Exercise: Master Keyer Basics.
Click on the icon for a quick preview of the exercise and the final result.

Download an archive that contains the footage as well as the setups used in this exercise.
Put these files in your Flame system: for example under the /usr/tmp directory.



To learn how to load material into the Flame Library, see the exercise:
“Loading an archive”

Footage courtesy of: National Cinemedia

Images are subject to copyright: please read the disclaimer at the end of this tutorial.

Start in Batch.
1. Click in the setup duration field and set it to 15 frames.
2. Click and drag the Library node to the Batch schematic.
3. In the Library, select the clip “Tight_Shot_01”, hold CTRL to also select the clip “Keying_back”.
4. Press Load.
5. Drag an Action node to the Batch schematic.
Note: Be sure that the option Auto Image is ON in the NodeSetup tab.
6. Connect the Back clip to the background tab.
7. Double-click the Action node to access its menu.
8. Select the layer in the Media list.
9. Click on Add Input to add a layer node to the schematic.
10.Connect the green screen element to the front and the matte tabs of the layer node.
11.Toggle to Result view; press F4.

A good key is completely black in the transparent areas and completely white in the opaque areas. The edges in-between should have subtle grey values and show very little aliasing for a smooth key.
1. Double-click the K cell on the media that contains the clip to access the Keyer tool.
2. Inside the keyer module: be sure that the Keyer tab and the masterK are selected.
3. Click on the left color swatch next to the Mix value and drag across the green screen area to sample a range of green shade. This automatically generates a key.
4. Press F3 to see the matte view.

AutoCC is enabled by default; it is suppressing the spill color on the edges automatically.

There are several tools that you can use to refine a matte; in this case try the onscreen matte sliders to further adjust the luminance of the matte and obtain a clean matte and smooth edges.
1. With Matte selected in the Sampling menu, hold ALT while moving across the image to display the different matte sliders.
2. Use the Range E slider to increase the black value of the background.
3. If there is light grey in the white portion of the matte you can use Range D and Range B to clean it.
4. Experiment with the various sliders.
Matte overall, Highlights and Shadows are overall controls. The different ranges will affect the grey inside the sampled area of the matte. The sliders on top are those that will influence the selection under your cursor the most.

You can toggle between matte and result view with F3 and F4 while adjusting the values.

1. You can use the Shrink under the Matte controls to slightly shrink the edges.
But be careful not to lose details such as fine hair.
Try a small value such as 0.50 pixels by example.
2. Click on Return to go back to Action.
You can then reposition the image if needed.

If you want to know more about the interface and the functionalities covered in this exercise, watch the following overview:

To continue practicing with the exercises, click on the following link: