Chroma-Key Cloth

[Gra]

Hi guys

A quick question I've been meaning to ask - has anyone bought and uses the Ulead Chroma-Key Cloth? I doesn't look a bad price but I notice it's in blue and I thought the best medium for video was green.

[Terry Stetler]

Either green or blue can be used and I keep both on hand because each has advantages.

Green generally works better with DV video (because of its colorspace) and when the subject has dark skin.

The skin color issue is because melanin, the skins pigment, has a blue component making blue screen keys problematic; you can get 'holes' in their skin

Blue is useful for non-DV video (uncompressed broadcast, HDV etc.), subjects containing/wearing green etc.

Other colors are also useful, as in when the subject contains both blue and green. I keep red, black, white, 3 shades of gray, yellow and purple on hand.

Never underestimate the utility of luma keys; black, white & grays.

Also; you can use things other than specialty cloths. Go to a photography supply store and you'll find numerous colors of 'backdrop paper' in sheets & rolls from 2 to 12 feet wide.

A good shop should have papers in chroma colors.

I have a home-built 8'w x 8'h frame made from 2 inch plumbing pipes and PVC that can take 4 rolls at a time. This lets me change colors rapidly.

[MrA]

You can also go to any store that sells fabric, such as a store that sells party supplies, or just fabric. Party supply stores sell table cloths, pratically in any colour you want..

This link shows how to make a complete studio out of green or blue screen, and also shows how to composite green or blue screens to the best of your software, and I find, it really doesn't matter what software your using, the technique applies to all..

http://www.jushhome.com/nick/tutorials.asp

In this example, the author recreated a "star wars" set completly with blue screens..

[mathis]

I purchased the Ulead Chroma-Key Cloth. I do like it, but the subject that I video tape each week has mostly blue clothing, which won't work with the blue cloth, so I don't use it often. I captured a still of the lady in MSPro 8.0 posing in front of the Green Screen, printed it out and took it to the fabric department in Walmart. They happened to have a matching bolt, and I grabbed two 5 x 4 foot (I think) pieces of it, sewd them together, ran over to a lumber yard and had two 4 foot boards cut and I hot glued the boards to the top and bottom of the cloth then my pastor manged to get the cloth hung on a brick wall in a room we're not using at church. We probably didn't need the boards, but I think he used the top one to anchor it to the wall some how. I spent less than $20 for the material and the boards. The Cloth from Ulead was about $16 with shipping, I think. It's good to have it with me, but I haven't used it more than a dozen times that I recall.

Good luck,
Mathis...

Hi guys

A quick question I've been meaning to ask - has anyone bought and uses the Ulead Chroma-Key Cloth? I doesn't look a bad price but I notice it's in blue and I thought the best medium for video was green.

[Gra]

Hi Mathis
Many thanks, that's a really useful idea.

[mathis]

You're welcome, Gra.
The hardest thing to do with Chroma Keying is the lighting. You can go to http://youtube.com and search for Green Screen and find several tutorials that show you how to set up for it.

Also, when you get your video into MSPro 8.0, use Blue Screen instead of Chroma Key. Even if you use a green cloth.

Good luck. It's a lot of fun to stick someone where they've never been before.

Mathis...