Wait a second. BOTH are computer generated? Why are you bother keying them? If this is some sort of 3D animation you should be able to render with an alpha channel and have a perfect composite, no keying involved. What sort of computer generated media are you working with?

I don't have the source - it is from MS Flight Simulator - vehicle against a blue sky. I only have the Mpg from that. Not sure how to strip it out any other way than keying.

I tried what DSE suggested but I'm still ending up with a little fringe around the ship. This - after using a garbage matte. I'm still playing around with it though. I will post again if I can figure out the settings properly to blur that last bit out. tks.

Ok, that makes much more sense then. Sorry, I just thought you were trying to do something the extremely hard way.

To be honest, I've not had the best success with Vegas' keying. I LOVE Vegas, and most of its tools are just great. But when it comes to keying I stick with After Effects. Much more control. But, this is a Vegas thread and we want to keep it Vegas oriented. So long live Vegas!

DSE - In your Vegas 5 book's DVD, you have a Green Screen sample file called louise.wmv - and I think you put it in there as an example of a tough shot to key. I tried playing around with a lot of settings to see if I could get the fine hairs on Louise's head to show up properly, but I'm finding that task almost impossible in Vegas 6d - I can get a few hairs but then they fade in and out making it look terrible. So, are you able to get the fine hairs on Louise's head to show up with Serious Magic Ultra 2, and/or can you do it in Vegas - or is this too much to hope for from DV footage that has problems from the start? Thanks, Shawn

Shawn, that file is almost impossible to perfectly key, not only because it's DV originated, but because it's a 320 x 240 wmv, making it even more compressed, hence the greater difficulty. If you work with it closely, you shouldn't find the hairs to be difficult as much as trying to avoid the earring that is just about the same color. If you use just a tad of secondary color correction to even out the green, looking at the mask as you do so, you'll significantly help that smooth out.
BTW, Louise is my mom so be nice with that clip. ;-)

DSE - Well I am unable to get the jiggedy-jaggies and blue noise off the Jupiter 2 ship on my keying. I think this is because the resolution of the origianl clip was captured in MSFS with FRAPS and therefore the resolution is not all that great - giving the blue background and extra foot hold I believe on the unclean and not very smooth edges.

The masking example I am going to play with some more but I could not tell any difference in doing that vs. just keying the regular shot. I must be doing something wrong - adding the blur IMO should soften the edges some but using the small amounts as suggested in your VASST tutorial don't do the trick. Making the blur higher really jacks with the entire image. Any other thoughts on this?

if you wanna post a still, I 'll take a crack at it. If you can't get it up today, I won't be able to; we leave for NAB in the morning.

Okay Spot - here you go:

http://www.geocities.com/hamiltonp@s...t/jupiter2.jpg

I think it is just an image that is problematic from the get-go. Tks.

If the jpeg is representative of your originating image (easier to see in png than jpg) then the problem is the codec with which the original image was captured. It's a pretty nasty compression, that's for sure. Easy to key, but you'd need a tight garbage matte, and even that won't cut the forward spill without affecting the landing gear of the ship.
I'd try for a higher quality source.

DSE - thanks for looking. I suspected as much. Unfortunately I don't have a better source. For the distance shots it actually looks ok. It just looks bad on the close up. I will post the clip I did as soon as I finish tweaking it.

keyed sample....
 

my.omsdal.com/thesky.wmv

Check this out - let me know how the spaceship looks...

hey thats preety cool good job. id say a little too on the generic spaceship side but who cares.

Thanks. I really like the Jupiter 2 from Lost in Space - one of my favorits sci-fi ships. The Robot that shoots the energy from his claws is my full-size Lost in Space B9 robot shot in front of a green screen - of course using the pan/crop I resized him to better match the J2 ship.

But the point is that even with poor original spaceship footage - the ship landing in the park across from my house doesn't look half bad - all done in Vegas. Would'nt past muster for a pro-job but for a hobbyist like me it's good. I learned a lot doing this and I appreciate everyone's help and ideas.

Phil,

I think that's pretty good! Especially for fan film type of material. And having done it all in Vegas?! You've got my respect. Like you said, it wouldn't work for a pro job, but just as hobby stuff this is better than most stuff that's out there. Everyone and their dog tries to do sci-fi stuff (mostly Star Wars) and a lot of it ends up looking like junk. It looked quite nice. I could nit-pick it but I think it would be pointless. Well done, and thank you for posting it.