Need help with Keying

The_Vagrant_06 · Post by **The_Vagrant_06** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 12:35 am

In Scintilla's video "Under Pressure/Ice, Ice, Baby", at the beginning, I saw where he had Naoto alone in darkness and then, the background appeared behind him.

I wanna do a similar thing with NGE, but I fear that it may be complicated trying to key out some many things.

gangstaj8 · Post by **gangstaj8** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 3:12 am

I'd think it would be much easier to use a matte... But, I can't remember if the character is moving or not. You could always do a frame-by-frame edit and use a green screen effect. That's what I've done before, but it's very time-consuming. Maybe, just maybe, since it's Scintilla's vid your talking about, you'll get a hint. But I can't make promises on anothers behalf...

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 4:33 am

That was just Photoshopping the individual frames to cut out the background of each one, throwing them into the timeline in order and timing them to taste, and then fading in the actual video over the last of the still images of Naota. Tedious but not complicated.

The_Vagrant_06 · Post by **The_Vagrant_06** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 7:43 pm

Well, Scintilla, I only have Adobe Premiere Pro and ever since Hurricane Katrina, money is tight, so I won't be able to get Adobe Photoshop for awhile. So could you explain how to do this step-by-step, if you don't mind?

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 8:11 pm

Then get <a href="http://www.gimp.org">The GIMP</a> instead -- it's free, and for masking, it's just as good as Photoshop (but will someone tell me why they still haven't added "Faux Bold" and "Faux Italic" text features??).

You can use VirtualDub(/Mod) to take the individual frames you need out of the video stream; once you've got your still frames in The GIMP, you can use the Pen tool to make paths and then cut selections along those paths (plus you can copy paths between frames).

The_Vagrant_06 · Post by **The_Vagrant_06** » Sun Feb 26, 2006 11:49 pm

That really helps me out. Thx, Scintilla.

gangstaj8 · Post by **gangstaj8** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 1:26 am

Scintilla wrote:(but will someone tell me why they still haven't added "Faux Bold" and "Faux Italic" text features??).

Maybe they just prefer the real thing. Personally, I simply can't stand imitation typography.

And good luck Vagrant, if you've got the patience, you should achieve some great results.

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 1:43 am

gangstaj8 wrote:
Scintilla wrote:(but will someone tell me why they still haven't added "Faux Bold" and "Faux Italic" text features??).
Maybe they just prefer the real thing. Personally, I simply can't stand imitation typography.

It wouldn't be so bad if The GIMP would <i>allow</i> you to use the actual bold, italic, and bold italic variations of the fonts...