Setting Up Keying With Ultra Tutorial 3

7/28/2019 Setting Up Keying With Ultra Tutorial 3

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Ultra Tutorial 3: Pan and Zoom, Input Positioning, and more

By Karl Soule

In this tutorial, well walk through the use of the pan and zoom controls within ULTRA. These toolsmake it easy to do a "match move" of the background and your keyed talent, and help "sell" thevirtual environment to your audience. We are also going to show how to reposition your input clip tomatch the scene.

In the Sessions tab, inside the Sample folder, youll find a session entitled Pan and Zoom Sample.This is our finished session from this tutorial, so if youd like to compare your results to ours, saveyour session, and load this one.

1. Start a New Session.

2. In the virtual Set tab, Open the folder for the Library Set.3. Find the shot entitled Library Cam 2 (Tight).4. Drag and drop that shot into the Virtual Set icon.

In this tutorial, we are starting a little differently than past tutorials. ULTRA is very flexible,and you can start with either the virtual set shot or your input clip. When you start with thevirtual set first, ULTRA uses placeholders in the image for other clips. In this shot, we have aplaceholder for the input clip, and a placeholder for the B Source in the monitor.

5. In the Browse tab, find the clip called "Interview - Tight."6. Drag and drop the clip into the Input Clip icon.

In this particular source clip, we dont have a clean plate, but we do have a nice, evenbackdrop. We can use the single-click method to key our subject.

7. In the Source Preview Monitor click once on the green background.

8. Change to the Keyer tab.9. In the Keyer tab, click the Apply Points button.


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Fig 3: Starting Orientation Backward

See how our talent is on the wrong side of the screen? Well quickly fix this using the Inputpositioning tools.

TIP: Its always better to shoot your talent shot centered on the subject. If we wanted tocenter our talent in the scene now, we couldnt because his shoulder is cut off by the edgeof the frame.

Now, well fix his positioning in the scene.

10. Go to the scene tab.11. Under "Input orientation in Scene," set the "y" coordinate to 180.

This repositions and flips the talent around in the scene so that he isnt obscuring themonitor. You may notice that the "y" value jumps back to zero, and the X and Z values both

change to -180. This is because both sets of coordinates represent the same value, andULTRA will sometimes substitute a different set of numbers.

Fig 4: Needs Crop and Adjustment

Youll probably notice that he isnt positioned quite right for the scene. Thats because theset shot is designed for a centered talent shot. Since our talent is not centered, we need toreposition him in the scene.

12. On the scene tab, locate the Input Position in Scene window.13. Set the x, y, and z values back to zero. You will have to type zero in each box.

The Reset button for this scene will reset the position values back to what loaded up withthe Virtual Set.


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Now that we have positioning set up, lets tweak a few values on the key. We arent going tospend too much time on this See tutorial 1 for more detailed instructions on keyer setup.

14. Lower the Transparency to .32015. Raise the Start Threshold to .14616. Turn Highlights Off.

In this key, the Highlights value is causing some issues with the edging. Turning Highlights off helps clean up some of this.

17. Set Shadows and Sensitivity to 1.00 (all of the way to the right.)18. Set the Alpha Curve at .496.

See Tutorial 1 for step-by-step instructions how we arrived at the Color Suppression values.

19. Set Desaturation to .51820. Set Spill Suppression to .416.21. Set the Color Curve to .504.

At this point, we are still dealing with some edge problems. For this shot, its necessary touse the matte post-processing tools to correct the problem.

22. Set Shrink Matte up until you see the edge disappear. You should have a value around .475.

The danger of using the Shrink Matte setting is that we lose a little of the image around theedges. This can cause problems in areas where the keyer is having a difficult time, such assemi-transparent areas, or thin objects with lots of spill.The other matte controls helpcompensate by redefining the edges in the key, softening them, and then sharpening themback up.

23. Set the Soften Matte slider for about .182.

This softens and blurs the edge of the matte. This is necessary for the final step resharpening the edge of the matte. Basically, we are blurring out the white unwanted edge,and then resharpening the edge after the unwanted parts are gone. This gives us nice sharpedges for the shot, which we want, without any of the unwanted parts.

24. Set Sharpen Matte for roughly .40025. Set Sharpen Range for about .350.


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Fig 6: Final Key

26. Go to the Backgrounds tab.27. Find the picture called Capitol.28. Drag and drop it into the Source B picon.

Fig 7: Placing the Source B Image

Now its time to set up the Pan and Zoom, and we are ready to output.

Basically, we define a pan/zoom move with 2 keyframes a start point and an end point.This is done using the windows in the Pan & Zoom tab.

29. Go to the Pan & Zoom tab.30. Check the Enable box.

What we want to accomplish is a clip that starts full screen, then at 5 seconds in, the clipbegins a slow 5 second zoom-in.

31. Locate Pan and Zoom point 132. Scrub the output preview monitor to roughly 5 seconds into the clip.

33. Click the Set button next to the Time indicator for point 1.


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Fig 6: Setting Zoom In Point

This will set the starting point for our zoom.

34. Locate Pan and Zoom point 2.35. Scrub the output preview monitor to roughly 10 seconds into the clip.36. Click the Set button next to the Time indicator for point 2.37. Hold down the Shift key, and drag down in the point 2 grid window to about -.120

Fig 8: Setting Zoom Out Point

Now, weve established our zoom point, but the camera needs a little reframing. Well needto add a slight pan down to remove some headroom in the shot.

38. Without holding down shift, drag up the point 2 grid so that Y is roughly 0.060.39. Scrub the output preview monitor again to confirm your pan and zoom.

The clip should be ready for saving!

FAQ for Tutorial 3

I noticed a bit of a black line on the left side of the input clip. Can I get rid of this?

There is a thin black line on the edge of the clip. This is caused by the camera the clip was recordedfrom, and is not a problem with ULTRA. Certain camera manufacturers use a matte on the edge of the active picture area to cover possible noise in the image. For this tutorial, it wasnt necessary to


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remove it, but that could be easily done using the Input Cropping tool on the Input tab. See Tutorial2 for a description of this function.

How do I set the duration of my zoom?

The duration of the zoom is determined by the time difference between point 1 and point 2. Forexample, if I set Zoom Point One at 5 seconds into the clip, and then I set Zoom Point Two at 6seconds into the clip, Ive created a 1 second zoom. If you ever need to determine the length of yourpan/zoom, just subtract one points time from the other.

In what situations would I use the "Start Zoomed" check box under Pan and Zoom Point 1?

This is used for the opposite of the shot we just did a zoom out shot. Start zoomed in, and hold thestarting point for a certain length of time before zooming out. Zoom point 1, click the Start Zoomedbox and then scrub and set the point in time you wish to remain on the zoomed-in shot. Then set thepoint in time for Zoom point 2 when you want to reach full screen again.

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Setting Up Keying With Ultra Tutorial 3