a question to compositers

i was wondering which is the best software or lets say more likly you would work with for compositing for companies? and the second question is: after effects is it a good compositer if you have keylight?

Well, that is the golden question. And MY answer to you is this. As far as a high-end comping program goes, After Effects falls short of the glory of GOD. However, it is used widely in a great number of studios because of it's robust set of features. You can get camera data out of 3d and make a fake camera move in 2d, using the 3d space, and then you have all your channel selection effects to do fun passwork. It has rpf support and can read motion blur vector data with a plugin. All in all, after effects is what I would call capable, but by no means a compositing package. And keylight works good, but I guarantee that nobody in their right mind is going to use keylight alone to pull a key. I use keylight here and there to get rough mattes out of things and it works great, but not for a nice edge. For a good key I reccomend reading this tutorial to understand a bit better what you are up against when pulling mattes.

The tut is for shake, but the concept pulls over into any compositing package. And you also want to consider the footage. Is it DV? HDV? Film? Holographic projection? (just kidding about that last one.)

Sorry to go so deep into it, I get passionate about compositing. My advice to you is that if you are looking into a "turnkey" sample and click keying solution, that you check out combustion and use the discreet keyer that comes with that package. It has plenty of features and is *algorithmically the most accurate when dealing with color space because it computes in 3d rather than 2d. And fusion has a nice out of the box keyer too.

Hopefully that made sense and was helpful to a degree. You can pull a key decent with keylight in after effects, but I would reccomend doing it the way in that tutorial, then you don't need plugins and you get a better result. But your after effects comp(s) will be a mess. Plus it's a pain in the a$$ to go back and change stuff.

-Z

that's a nice tutorial you linked to up there. using color channels and converting them to mattes is a great technique, and sometimes is the best way to get sweet edge details! we do it every day here at R&H (well, days we pull keys, anyway!).

people who look over the tutorial wanting to learn more about keying should definitely take note at the bottom where he says to garbage roto troublesome areas and pull different keys, then combine them later. in just about every single key i've ever pulled with a human being in it, i've had to do this. so don't be afraid of roto, and don't think shooting in front of a greenscreen means you won't have to roto!

thanks alot guys that is so much information and hype man you are really big how come you told me before you are not a good example for insperation grrrrr dude your one of the best any way THANKS TO BOTH OF YOU GUYS ALOT OF INFO AND HELPS ME IN THE FUTURE