No key please!

Footage keying

A many years ago, when i was not satisfied whit my career i passed interview in a big post-production company in Prague (Czech Republic) named UPP (Universal Production partner). I have to say that i did not pass this interview, which lasted for three long days, but nevertheless, it was great experience for me and I still use it in my work today. The biggest one advice what Im using after these few days is that: IF YOU KEYING FOOTAGE, YOU NEVER USE THE KEY! It seems like bad advice, but when you master this technique perfectly you can keying everything with a great results. Of course, the keying tools like Keylight etc is still common, but only as an auxiliary tool which can help you prepare the source material for main keying. The principle of this keying involves the following steps:

1.) Just cut with a garbage mask (by animating mask) unusable part of the video

2.) Use any of a color correction tool for prepare image to be B/W and be ready for the next step – matte

3.) LUMA MATTE / or just keying with prepared B/W image

4.) Apply this steps many time / for many part of the same image and bring them into one big B/W key Luma mask.

0.) Make a coffee… 🙂

Be professional! Do not use key when you are keying.