Edius 8 Chroma Key
No doubt, even the EDIUS chromakey effect will deliver good results if there were optimal conditions at the shoot. But in reality most of the shoots including green or blue screen are not performed under ideal conditions.
Using ROBUSKEY in EDIUS for great green or blue chroma key results. ROBUSKEY can be purchased as a plug-in for EDIUS at www.isp.co.jp. Place green or blue clip above a background video track. Drag Green or Blue ROBUSKEY keyer to green or blue clip, if green clip, use green keyer. Double click the keyer in the EDIUS info palette.
- Using NewBlue Chroma Key Pro in EDIUS 7 or EDIUS 8 (real-time playback with full buffer of 1920x1080 keys with Quadro K4000) 1. In NewBlue Elements3 Ultimate, drag Chroma Key Pro to clip on timeline or to the information palette of the clip or the clip itself and then drag it above the Layouter.
- Delete parts - key. Alt + Ctrl + Shift + G. Delete parts - transparency. Alt + Shift + H. Delete volume setting. Delete pan settings. Delete transition between selected clips. Alt + Shift + T. Delete parts - transition. Delete parts - cross fade. Delete video of selected clip.
You will only get to know a chromakey's quality if you have footage that was not produced under best conditions or if you have very complex motifs which contain transparency and reflections. Since in reality often there is less time and space to set up a perfect light for a blue or green screen you will have to deal with the mentioned difficulties in your footage.
But due to the background color even the perfect light many times can't avoid blue or green outlines being visible at a person's hair or head. Additionally there can be problems with light reflections in a person's glasses and color changes if the key colors shine too bright.
'We'll fix it in the post' does not always work out in such cases. Although the EDIUS chromakey does good work - in real-time - it can not be the solution to very complex keying problems.
Furthermore the EDIUS chromakey has some technical limitations. Unlike a color correction filter, the chromakey affects the alpha channel of a clip and therefore cannot be combined with other filters or effects.
With Robuskey there are no such limitations and you will have a lot more options to edit your footage. Robuskey works as a filter/effect and therefore can be adjusted individually. This way it is possible to apply a primary or secondary color correction on the footage without affecting the actual keying result.
Keying of transparencies
Keying of fabrics
Keying of hair
Unfortunately this quality cannot be achieved in real-time. But since Robuskey is accelerated through a CUDA optimized graphic board (Nvidia Quadro oder GTX) only less time is needed for rendering. Your reseller will advise you which graphic board is the best for your purposes.
Convince yourself of the reliable quality of Robuskey (in most situations the standard setting is sufficient but there are many more options for optimizing your footage such as masks) by installing the 30 day trial version.
To explore the full range of options Robuskey offers you, you can download some footage to run your own keying tests.
Link: Download the 30 days trial version of Robuskey for EDUS 7 und 8 (11,6MB, zip)
(Tip: If you want to use Robuskey in EDIUS 8 but own already a full version of Robuskey for EDIUS 6.x or 7.x, just install the trial version and activate it with your licence key)
Link: Download footage for your own keying test for free
All current plug-in installers you find on our download page.
All plug-ins are available at your local EDIUS Reseller.
Adjusting Color/Brightness (Color Correction)
You can adjust the color tone to match the previous/next video, or adjust the brightness by correcting color cast, highlight detail loss, and shadow detail loss. The following filters are provided for color correction.
[3-Way Color Correction]
Correct colors for shadow (black), intermediate (gray), and highlight (white).
[YUV Curve]
Adjust luminance (Y), blue color difference (U), and red color difference (V) on the chart. You can make a fine adjustment to balance the shadow and highlight.
Keys can be added for the YUV curve but interpolation animation between keys is not available.
[Color Balance]
Adjust chroma, luminance, contrast, and color tone with the slider.
[Color Wheel]
Move the pointer to adjust the color density, or rotate the wheel to adjust the color tone.
[Monotone]
Make the video monotone.
1) In the folder view of the [Effect] palette, click the [VideoFilters] tree.
2) Click the [Color Correction] tree to display filters.
3) Drag and drop the filter to use to the clip on the timeline.
Select the clip on the timeline, right-click the filter in the [Effect] palette, and click [Add to Timeline].
Right-drag an effect and drop it to the clip, and click [Add] or [Replace].
Adjusting 3-Way Color Collection
1) Display the [Information] palette, and double-click [3-Way Color Correction].
The [3-Way Color Correction] dialog box appears.
2) Adjust the balance of each color and click [OK].
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[3-Way Color Correction] Dialog Box
(1) | [Black Balance]/[Gray Balance]/[White Balance] | Drag a point in each color to correct colors for shadow (black balance), intermediate (gray balance), and highlight (white balance). Drag the point of color wheel to adjust the hue, or move the slider to adjust saturation and contrast. |
(2) | [Limit] | Correct colors in the specified range. Check [Hue], [Saturation], and [Luminance] to specify the range to adjust. You can set the effect range by entering a value directly in each field or dragging the triangle slider, or grating/slant parts. A: Range to apply 100% adjustment B: Range where you increase the adjustment volume gradually C: Range where you decrease the adjustment volume gradually |
(3) | [Key display] | View which range is applied with the effects by setting [Limit]. The area with the effects applied 100% is displayed in white; 0% in black. |
(4) | [Histogram display] | Display a calculated histogram for each of hue, saturation, and luminance. |
(5) | [ColorPicker] | Select a color from the displayed image on the Player or the Recorder. |
(6) | Preview setting | |
(7) | Key frame setting | |
(8) | [Default] | Click [Default] in each balance frame to reset only the parameters related to that balance to their default values. Click [Default] at the bottom of the window to delete all the keys and reset the parameters to their default values. |
Adjusting Colors Entirely
1) Display the [Information] palette, and double-click [3-Way Color Correction].
The [3-Way Color Correction] dialog box appears.
2) Click the color to correct from Color Picker.
When you click [Black], an adjustment is made so that the color obtained in the color picker should be black. Similarly, an adjustment is made so that it should be gray or white when you select [Gray] or [White], respectively.
If you click [Auto], the color is determined based on the brightness of the obtained color. For example, the color is adjusted for white when a bright color is obtained.
3) Click the part to correct in Recorder.
The color is automatically corrected. You can also adjust the color by using the color wheel point, or the sliders of saturation and contrast.
When correcting a color-casted white table
Click [White] in Color Picker, and click a point on the table in the image.
Correcting Only One Part
You can define the range to apply the correction, when adjusting the color tone of skin.
1) Display the [Information] palette, and double-click [3-Way Color Correction].
The [3-Way Color Correction] dialog box appears.
2) Click [Color range] in Color Picker.
3) Click the part to correct in Recorder.
Click additional points with [Shift] on the keyboard held down to include the color of the points to the currently specified range.
4) Correct the color.
Adjusting the YUV Curve
1) Display the [Information] palette, and double-click [YUV Curve].
The [YUV Curve] dialog box appears.
2) Adjust the YUV curve and click [OK].
[YUV Curve] Dialog Box
(1) | YUV curve | Drag the line on each chart to adjust Y, U, and V. The value on the bottom left of the Y curve indicates the input value and output value. |
(2) | [Spline]/[Linear] | Select the line of the chart (curve or straight). |
(3) | [Default] | Click [Default] of each chart to restore the defaults for each Y, U, and V value and add them as the keys. Click [Default] at the bottom of the window to delete all the keys and reset the chart to its initial values. |
(4) | [Safe Color] | Check this item to make an automatic adjustment to keep the video signal within the YUV color space. |
(5) | Preview setting | |
(6) | Key frame setting | Adjust the YUV curve chart for each key frame. The field option for the key will be [Hold], and no change along the time axis is allowed. For how to set a key frame, see Key frame setting . |
Although Safe Color clips a range of luminance 16-235 and chroma 16-240, and the chroma is not automatically included in the safe area, it is calculated to include luminance/chroma within IRE0-100.
Common Settings in Color Correction
Preview setting
You can lay and compare the image applied color correction and the original image.
(1) | [Use current screen to show filter effect] | Fix the screen with the timeline cursor position when comparing filter effects. |
(2) | Check the filter effects | Set the segmentation of the screen when checking the result of the filter. |
(3) | Filter apply screen ratio | Set the screen ratio to display the video with the filter applied when comparing the result of the filter. |
Key frame setting
You can change the parameters of color correction along the time axis, and play it to check the result.
(1) | Time scale slider | Drag the slider to the left and right to adjust the time scale display unit. Move the slider to the left to reduce the display unit, or to the right to increase it. The right end is [Fit]. |
(2) | Playback/Tool buttons | : Play back the timeline on the Recorder. : Repeatedly play back the clip currently being edited. : Undo an operation. [Ctrl] + [Z] : Redo the undone operation. [Ctrl] + [Y] : Switch the changes of each parameter to the chart view. In the chart view, the timeline is represented by a chart display of the selected key. The parameters can be edited by moving the keys up and down. The numerical values and gradations of the Y axis can be changed by entering numerical values. |
(3) | Time scale for key frame | Display a scale with the unit selected in the time scale setting on the timeline. Right-click the time scale and click [Timeline Timecode] to display the timecode of the timeline or click [Zero base Timecode] to display the timecode with the beginning of the clip as 0. If a sequence marker is set for the position where the clip is placed, right-click the time scale and click [Go to Previous Sequence Marker] or [Go To Next Sequence marker] to move the timeline cursor to the previous or next sequence marker. |
(4) | Time scale settings | Click here to toggle the specified display unit and [Fit]. Click the left arrow to reduce the display unit, or click the right arrow to increase the display unit. |
(5) | Expand button | Click this button to configure detailed settings for each item. You can edit the parameters by moving the cursor to a value input or control and dragging it when the mouse cursor shape changes. |
(6) | Enable/Disable | Unchecking the item disables the parameter settings. To configure a key frame, check the effect name. |
(7) | [Add default key] | Click this item to set the default key frames of each parameter item at the timeline cursor position. |
(8) | Key frame setting | Click in the center to set a key frame on the position of the timeline cursor. If the timeline cursor is on the key frame, the key will be deleted. Click the left and right arrow to move to the previous and next key frame. |
(9) | Key frame timeline | Automatically add a key frame when you edit an effect at the timeline cursor. If you expand each parameter item, you can edit the parameter by dragging key upward or downward. |
Right-click the timeline for key or key frame to display a menu to add/delete keys or switch the method of interpolation between key frames. You can select the interpolation method from [Hold], [Line], and [Bezier].
When the item name of a parameter is right-clicked and [Clear parameter of (item)] is clicked, all key frames for that item are deleted.
When [Shift] + [V] on the keyboard are pressed, a key frame is added to all parameters with a valid key frame setting at the timeline cursor position.
When [V] on the keyboard is pressed, a key frame is added to the currently selected parameter at the timeline cursor position.
Adjusting Color Balance
1) Display the [Information] palette, and double-click [Color Balance].
The [Color Balance] dialog box appears.
2) Adjust the color balance and click [OK].
[Color Balance] Dialog Box
(1) | Sliders | Move the slider to adjust each item. |
(2) | [Safe Color] | Check this item to make an automatic adjustment to keep the video signal within the YUV color space. |
(3) | Preview setting | |
(4) | Key frame setting | |
(5) | [Default] | Click this button to restore the default settings for all the sliders. |
Although Safe Color clips a range of luminance 16-235 and chroma 16-240, and the chroma is not automatically included in the safe area, it is calculated to include luminance/chroma within IRE0-100.
Adjusting Color Wheel
1) Display the [Information] palette, and double-click [Color Wheel].
Edius 8 Chroma Key Plugin
The [Color Wheel] dialog box appears.
2) Adjust the color wheel and click [OK].
[Color Wheel] Dialog Box
(1) | Color wheel point | Slide this point to adjust the color density (chroma). Chroma increases as the point moves to the outline of the circle. |
(2) | Wheel | Drag and rotate it to adjust the color tone. |
(3) | [Bright]/[Contrast] | Adjust the luminance and contrast by moving the sliders. |
(4) | [Safe Color] | Check this item to make an automatic adjustment to keep the video signal within the YUV color space. |
(5) | Preview setting | |
(6) | Key frame setting | |
(7) | [Default] | Click this button to delete all the keys and restore the default settings for the wheel and color wheel point. |
Although Safe Color clips a range of luminance 16-235 and chroma 16-240, and the chroma is not automatically included in the safe area, it is calculated to include luminance/chroma within IRE0-100.
Adjusting Monotone
1) Display the [Information] palette, and double-click [Monotone].
The [Monotone] dialog box appears.
2) Adjust the monotone and click [OK].
[Monotone] Dialog Box
(1) | Sliders | Adjust the color tone by moving the slider. |
(2) | Key frame setting |