Posted by PTravel on 09/11/06 19:22

"Luis Ortega" <lortega@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:IriNg.18187$WV2.12806@newsfe2-gui.ntli.net...
> Thanks, you're very kind. I understood you the first time!
> Will this be possible to do as a batch action in Photoshop?

When I do this kind of keying, I do it in Premiere Pro or After Effects.
I'm less conversant with Photoshop, though I do use it. From what I
understand, actions are, essentially, macros. However, I don't think
Photoshop has a keying capability.

Photoshop does, however, have the "magic eraser" tool, which does a very
good job at background removal. Why not do an action which:

1. Converts the background to a layer.
2. Applies the "magic eraser" tool to each still.
3. Saves it as a sequence-numbered TIFF, preserving transparency.

Once you've done that, you can import all the stills as a numbered video
sequence into Premiere Pro -- the software will automatically convert them
to a video sequence.

> Whatever we finally do, it has to be able to be automated for a batch
> action, as there is no way that we could do this to hundreds of individual
> drawings.

Alternatively, just import all the drawings into Premiere Pro as a video
sequence, then do the keying as I described in the earlier post.


>
> "PTravel" <ptravel@travelersvideo.com> wrote in message
> news:4mlppiF6eq8cU1@individual.net...
>> good grief -- I don't know what happened, but this is rife with typos.
>> I'll fix the whole thing:
>>
>>
>>> Okay, here's how I handle keying out material that hasn't been
>>> specifically prepared for keying. I'll explain this by example, because
>>> I think it's clearer.
>>>
>>> Imagine a black box on a white background. The center of the black box
>>> is white.
>>>
>>> Obviously, if I use a luma or color key to key out the background, I'll
>>> also lose the center of the box, which I don't want to do.
>>>
>>> So, I create a garbage matte that covers, roughly, the center of the
>>> box. I either pin it to the center so that it tracks movement
>>> automatically, or I use key frames and manually track. It doesn't have
>>> to be exact -- it just needs to cover up that which I don't want keyed
>>> out.
>>>
>>> I then apply my luminance (or color key) and key out the background BUT
>>> I reverse the key, i.e. everything but the background gets keyed out.
>>> I've now created a matte the eliminates, exactly, the background and
>>> only the background.
>>>
>>> I change the color of the matte to green and super it over the original
>>> clip. Using my box example, I now a black box with a white center and a
>>> green background.
>>>
>>> NOW I can use chromakeying to alpha out the green background.
>>>
>>> I find this works pretty well.
>>>
>>
>>
>
>

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