Need detailed "How-To" on getting clean green screen/chromakey results

Highwinder

Member Joined: Jun 29, 2011 21:45 Messages: 73 Offline

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Mar 13, 2015 13:23

I have a very nice green screen setup in my home, complete with good lighting of the screen and set up properly according to most every how-to on YouTube. But even using best practices (even lighting, standing far enough away from the screen, proper light placement to talent, etc) and no matter how I play with the sliders, I just can't effectively get rid of the artifacts and green halos around my talent without cutting into them with the sliders.

PowerDirector seemingly has good chromakey features, but I just can't get it to produce clean results no matter what I do. However, I have heard that adding the use of mattes or masking (switching colors around somehow, which I have no experience with) can improve green screen project results.

I need a REALLY good, detailed tutorial on how to pull off real quality chromakey/green screen results in PowerDirector by someone who really knows what they're doing with this function in PD. I'm starting to think that these other articles I've read just might be correct - PowerDirector might not be good enough to be taken seriously when it comes to producing quality chromakey work, especially since other articles I've read had the authors give up on PowerDirector and just dump the money on After Effects because of this alone, which did prove to solve the problems.

Is PowerDirector REALLY up to green screen/chromakey work of any believable quality?

Help!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Mar 13. 2015 13:24

BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Mar 13, 2015 13:31

I've had decent results using PD's chroma-key, but you just have to try New Blue's. It's far more powerful. Watch!

Two quick caveats on this. The A/V sync is slightly off because I was forced to use the PowerDirector Youtube uploader for a contest, not once has it EVER given me proper A/V sync.
Caveat 2 is I was forced to use the PowerDirector uploader, which uses ONLY WMV format, therefore the clarity is not what I desire.
This was shot in my living room, so I used my green-screen and chose the backdrop later.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Mar 13. 2015 13:34

HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

Highwinder

Member Joined: Jun 29, 2011 21:45 Messages: 73 Offline

Mar 13, 2015 16:53

Barry,

Not too bad, thanks for showing me. I did notice that I can see the same green "splill" around the edges of your talent (hands, hair, etc) that I'm experiencing. I have some dark halo around me as well in this clip:

Which specific NewBlue effect/plug-in did you use in PD? I'll give it a try.

Bob

PS: Ok, why on earth am I not getting that YouTube video link to work?

This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at Mar 13. 2015 17:18

BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Mar 13, 2015 16:56

Chroma-key Pro.
I figured the spill is due to interlaced files and the fact that my HFM41 is quite nice, but not a $10,000 camera. Hardware limitations.
Also, if you remove the "s" from the https in your post, the link will work.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Mar 13. 2015 16:59

HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

Highwinder

Member Joined: Jun 29, 2011 21:45 Messages: 73 Offline

Mar 13, 2015 17:15

Hmm, I can't seem to find that in PD, not listed in the NewBlue effects. I take it this is a separate purchase?

BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Mar 13, 2015 17:21

Sorry about that, it didn't occur to me. Yes, it's a separate purchase, and New Blue no longer sells single plugins, to my dismay, so it would be part of a package of several bundled FX. They do have trials. HP Envy Phoenix/4thGen i7-4770(4@3.4GHz~turbo>3.9)
Nvidia GTX 960(4GB)/16GB DDR3/
Canon Vixia HV30/HF-M40/HF-M41/HF-G20/Olympus E-PL5.
Tape capture using 6 VCR, TBC-1000, Elite BVP4+, Sony D8 camcorder with TBC.
https://www.facebook.com/BarryAFTT

Highwinder

Member Joined: Jun 29, 2011 21:45 Messages: 73 Offline

Mar 13, 2015 17:43

I found it, it's in the Essentials VI pack, available from the Cyberlink web site. Maybe I'll give it a try sometime. Thanks.

In the mean time, has anybody out there been successful with the chroma-key functions built into PowerDirector itself? Really would be nice if I could find some kind of secret recipe to get this function to work with an acceptable degree of quality.....

-Bob