the eye dropper color selector is not working at all Doing something wrong, or locked something but NO idea what would be stopping this...this is a tough one....
Thanks
Don

Try here:
http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&messageID=3627066
If you are still stuck _trash the FCE Preferences_.
Al

Which is better for the keying (chroma key)..?

for using chroma key and blue/green screen, which is better, final cut pro or final cut express. Im new with this I dont have either or am familar with either...Also, is dvMatte Pro or whatever from http://www.padd.com/dvg/prod/prod.php?prod=dvmattefcp&view=dvg a plugin for final cut? Does Final cut not already have the keying feature? Why would I need that plugin (if it is a plugin)?

no matter what you're talking about (except price), FCP is better for everything. basically, FCE is a watered down version of FCP. the differences depend on what you want to do with it. but as far as keying, they are relatively the same. after looking at dvmattepro's site, I can't seem to figure out what it is, but the only conclusion I can come to is a plugin that saves you time keying. yes, keying will take a lot of time in FCE/FCP, and it is tricky to get right, but you don't need anything that final cut doesn't give you. check out apple's product descriptions (and numerous discussions on this forum) for details about FCE vs. FCP, or about keying.

Chroma Key Question

Does it matter what shade of green is used for the Chroma Key function in FCE?
I noticed that B&H, for example, sells a very expensive gallon of Chroma Key green paint. But wouldn't a much cheaper gallon of a similar shade of green from a place like Home Depot have the same effect?
While we're on the topic, does it really matter what color is chosen?

The obstacle you'll face in buying such a color from Lowes or Home Depot will be the base used to create such a color. these stores use deep tone or accent bases.
Chroma Key paint itself is made by grinding the pigments into the paint.
The problem with using paints created with deep or accent bases are :
1st) very poor coverage ,
since the pigment is added rather than ground into the coating the spread rate drops drastically, in short depending on the number of square feet your wanting to paint, you very well could end up spending more simply cause you'll need more paint.
2nd) Point sheen level.
Chroma key paint is a matt finish, these stores do offer matt paint but, due to the amount of added pigment it will cause the sheen level to increase. in some cases such as Lowe's Olympic paint, the manufacture has increased the point sheen to help protect the coating. one has to remember these paints are typically used for homes. in short the flat or matt paint will have a slight reflection.

Chroma key, dv

I want to make a video with 1-4 musicians. I´d like to have no background (=color white), "chroma key" seems to be the word. I´m using a dv camera. Would this work with the chroma key effect in FCE?

Ok, so here's a voice from the other side.
I do chroma keying all the time. It's nowhere near as fussy as people make it out to be. I've even used wrinkled green fabric with less than stellar lighting and still got acceptable results. OK, it's not videophile hi def on a big screen, but it's quite acceptable for most viewers on a 'regular' TV.
You would shoot your musicians against a green screen background (make sure they don't wear any green or blue). Put a white slug on your base video track. Then put your actual video on the track above it, apply the Color Smoothing 4:1:1 filter, then the chroma key or green screen filter, and you've got your musicians on a white background - kinda like the Morpheus & Neo 'loading program' scene in The Matrix. Depending on how it looks you might also need to apply the Spill Suppressor and Matte Choker to clean up the edges.
Will you like the results? You'll have to try it and see for yourself.
While it's true that the DV codec isn't nearly as good at chroma keying than other (higher end) codecs, it's not terrible, either.

Chroma Key and Rendering

I've having issues with the video quality once I apply a chroma key filter and render the video. We film everything on a black background, but we still have to key some of it out to make it look smooth. Once I do this, the video loses quality and becomes slightly blurred. I then have to render, and the audio and video no longer match. The audio is just slightly ahead of the video. I'm kind of new to FCE and completely self-taught, so I'm guessing this issue is simply a setting I need to adjust. Any help would be greatly appreciated as I'm tired of all my videos looking blurry and unaligned with the audio.

For sequence properties,
Compressor:DV/DVCPRO-NTSC
Frame Size:720x480
Vid Rate:29.97 fcs
Audio Rate:48.0 KHz
Format:32 bit floating point
For the clip,
Compressor:DV/DVCPRO-NTSC
Frame Size:720x480
Vid Rate:29.97 fps
Audio Rate:48.0 KHz
Format:16 bit Integer
I do add audio files for background music. They are generally a wav format and the audio rate for them is 44.1 while the format changes depending on the piece. Thanks and hopefully this was the info you were looking for.

What is the least expensive quality chroma key software...?

What is the least expensive chroma key software for the mac...
Also, I'm correct that using chroma key does not require that you go frame by frame, right?

You shouldn't really need 3rd party software, as FCP and FCE both come with decent keying filters, but I have heard good things of the FxFactory. I believe that software does keying (among other things).
And yes, as long as your green/blue/whatever background doesn't change in hue/saturation/luma inside the clip, you should not have to keyframe.

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So I just wrapped my cousin's wedding, but the ceremony and reception were both held in a bar, which made for less than optimal conditions. Besides the prolific dim lighting, there were neon signs, specifically Miller and Bud Light. Those signs were both blue, so if I put on my outdoor color corrector, the video looked nice, but then if I panned, the regular ambient lighting looked off. If I applied my indoor color corrector for the ambient lighting, it looked good, but as I got close to the neons, it again looked bad. My question is, can I keyframe the 3-Way Color Corrector so that when I'm by the neons, it's as good or the same coloring as when I'm looking everywhere else?
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I don't have FCS2 yet, but if all goes according to plan, I'll be wiping my system on monday, installing Leopard, and going to FCS2 which means I could smoothecam that clip, so then my matting would be easier. In theory, I also will have Color at my disposal, but from the time I played with it at an Apple Store, it's too much for me, at least at this stage of the game. This wedding was done on the cheap, hence why I'm doing the video for them, so if I need to leave the color as-is, and the Budweiser sign in, so be it, but I'd really like to make this the best that I can, and neither of these experiments have I had much of any really experience with, so the more the merrier.
As always, any thoughts or help is much appreciated,
-Brian

+>can I keyframe the 3-Way Color Corrector so that when I'm by the neons, it's as good or the same coloring as when I'm looking everywhere else?+
good news, yes you can keyframe all the color corrector filters and it should work handily for your situation
+>I'm thinking of something like the Magic Wand tool from Photoshop, but FCP doesn't have that.+
try these, might be just what you need: http://www.lyric.com/fcp-plugins/lyric-effects/index.html
+>The sequence is only ~5 minutes, so not that long, but what would make it easier on me?+
your Brother got married in a bar under a Budweiser sign Brian, I'm guessing he won't mind having his wedding video reflect the reality of the surroundings, so why fake it? ... easiest on you would be to leave it as it is 'cos theres nothing worse than a dodgy effect.
hope that helps
Andy

Is it possible to chroma key a moving laptop/phone screen in Motion 5?

Hi, I recently downloaded Motion 5, and I've been experimenting with it. What I'd like to know is if it's possible to chroma key the screen of a phone (the screen will be green.) I've managed to chroma key out the green, and it works perfectly, except I don't know how to make the "screen" follow the phone or stay on the phone if the camera moves. Also, is it possible to make the "screen" dynamically grow/shrink as the camera zooms in/out. Is such a thing even possible with Motion?
Thanks in advance!

a color-key isn't needed for such an effect…
What you like to accomplish is something like that:
http://youtu.be/Mml8uqeB0MU
This is called 4-corner motion tracking, advice in the Manual
http://help.apple.com/motion/mac/5.0/en/motion/usermanual/#chapter=22%26section= 8%26hash=apple_ref:doc:uid:Motion-UserManual-90919TRK-1139924

Can you do Green Screen/Blue Screen/Chroma Key on Adobe Premiere Elements 12 for mac?

Can you do Green Screen/Blue Screen/Chroma Key on Adobe Premiere Elements 12 for mac? If not, what are the alternatives?

JimbobT
ChromaKey, GreenScreen Key, and BlueScreen Key are not included in Premiere Elements Mac.
Some suggest Videomerge as the alternative. I do not. But Videomerge is not THE alternative.
Instead, I prefer the Difference Matte as a substitute for the 3 absent keying effects. Please check out my blog post on that which includes
the how to.
http://atr935.blogspot.com/2013/05/pe11-difference-matte-as-substitute-for.html
The suggestion has met with good results according to the feedback that I have gotten to this.
I am strictly a Premiere Elements Windows user who does not prefer Videomerge even in Windows.
Please review, consider, and let us know the outcome.
Thanks.
ATR

¿How do you change the time of all images and do the chroma key effect in ¡Movie 10.0.2?

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Marcireca

I solved the same time problem, but now the problem is that when i use the chroma key it automatic uses the blue screen effect, not the gren (wich I want). Please help! Thanks!

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Hi ,
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_key

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Hey everyone,
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Hi and welcome to the forum!
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Unable to Chroma Key in FCE

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