BCC Chroma Key Studio

Category: BCC Key and Blend

Effect Name: BCC Chroma Key Studio

The BCC Chroma Key Studio filter, part of the BCC Key and Blend category, is an all-in-one keying suite. It combines screen enhancement, auto-garbage matte and masking, chroma key, matte cleanup, matte choker, foreground color correction and light wrap into a single filter.

Working with the Filter

Presets and Common Controls

• BCC filters come with a library of factory installed presets plus the ability to create your own custom presets and preview them with the BCC FX Browser™.
• BCC filters also include common controls that configure global effect preferences and other host-specific effect settings.

For more information about working with presets and other common controls, Click Here.

Effect Controls

Compare Mode

The Compare Mode is used to view the filtered result alongside the original source layer. Several split-screen and side-by-side display options are available.

For more information, see Compare Mode.

• View Options: Displays various intermediate mattes and masks that allow for fine tuning the results of different keying stages.
• Final Composite: Displays the final output of the filter.
• Source: Displays the original unchanged source image.
• Quick Mask Matte: Displays a grayscale preview of the matte produced by the Quick Mask pass.
• Outside Mask: Displays a grayscale preview of the Outside Mask shape.
• Inside Mask: Displays a grayscale preview of the Inside Mask shape.
• Pre Key Cleanup Selection: Displays a grayscale preview of the region selected for cleanup in the Pre Key Cleanup pass.
• Pre Key Cleanup Output: Displays the output of the Pre Key Cleanup operation.
• Chroma Key Matte: Displays a grayscale preview of the matte output by the Chroma Key pass
• Matte Choker Matte: Displays a grayscale preview of the result of the Matte Choker pass applied to the output of the Chroma Key
• Wrap Only: Displays a preview of just the regions affected by the Light Wrap, with the unaffected regions left as transparent.
• Wrap On Black: Displays a preview of just the regions affected by the Light Wrap composited over black.
• View Matte Noise:Displays hard to spot regions where either the screen is incompletely keyed out or where the foreground is partially keyed out. Alpha channel values that are exactly 0 will be displayed as black, alpha channels that are exactly 100% will be displayed as white, and then any alpha channel values between 0 and 100% will be displayed as solid gray pixels which makes it easy to spot small bits of grunge in your screen region or small print through areas in the foreground.
• View Current Matte: Displays a convenient variation on the other matte preview modes which shows the combined matte output no matter which combination of matte pre and post key operations are currently enabled.

Quick Mask Group

Creates tight junk mattes around the foreground, even when faced with unevenly lit or noisy screens. This allows the focus to be on the regions immediately bordering the subject. To create the Quick Mask, use a quick and dirty linear key to punch out the screen and then apply negative choke to pull the key back outside any foreground regions that were keyed out during the initial rough key.

• Quick Mask On: Enables the Quick Mask pass.
• Key Color: Determines the color of the rough Quick Mask key.
• Hue, Lightness, and Saturation Tolerance: Controls the Hue, Lightness, and Saturation matching tolerances in the initial Quick Mask Key. Adjust to make sure as much as possible of the screen region is keyed out without keying out too much of the foreground. In this Quick Mask pass it’s alright to key out edges of foreground objects since they will be restored by the negative choke.
• Suppress Noise: If the screen contains small regions that are so far away from the key color that they can’t be selected in the Quick Mask key without pulling into large amounts of the foreground, the Suppress Noise feature can be used to eliminate them. For example, dead pixels or garbage lines on the image edge will can be purged by the Suppress Noise feature in Quick Mask and increasing the Suppress Noise will purge larger regions. If Suppress Noise is set to high values the Choke should be set to more negative values. In some cases the Iterations slider may need to be increased to ensure that the foreground is fully restored by the end of the Quick Mask pass.
• Blur: Softens the matte to create smoother contours in the Quick Mask output.
• Choke: Uses negative choke to restore any foreground regions which may have been partially masked out as part of the initial rough Quick Mask key. Use more negative values to restore eroded foreground regions.
• Iterations: When high negative choke values are not enough to restore the foreground, increasing iterations will carry out the restoration multiple times until the foreground is fully restored.

Outside Mask Group

Create geometric junk mattes which include spline based masking (in certain hosts).

• Outside Mask Shape: Enables the Outside Masking and control the type of Mask Shape
• Off: Outside Masking is disabled and the image retains its original shape.
• Rectangle: Generates a rectangular mask.
• Egg Shape: Generates an egg-shaped or oval mask.
• Spline Mask: [Supported only in Avid and After Effects] Use a spline based junk matte for optimal masking control.
• Host Mask: [After Effects Only] Select an After Effects mask to junk matte objects in your animation.
• Invert Outside Mask: Inverts the shape of the Outside Mask region.
• Outside Crop Top-Left: Controls the top left point of masking rectangle.
• Outside Crop Bottom-Right: Controls the bottom right point of masking rectangle.
• Outside Egg Point 1: Controls the top point of the egg shaped mask, allowing you to modify the dimensions and orientation of the shape.
• Outside Egg Point 2: Controls the bottom point of the egg shaped mask, allowing you to modify the dimensions and orientation of the shape.
• Outside Width: Controls the width of the egg shaped mask.
• Outside Scale: Controls the scaling of the egg shaped mask, allowing it to be enlarged or shrunk without changing the relative shape.
• Outside Egg Shape: Controls the symmetry of the egg. It can become more egg-like or more oval.
• Outside Feather: Controls the edge softness of the masked shape.

Inside Mask Group

Creates geometric mattes to restore foreground features which are inadvertently keyed out by the main Chroma Key (such as clothing elements that match the screen color or shiny objects which reflect the screen color).

• Inside Mask Shape: Enables Inside Masking and control the type of Mask Shape
• Off: Outside Masking is disabled and the image retains its original shape.
• Rectangle: Generates a rectangular mask.
• Egg Shape: Generates an egg-shaped or oval mask.
• Invert Outside Mask: Inverts the shape of the Inside Mask region.
• Inside Crop Top-Left: Controls the top left point of masking rectangle.
• Inside Crop Bottom-Right: Controls the bottom right point of masking rectangle.
• Inside Egg Point 1: Controls the top point of the egg shaped mask, allowing you to modify the dimensions and orientation of the shape.
• Inside Egg Point 2: Controls the bottom point of the egg shaped mask, allowing you to modify the dimensions and orientation of the shape.
• Inside Width: Controls the width of the egg shaped mask.
• Inside Scale: Controls the scaling of the egg shaped mask, allowing it to be enlarged or shrunk without changing the relative shape.
• Inside Egg Shape: Controls the symmetry of the egg. It can become more egg-like or more oval.
• Inside Feather: Controls the edge softness of the masked shape.

Pre Key Group

Smooths and color corrects the screen color before keying takes place.

• Pre Key Cleanup On: Enables the Pre Key Cleanup pass.
• Cleanup Key: Determines the method of cleanup for the selected green screen region:
• RGB: Matching color tolerance in the RGB space.
• HLS: Matching color tolerance in the HLS space.
• Color: Selects the color of the green screen area that you want to clean up.
• Color Range: Sets RGB color matching tolerance.
• Blend: Sets the softness of the edges of the color selection region.
• Hue Tolerance: Controls HSL matching tolerance in the hue component of the color space.
• Lightness Tolerance: Controls HSL matching tolerance in the lightness component of the color space.
• Saturation Tolerance: Controls HSL matching tolerance in the saturation component of the color space.
• Cleanup Method: Determines the background cleanup method:
• Color Correction: Applies image color correction to the selected screen pixels in order to narrow their levels and/or increase their saturation.
• Push to Solid: Generates a more uniform single color background.
• Output Black: Narrows the color range of the screen by raising the black levels.
• Output White: Narrows the color range of the screen by lowering the white levels.
• Saturation: Amplifies the saturation of the screen region which can enable the chroma key to pull a cleaner key, particularly with screens that are not highly saturated.
• Push to Solid Amount: Determines how completely the background screen is pushed towards a uniform color.

Chroma Key Group

Chroma Key is used for compositing camera footage shot using a blue, green, or red screen as a backdrop over a new background video or a still image from a separate file.

• Chroma Key On: Enables the Chroma Key pass. Temporarily disabling the Chroma Key pass can be very handy when tweaking the controls in the screen preparation groups such as Quick Mask, Outside/Inside masks, and Pre Key Cleanup.
• Density: Sets the transparent areas to be more transparent and opaque areas to be more opaque. Too much Density can degrade the matte.
• Balance: Sets the balance between density and lightness. Adjusting balance can enhance semi-transparent foreground objects and shadows.
• Lightness: Makes the entire matte more transparent. Boosting transparency might be necessary to ensure that the background shows through semi-transparent areas, although too much Lightness can result in the background image showing through the foreground subject.
• Color: Determines the key color from the background image. When working with a human subject, pick a color from a background location close to the subject’s hair line, but not in the hair itself. If the key Color pulls a matte which removes a lot of the source image, it can be difficult to select a different key Color. In this instance, temporarily hide the filter and pull the correct matte color from the unfiltered image.
• Red Weight, Green Weight, and Blue Weight: Sets the weight of the corresponding color channel in creating the matte. Adjusting the weights of the color channels slightly changes the key Color and can help improve the matte.
• Spill Ratio: Reduces the background color in the image.
• Spill Tone Mix: Adds background color back into the forground.
• Spill Tone Range: Increases the range of the foreground color mix, which helps to restor the original color to skin tones.

Matte Cleanup Group

Color correction style tools for post processing the alpha channel to improve the quality of imperfect mattes, for example pushing alpha noise in key regions down to zero or restoring full opacity in foreground regions that were partially keyed.

• Matte Cleanup: Enables the Matte Cleanup functions.
• Black Level: All alpha values below the Black Level setting will be pushed to fully transparent. When the initial results of the key leave incompletely keyed screen regions due to noisy or unevenly lit screens this, setting this Black Level control to the maximum alpha value still present in the key will push the incompletely keyed regions down to fully transparent.
• White Level: All alpha values above the White Level setting will be pushed to fully opaque. When the initial results of the key leave partially keyed foreground regions in areas that should have remained fully opaque, setting this While Level control to the minimum alpha value present in the foreground region will push the partially keyed regions back up to fully opaque.
• Gamma Level: Shifts the overall balance of the alpha levels along a gamma correction curve to tweak the look of the foreground edges.
• Color From Cleaned Alpha: Restores color from the cleaned transparent alpha areas.

Matte Choker Group

Expands or contracts the edges of the key.

• Matte Choker On: Enables the the Matte Choker pass.
• Blur: Softens the image’s alpha channel.
• Choke: Positive Choke values push the tones in the matte toward transparent, tightening the edges of the matte around the foreground image. Negative values push the tones toward opaque, expanding the edges of the matte away from the foreground image.
• Grey Soften: Determines the amount of affect the Choke setting has. When Gray Soften is 100, the Choke value has no affect on the image. If Gray Soften is 0, the Choke acts as an alpha extract and produces a purely binary key.
• Color From Cleaned Alpha: Enables the the Matte Choker pass.
• Color From Cleaned Alpha: Restores color from the cleaned transparent alpha areas.

Note: To contract the matte to get rid of areas in the foreground, use a positive Choke value. Increase Blur to increase the softness of the transparent areas, and adjust Gray Soften to adjust the sharpness of the borders of the matte. To expand the matte, follow the same guidelines using a negative Choke value. One tip is to apply a choke in one direction and a second choke in the opposite direction to deal with problem areas created by the first choke.

Color Correction Group

Adjusts the foreground color to better match the background scene and achieve more realistic final composites.

• Color Correction On: Enables the Color Correction pass.
• Brightness: Sets the brightness of the image. Increasing Brightness pushes colors toward white, and decreasing Brightness pushes colors toward black.
• Contrast: Sets the contrast of the image. Increasing Contrast pushes colors toward pure colors, and decreasing Contrast pushes colors toward 50% gray.
• Hue: Cycles the colors in the image around the color wheel in HSL color space. Most color corrections require very small changes; adjustments of 10° or less usually suffice. Adjustments larger than 10° usually produce very dramatic color changes.
• Saturation: Sets the intensity of each color’s hue in the image. Negative values remove color from the image, and positive values add color to the image.
• Output Black: Sets the luminance level of black pixels. Increasing Output Black from its default value of 0 makes black pixels brighter and pushes the RGB color space toward white.
• Output White: Sets the luminance level of white pixels. Decreasing Output White from its default of 255 makes white pixels darker and pushes the RGB color space toward black.

Light Wrap Group

The BCC Light Wrap reflects a background image around the edges of a foreground image to form a border. This creates the illusion that light from the background image is reflected onto the foreground image which in turn creates a more convincing composite by making it appear as if the images were shot in the same environment.

Note: To use the Light Wrap feature in Vegas Pro the filter should be applied in “Custom Composite Mode."

• Light Wrap On: Enables the Light Wrap pass.
• Wrap Source: Determines what the light wrap uses for it's source.
• Background Layer: Selects the source layer for the background.
• Solid Color: Selects a solid color for the light wrap layer.
• Softness: Softens the edges of the light wrap.
• Wrap Color: Selects the color of the light wrap.
• Lightness: Sets the lightness value of the reflected image. Negative values make the reflection darker and positive values make the reflection lighter.
• Width: Determines the width of the reflection or wrap that is generated. Higher numbers result in a larger border. The following examples show the View menu set to Wrap On Black.
• The Apply Mode menu: determines the method that is used to composite the border. For descriptions of all the possible Apply Modes, Click Here.
• Mix with Original: Blends the source and filtered images. Use this parameter to animate the effect from the unfiltered to the filtered image without adjusting other settings, or to reduce the effect of the filter by mixing it with the source image.
• The Background menu: Selects the media to use as the reflected source.