New User - Need Basic Help W/ChromaKey

I am a new user of Fusion and have watched several Youtube videos on what I want to do - basic Chroma Key. A still picture with a green screen movie in the foreground. I've done this in Movavi, but would like to try the more powerful Chroma key tools on the crappy green screen I got from Youtube.

My video which contains the green screen footage will not show up in either of the windows. My still picture shows up just fine.

I have spent several hours on this and have gotten nowhere. I am an engineer and usually figure out technical stuff like this quickly, but this isn't working like I would expect.

Would also like to know if there is a library of existing projects already completed. I would like to open a project that already works and start tinkering from there if possible.

Mike

Most likely the video you downloaded from Youtube isn't supported inside Fusion. If you want to practice keying you should download some footage in better quality.

You could start at http://hollywoodcamerawork.us/
They have some excellent materials to start with.

The video seems fine and plays in every video player I have. Any specific file type required for Fusion?

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What file format is the video? Playback in a player is something different than getting/processing frames in a compositing environment. Most YT clips have very bad compression artefacts that you don't see when watching the video, but that ruin your comps (and keys) when trying to do something with them in a compositor.

It's a standard mp4 with 1080 resolution. I am not talking about artifacts. I get no picture at all in the preview window and I've also tried others with the same result. So far, only still pictures show up.

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What OS are you on? (I should've asked that to begin with)

Windows 10. Stuff like this just kills me. The tutorial says drag and drop and then drag it to the viewer and press fit. The only thing that works is still pictures.

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It sounds like the mp4 is encoded in a way that is not supported inside Fusion. Did you try any video footage from Sander's link? They seem to be PNG (image) sequences. Maybe try converting your mp4 clip to an image sequence like PNG and see if the problem goes away.

I was kind of afraid of that. Can fusion only deal with image sequences?

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Not only, but the most reliably yes. For movie formats it's hit and miss. Also Fusion works one frame at a time and most compressed formats depend on 'whole frames' every couple of frames and 'differential' frames inbetween, meaning that to access a single frame sometimes a minisequence must be read.
This doesn't help the performance either.

No, it can do video clips, as well. Personally, I'm on a mac and deal with ProRes Quicktime movies a lot. Not sure what the standard video file type and codec would be for Windows.

Image sequences are definitely preferred in compositing softwares but you can get by with certain video clip formats, too.

Good to know. Thanks. What is best way to make image sequence? I have ffmpeg and have extracted frames before. Getting best resolution is sometimes tricky.

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I usually have Adobe Media Encoder handy for file conversions. If you don't have that, maybe try Resolve (free). If it reads your mp4 file, you can convert to a tiff sequence. If it won't read in Resolve, then maybe you'll have to resort to ffmpeg and that is not an area of my expertise, unfortunately.

If you get it into Resolve you can an also put the clip onto a timeline then use Fusion connect it will encode it to a sequence and open tthe comp for you as well.

Thanks to everyone!!! Got things working to the point where I should be able to go through a tutorial and get the rest!!!! Perry good cleanup so far.

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Find keying videos by Simon Ubsdell. He explains the process really well.


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OK. Keying is definitely improved! Next problem is that the still picture I am using for the background is bouncing around all over the place from frame to frame. The only time the picture is shown in the right place and right size is in the first frame.

Next problem is "How do I save the output?"..

I have been watching videos on this, but they alternate between way too simple and way too complex. You guys have all been extremely responsive and it's been helpful. Thanks.

Well, the problem with the background is that the loader is selecting the sequence of images even when I unselect "Gather Sequences"... Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr... It's showing subsequent images that it should NOT.

That control only affects the dialog in which it appears.

Got it. Made a copy of the file minus sequence number. Got it.

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Or you could also set the Loader up to read only one file. You can't do it from the Open File browser, but you can once the Loader exists.

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Cool!! Thanks! I am actually getting closer. Next problem is how to save the new images or output a movie? LOL I keep getting rendering errors. I've done a zillion tutorials, but they just don't hit the areas I need help with.

I think I have everything right now. Last remaining error is "Greater than UHD output is not available in Fusion 8". I only need HD 1080 output and that is what the project is set to. I don't know why it's barfing.

FINALLY GOT IT!!!!!!! I had to reduce the input resolution to HD.

Given the kinds of questions you're asking, I wonder if I could trouble you to consult the book I have been writing? It would be helpful to get input from someone who is actually at the very beginning of trying to learn Fusion to see what holes there are in my teaching.

Looks like I probably ought to write up an index for easier navigation of the series. For now, here are links to each article in the order I intend for them to be read.

http://www.bryanray.name/wordpress/comp ... ic-fusion/
http://www.bryanray.name/wordpress/blac ... he-basics/
http://www.bryanray.name/wordpress/blac ... -tracking/
http://www.bryanray.name/wordpress/blac ... nd-keying/
http://www.bryanray.name/wordpress/blac ... an-plates/
http://www.bryanray.name/wordpress/blac ... d-effects/
http://www.bryanray.name/wordpress/blac ... pressions/
http://www.bryanray.name/wordpress/blac ... on-macros/
http://www.bryanray.name/wordpress/blac ... mpositing/

I am definitely a newbit at this and was terribly underwhelmed with the tutorials that jumped over the basics. I spent hours on Youtube watching tutorials and there was always something missing or too deep, too fast, etc... I will definitely bookmark your tutorials and give them a try.