Green Screen Made Easy: Keying and Compositing Techniques for Indie Filmmakers

by Jeremy Hanke, Michele Yamazaki Tepstra

Overview

Green Screen Made Easy is designed to up your skill set and give you the necessary skills to take your indie work to a new level. See how to correctly create and set up your screen, illuminate the green screen cleanly, light your subjects dynamically, and manipulate your camera to get the best visual result. Master matte extraction techniques and learn how to composite your green screen footage onto a background, creating an out-of-this-world that your audience will believe!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781615932672
Publisher:	Divine Arts
Publication date:	10/01/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Jeremy T. Hanke is a graduate of Asbury University’s Media Communications program — the same program in charge of training the television crews for the Olympic Games — and is the director of two feature films, as well as numerous short films. In 2005, he started MicroFilmmaker Magazine — the first magazine to specialize in helping microbudget filmmakers make their movies — where he still serves as editor-in-chief. In addition to his work at MicroFilmmaker, he’s the lead editor of the artistic lifestyle magazine DarkestGoth Magazine, which explores media, society, and philosophy from a darker vantage point.
Michele Yamazaki Terpstra is Pluginologist for Toolfarm.com, a value-added reseller of visual effects tools and video software, where she creates tutorial content and writes, among many other things. Michele has a BA in Communications in Film&Video from Grand Valley State University. She started her video career at Postworks as a motion graphics artist and taught After Effects and Photoshop at Kendall College of Art&Design. She wrote Plug-in with After Effects: Third Party Plug-in Mastery, which was published by Focal Press in June 2011.

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS CHROMA KEYING?
Learn about the terminology and history of the craft of chroma key. CHAPTER 2: TO BUY OR BUILD A GREEN SCREEN
Learn the pros and cons of buying vs. building your own green screen. CHAPTER 3: POPULAR OPTIONS FOR BUYING A GREEN SCREEN
Learn the pros and cons of options like cloth, portable flexscreens, and X-Drop backgrounds. CHAPTER 4: BUILDING YOUR OWN GREEN SCREEN
Several options are discussed, including rolled paper, walls, flats, foam core, vinyl, and cloth. Also, learn how to build your own cyclorama green screen studio. CHAPTER 5: GETTING YOUR BACKGROUND ENVIRONMENTS
There are multiple background options: photography, video, digital matte paintings, 3D Rendering, and more. CHAPTER 6: LIGHTING YOUR MATTE FOR MAXIMUM KEYING SIMPLICITY
Learn about positioning your lights effectively and types of lighting, including additional lighting elements to make your colors “pop.” CHAPTER 7: LIGHTING AND POSITIONING YOUR TALENT FOR OPTIMAL BLENDING
Pre-Planning the lighting to blend between foreground and background planes, placement of the actor, and other blocking considerations for the best results. CHAPTER 8: CAMERA TECHNIQUES FOR CLEANER KEYS Master how to up your camera for great keys, including the optimal distance and behavior of your camera, and how to achieve higher-definition footage than you’re shooting. CHAPTER 9: PRODUCTION IDEAS FOR CREATIVE GREEN SCREEN USE Learn about how to create effects like The Invisible Man and Sin City: A Dame To Kill For Makeup, how to shoot flames or smoke, and more. CHAPTER 10: PRODUCTION CHECKLIST 19 rules to shoot by, The Golden Rule of Green Screen, and 7 things to prep your talent for optimal shoots. CHAPTER 11: KEYING ESSENTIALS Get to know keying workflow and the order of operations for the best results from postproduction. CHAPTER 12: PREPARE YOUR FOOTAGE Prepare and repair your footage to give you the cleanest key and improve your workflow, learn terminology, and learn what not to do when keying. CHAPTER 13: KEYING TOOLS Learn about some of the keying tools in compositors like Adobe After Effects and The Foundry NUKE, as well as a few excellent third-party keying plug-ins. CHAPTER 14: MASTERING THE ART OF KEYING Learn the Multiple Edge Mask Technique in After Effects and how to deal with difficult edges, motion blur, spill, and other problems you may encounter. CHAPTER 15: MAKING YOUR COMPOSITES LOOK BELIEVABLE Master the technique of matching color and grain, using a light wrap, matching shadows, and creating your own cast shadow. Finish off the shot with some color grading and adding film grain. CHAPTER 16: CONCLUSION RESOURCE LIST GLOSSARY ABOUT THE AUTHORS