Does anyone know how to chromakey a Poser figure onto a background? And can this only be done in Adobe Premiere Pro or elements? These programs are quite expensive!I have read several articles on this subject, but they are too general.I was wondering if someone would be kind enough to take me through the process step by step.Cheers arrow1

If you are trying to superimpose a Poser figure onto a photo, choose FIle > Import > Background Picture. It will ask if you want to change the document window to match the background picture. If you answer yes, the document window will change dimensions to match the background picture. If you answer no, the document window will remain the present size, but the background picture may get distorted.

Message edited on: 03/20/2005 13:46

I recommend using the render's alpha channel for masking, instead of chromakey. It tends to produce cleaner results, no matter what colour you may use. Can't help with Premiere, unfortunately; I only had the application for a short while before deciding I didn't like it and returning to VirtualDub.

Chromakey is a particular (and old) video process, and from the software you mention, it does look as though you're talking about video rather than individual photographs. For a static background, Deecey's method should work. Am I correct in thinking you want the background to be some sort of moving picture?

If that is the case, you can also import a video as a background. File > Import > Background Movie.

I created an animation of ten figures marching with ground shadows.I want keep the ground and figures and change the background. arrow1

chromakey is an overlay process where the selected color is made transparent. There are other methods if you are doing still images. Microsoft movie maker with XP sp2 has the capability but the color used is very specific. Sony vegas movie studio 4.0 does it better with a wider color range. (shades of the same color) Premiere Pro will certainly do it, its one of the video standards.

If you're sure it's chromakeying you want, Zwei-Stein from Thugsatbay.com has easily the most flexible implementation I've seen, and it's free! On the downside it has a bizarre, and frankly ugly, interface and it doesn't support 16:9. Also you can use the alpha channel in an animation if you render out to a numbered sequence of TIFFs or PNGs.

Message edited on: 03/20/2005 16:11

Attached Link: http://www.bauhaussoftware.com/home_LP.php

The easiest and cheapest way to composite in this case to simply import your video into poser as a background (Poser 5/6)

I still use that simple technique with Truespace to add Lens flares to my animations. :D

You could do it with a photoshop action and Poser figures rendered with an alpha channel.

If you want more control and have around $800 burning a hole in your pocket I can never reccomend Bahaus software's Mirage enough, as a compositing/FX/paint solution. Oh, and it can also do chroma keying if you ever want to make your own Blue screen and do some cool VFX for your home movies. :D

Message edited on: 03/21/2005 10:29