How to apply Masks to the complex stock footage

[Meghan5C55]

Hi I am looking to use this video https://stock.adobe.com/video/stage-theater-curtain-opens-and-closes-video-is-looped-and-contains-tr...

and it appears a lot of the masking was done already. 

I layered the video of the curtain and the masked version, do you have any tips on how to apply the mask?

any help would be greatly appreciated thanks!

Title edited by Mod.

[Warren Heaton]

Ideally, this would have included an Alpha Only pass rather than a pass with green filling the alpha.  Or better yet, would be ProRes 4444 with Alpha instead of MP4.  But it is what it is.

Split the Layer (Edit > Split Layer) at the edit where it goes from being RGB (the red curtain) to "greenscreen" (the shape of the curtain filled with green).  Go to the first frame of the RGB time span of the Layer then select just the "greenscreen" section and press left bracket ("[") to slide the "greeenscreen" time span In Point such that it is alighned temporally with the RGB time span.  Apply Keylight (Effect > Keying > Keylight) to the "greenscreen" Layer and use the Screen Colour eydropper to select the green.  Make sure the View property for Keylight is set to "Final Result".  Then apply Set Matte (Effect > Channel > Set Matte) to the RGB time span with the Take Matte from Layer property set to the "greenscreen" Layer and "Effects & Masks" and Use for Matte set to "Alpha Channel" .  Enable the Invert Matte option as well.  Hide the visibility of the "greenscreen" layer.

An alternate approach is to use Set Matte by itself with Use for Matte set to "Green Chanel"; however, that will be semi-transparent.

I put "greenscreen" in quotes because, well, it's not really a greencreen (that is, a green background meant to be made transparent).

Here's what a completed Comp should look like using the preview HD clip:

AdobeStock_466363219_Video_HD_Preview.zip

[Meghan5C55]

Hey I''m trying this on aother video of mine and its leaving grain around it. Do you have any tips?

[Rick Gerard]

To get a really believable result, you'll need to split the layer at the change to the greenScreen copy, Name the Greenscreen copy Matte, duplicate the greenscreen copy again and name it Luma Matte, duplicate the footage and name it Luma Copy, then stack up the layers like this:

1. Luma Matte
2. Luma Copy
3. Matte
4. Original footage

Then you need to add a floor, a back curtain, A 3D layer copy of the back Curtain to use as a reflection, and start adding effects as shown in this screenshot.

Layer 1 - Luma Matte, has a black and white tint plus severe curves adjustment applied to increase the contrast

Layer 2 - Luma Copy, is set to use Layer 1 as a Luma Track Matte to give you the reflections on the floor

Layer 3 - Matte, has Keylight applied to generate an alpha channel

Layer 4 - Original Footage, is set to use Layer 3 as an Inverted Alpha Matte to give you clean curtains

Layer 5 - Back Curtain Reflection is a 3D copy of Layer 7 to give you a reflection of the back curtain with the blend mode set to add

Layer 6 - Floor, is just a Shape layer with a gradient fill to give you something that looks like a floor

Layer 7 - Background Curtain Freeze Frame is a color-corrected copy of the original footage layer used as the back curtain

I've included the project file (AE 23 or AE 22) so you can see how I approached the project. Warren Heaton got you started, but just using Keylight and setting up a track matte will give you a copy of the curtains moving, but to sell almost any shot that involves keying, you almost always need a lot more layers.

(Note: I did some more fiddling with Layer 1 after I recorded the screen capture to give it a better look) 

[Warren Heaton]

@Rick Gerard 

Add a little vaudeville music and I think your AEP is good to go.

[Meghan5C55]

True pros!!@Warren Heaton @Rick Gerard Can't thank you enough!!  
was able to create this effortlessly