Keylight Keying Problem

Report · Oct 17, 2019

Hi,

Firstly please forgive my lack of use of correct terms, I'm new to this.

I have shot some footage to the best of my ability.

Flat, evenly lit green screen,
Subject as far away from the screen as possible,
Shot on a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV.

Yet even though keylight seems to key really well, as you can see from the screen shots below,

when I play back the keyed footage, it is not sharp like it was before keying. It has a kind of black noise.

Please can someone help me fix this as I'm sure I'm probably making a rookie mistake but after nearly two weeks of trying to remedy this problem I am out of ideas.

Original footage.Keylight 2.1 settings.Keyed footage.

Report · Oct 17, 2019

If you are getting noise in the black you have not properly adjusted Keylight. Have you checked the user guide? Have you checked the combined matte because the Screen Matte doesn't really show you anything? Cropped screenshots are almost completely useless in diagnosing problems. Select the footage layer you are having problems with, press uu, PrintScreen and then paste to the forum.

I took a screenshot of your screenshot then applied the typical minimum adjustments I make to a keying project. I'd be willing to bet that you have only fiddled with two or three settings. This would be my check before moving on tho things like edge color, light wrap and all of the rest that you really should do when you use any keying application.

Report · Oct 18, 2019

Thanks Rick,

I have now read the user guide and found it very helpful.

I have tried settings you suggeted and played around with suggestions from the user guide, yet I still can't eliminate the black noise.

Also in the inner mask section I only have the option of "None" (I am using CS6).

Original footage.

Keyed Footage.

Report · Oct 18, 2019

Here's a suggestion: Type Keylight in the Search Help field in the upper right corner of AE and check out link #1 Create visual effects in After Effects | Adobe After Effects tutorials and scroll down to the tutorial on Green Screen. I'd also be looking at the Combined Matte instead of Screen Matte. It shows you more and it shows you what will actually be used for the final output.

When you have done that move on to Link #2 Color keying in Adobe After Effects and take a look at the video tutorial there. Garbage and hold out matte techniques are covered. I don't often use Rotobrush to create a holdout matte but you could.

Scroll down and move forward a page and find How to fix faulty green-screen footage | Adobe After Effects tutorials, another really good tutorial from my old friend Brian Maffit.

The Search Help field is better than a Google search about 90% of the time. Whenever you find a tutorial that looks good make sure you vet the trainer. Most new tutorials I see are presented by enthusiasts and most of them don't really know what they don't know. Be careful.

Another place you can look is at the Foundry.com. They are the folks that created Keylight. A link can be found in the user guide but I've already done a search for Keylight and came up with this Search for Keylight. There is a ton of good stuff on the UI and the switches. Most of the info applies directly to AE's version.

If you have a few $$ it is a really good idea to sign up for Linkedin Learning and at the very least Adobe Education Exchange.

I hope these suggestions help. Just poking around in the UI is only productive if you have a good understanding of the process before you start.

Report · Oct 19, 2019

Wow!
Thanks so much for all your help Rick, thats great!

I'll get stuck in to those resources.

Report · Oct 18, 2019

Assuming you have the key set up properly (see Rick's post above) and your matte is clean, you may also try the following:

Set "Replace Method" to Hard Colour.

or

Use your keyed layer as a Track Matte on the unkeyed footage. Basically, duplicate your keyed layer. On the lower of the two keyed layers, turn off all the key plugins. Then set the Track Matte of the lower layer to Alpha Matte. IF you are getting green spill in the resulted comp, you may need to add a Spill Reduction plugin to the lower layer.

Report · Oct 18, 2019

Thanks Andrew,

Your second suggestion of duplicating the layer has worked.

I would just like to understand and be able to use keylight better.

I have read the user guide and watched many tutorials on youtube tutorials (I think some of those videos may have been part of the problem).

Do you have any recommendations for tutorials I could check out?