Chroma Key problem in MSPro V8?

[mathis]

Hi, I just upgraded from Video Studio 9.0 to MSPro V8. I wasn't able to locate a way to do the chromakey option by looking at all the buttons on the screen, so I did a search in the help file and found it. The instructions said to put my background video in V-1 and the video with the green screen in it, in V-2. I did.

I was able to go through the motions and the preview screen in the back was perfect as was the front screen where I was changing the settings. I played the video and it was excellent; just the way I want it.

So, the instructions said to hit OK when I was finished, so I did. What happened was the background took over the entire screen and I can play the entire video but what I want in front stays hidden behind the background. Has any one else had this problem? I only upgraded because I wanted to be able to have more than one video in video without having to keep re-rendering like I have to in VS9. I guess I should have downloaded the trial version before purchasing it, but I didn't think I'd have any problems with it.

Thanks,
Mathis...

[Devil]

Please tell us exactly all the settings and what you did to have this happen. It is not normal, but you haven't given us a clue as to what went wrong.

[mathis]

I placed the video I wanted as the background in V-1. I placed the video with the green screen in V-2. I right clicked on the Video in V-2, then chose Overlay Options. Under Type, I used the pull down menu to Chroma Key. I placed the mouse pointer, which turned into an eye dropper, on the green screen in the video and clicked it. I then moved the slider bar on Similarity up to 35. The preview screen in the window behind what I was doing and the preview screen where I was, changed to the correct picture, just like it was supposed to. When I was finished, I hit OK and it took me back to the main screen where the background screen (V-1) took over the whole preview screen and wouldn't let V-2 through. I re-did these steps several times before posting my question here and it never worked.

However, since I posted here, MSPro 8 locked up on me and I had to get out of it. When I ran it again, I reloaded my project and went through the steps again. This time, when I pressed OK, it worked perfectly. So, cancel that question. It must have had something to do with the lock up.

Now my problem is, it looks great when I preview the video, but when I created an MPG file (DV-2) to make the DVD, the guys looks like someone spilled a bucket of green paint on his head. When I change the settings, it makes him start to disappear, but I can't get rid of the green.

To make the green screen, I captured a green square and made it a JPG file and put it on a CD. I made this green square take up the entire screen on an HDTV. He sat in front of the TV and I filmed him talking. I ran it through VS9 and it came out perfect without the green hue around his head.

Please tell us exactly all the settings and what you did to have this happen. It is not normal, but you haven't given us a clue as to what went wrong.

[whall]

I am having a similar problem. I am using an hd clip from a JVC 10 and the supplied sample of the girl in front of the green screen. I did the same technique you did with the eye dropper etc. I noticed that when I played the clip the similarity setting slowly decreased until the green screen became visible and ruined the overlay effect. Is there some way to set the similarity and have it remain the same for the overlay? You can only set the similarity setting at the beginning of the overlay clip but it will not stay the same throughout the clip. Any suggestions? I am using the boxed version of studiomedia pro 8 with windows xp pro media center.
I tried an experiment using the clip with the girl with green screen and another sample clip. It worked fine with the similarity setting remaining constant. Could it be that I was mixing hdv 720p with a lower resolution clip (the girl with the green screen. I'm going to try to creaste a green screen clip in the hdv 720p format to see if it works then

[Devil]

OK, there are 2 lots of questions here.

1. I suggest that, instead of chroma key, which is fixed on a specific colour ± the similarity, you try using blue screen setting, at the bottom of the list. This sets the overlay colours to all those contained in an area you can designate with the picker. I find this is more tolerant. Also, if your original is NTSC DV, you may find the horizontal colour fringeing is worse than a PAL DV or an analogue capture, because the colour-space is set differently in this format (technical details on request).

2. To set the overlay options as a constant, select the clip, then go to Effects Manager, click on Overlay, you should see the line with two diamond shapes, the left one being red. Right click on this and choose "Copy and Paste to All" (or words to that effect: I don't have MSP8 on just now, so am speaking from memory). This works on all effects. (Note: not for earlier versions)

[whall]

Thanks, Devil. I right clicked on the red diamond at the beginning of the clip (key frame 1)hit copy then pasted it on key frame 2 (the end of the clip)that worked fine. This worked with my original hdv 720p clip with the sample green screen overlay. That locked the similarity to one setting. I still wonder why if you don't do the copy and paste the similarity decreased as you played the clip. Is this some kind of an automatic transition effect? If it is it would be simpler if you could just turn it off as I don't think too many people would want their green screen to start showing through as you played your clip. I found if you don't use the copy and past method the similarity decreases whether you are using blue screen or chroma or color. Again thanks!

[Devil]

All the keyframe effects have different default settings at start and end. I suppose it's to show users that they can vary the effects to their taste. The "Copy and Paste to All" function in Effects Manager is a really major single-click help in MSP8.