|
For many years traveling matte blue-screen photography has produced highly convincing movie magic by using strictly optical, mechanical, and chemical means. As the industry developed, and as most commercials were now being shot in film but finished in video, the introduction of the Ultimatte series of instruments permitted composite mattes to be made electronically in post. As an additional benefit, a new degree of creative influence over the final composite image was made possible.
Ultimatte is primarily a linear and additive process, unlike chroma key, which is an all-or-nothing digital switch. This allows Ultimatte to provide subtle shadows of the foreground subject falling on the background "plate". Also, unlike chroma key, Ultimatte will provide a far more realistic edge around a foreground subject (or more correctly, a complete lack of a visible edge). Smoke, reflections in glass, deliberately out-of-focus elements, semi-transparent objects, and fine detail in hair in the foreground scene can all be held with Ultimatte, but are all lost with the much simpler chroma key process. In short, Ultimatte can make scenes look absolutely real that can't be produced any other way. |
Two Most Common Video Operating Modes |
| For the project being shot in video, Ultimatte
will provide a final composite matte right there on the spot. Often this
is done with one foreground camera, looking at the blue stage, the actor,
and maybe a special prop or two; and one background camera, looking at
the background set. The background set is sometimes a miniature, a product
shot, or might be almost any sort of a "normal" settinng.
The other very common mode of operation is to have one foreground camera, and a previously recorded background scene played back from a time base corrected tape playback. These background scenes might be computer generated, or stock footage, or scenes previously recorded for time or distance reasons. In either case the final, finished composite matte shot is recorded then and there, with no additional work needed in post. The great assurance of seeing exactly what the final frame looks like in realtime as it is being recorded, is a vast if not crucial benefit to the video producer on a rational budget--especially considering how often filmed matte shots fail, and need to be re-shot to correct defects when the matting process is performed entirely in the film domain. |
KEY TRADE SECRETS FOR THE IMPATIENT... |
