Get the Best Out of Keylight

Get the Best Out of Keylight

You’re no doubt familiar with the areas where you want
to take a good look when you’re evaluating the quality of
a matte:
. Hair detail: Are all of the “wispies” coming through
. Motion blur or, in unusual cases with a defocus, lens
blur: Do blurred objects appear chunky or noisy, or do
they thin out and partially disappear
. Screen contamination areas: Do holes remain in the
foreground
. Shadows: Are they keying as desired (usually all or
nothing)


There may also be fundamental problems, including
. Ill-defi ned foreground/background separation or
semitransparency throughout the foreground or
background
. Crunchy, chewy, or sizzling edges (other terms include
boiling, which is more often applied to roto, and chunky
or clumpy fi ne detail)
. Noise
. Excessive fringing or choking
. Errors in the spill suppression
There are specifi c tools to deal with these; before getting
to those, it’s a good idea to make sure you’re not fi ghting
the fundamentals.