Oct 30

The Chromakey Effect with Boris by:  mike

10/30/2007 01:37 PM

Did you know that the first blue screen effect in cinema was employed in the production of The Old Man and the Sea (based on the book by Ernest Hemingway, starring Spencer Tracy)? Commonly known as the “traveling matte” technique, utilizing separate “male” and “female” film mattes and a complex projection setup to achieve the final composite, the process was only available to high budget productions. Today, a better-quality effect can be achieved in digital post-production with the help of a specialized software filter. In this tutorial we will use BCC Chroma Key filter included as a standard feature with Boris RED. However, the same BCC Chroma Key is available in the lower-priced Boris FX package. Both RED and FX plug into a wide range of NLE systems from Avid, Apple, Adobe, Sony (Vegas), Harris (DPS Velocity), Canopus (Edius), Media 100, and others. In addition, BCC Chroma Key is part of the Boris Continuum Complete filter set available as native plug-ins Adobe, Apple, Avid, and other NLEs. How does the chroma key work? The foreground object has to be separately filmed in front of an evenly colored and lit backing. The footage is brought in the compositing or editing system to be combined with the new background video or still. We have to consider three different color hues: the foreground object such as a person (its skin and clothing), the backing color that is used as a temporary backdrop behind the person, and the new background video to be used as a replacement of the backing color. read more...


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