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Edit Review: dvGarage dvMatte Pro Studio 3

Jul 1, 2008 12:00 PM, Reviewer: Franklin McMahon

Affordable keying plug-in package enables fine control.

It would be great if greenscreen keying were a one-click affair. Unfortunately, that's rarely the case. With so many variables in production and lighting, it's often extremely tough to pull the perfect key. In addition, good keying programs can get really pricey. One key to achieving good keying results is shooting good footage, but that can be tricky too. Lighting a scene expertly (that is, evenly) can take a large number of lighting grids. DvMatte Pro Studio 3 from dvGarage aims to take some of the work out of greenscreen (or bluescreen) keying by offering a collection of powerful tools that can make the best of even non-optimal footage.

DvMatte Pro Studio 3 ($199) is a Mac OS X program that works as a series of plug-ins for Apple Final Cut Pro, Final Cut Express, and Motion. Not only does it work with HDV and HD footage, but it also produces excellent results with standard DV footage. The package includes four plug-ins: dvMatte Pro 3, Screenfix, Wrap, and Match. You can use any program separately or all of them together, depending on the workflow.

To start off, it's usually best to load up Screenfix, which takes a frame of the greenscreen and uses it as a template to start the keying process. During production, you capture a frame of just the greenscreen without any talent in front of it. Use the lighting that you'll use with the talent. Simply shoot the unobstructed greenscreen on video and export a frame from Final Cut Pro or Motion and import it into Screenfix.

Once you have the image of the blank greenscreen, drag it into the Screenfix plug-in control. Here, you can set the optimum green target by selecting it with a color picker. This snaps the frame to a smooth, uniform green color. A typical greenscreen exhibits some light fall-off (shadows) around the outer edges. These outer edges create problems when you start tweaking. You usually lose some detail in the subject when you start to dial down the controls to compensate for shadows. Screenfix eliminates the shadows by making a background that is one uniform color. You can use that as your starting point for keying.

Next, you'll typically apply Wrap, which allows you to take a frame of the background image clip (what you are keying in) and use it to produce subtle color around the edges of your subject. For example, say you are keying footage of a person shot greenscreen in a studio against footage of a glowing red and yellow sunset. You would grab a still of the sunset, load it into the Wrap plug-in, and then adjust the radius and amount of the colors. This creates subtle hints of the red/yellow background colors around the edges of the foreground subject. Old-school keyers simply applied a blur around the edges to compensate, but dvMatte uses actual colors. This goes a long way toward tricking the eye into thinking that the two elements are actually from a single shot.

Finally, you'll apply the Match plug-in, which lets you grab white-balance elements from your background and apply them to your foreground subject. As you attempt to infuse realism into your final keyed scene, this tactic works amazingly well. Grab the color balance from a cold-blue street scene and apply it to your warmly lit subject that you shot in the studio. Snap the subject to the exact same range of muted blue hues, and it's amazing how natural the subject now looks blended into the background scene.

To take full advantage of the Match plug-in, hold a white-balance card up to the camera during the background shoot and again during the foreground shoot. You can always start this process later by using Match to select the white points in the footage, but it's helpful to have an X-Rite (formerly GretagMacbeth) ColorChecker Chart on hand during production. Taking advantage of the chart's full spectrum of colors, the plug-in allows you to separately select high, mid, and low ranges of color tones for expert matching.

After using Match, you'll normally jump into the main dvMatte plug-in and adjust any other needed settings. You have access to just about any setting you can imagine, such as high color, low color, black point, white point, chroma, blend, spill suppression, mix, blur, gain, saturation, and highlights. Any keyer control you would ever need is included.

I have some footage of a model shoot from way back that always frustrated me. The lighting was just not powerful enough, causing a lot of light fall-off across all of the footage. When I compensated for shadows, it crushed the main subject, making it very difficult to key. I managed, though, using some of the built-in tools available in Adobe After Effects.

Now that I'm using Motion so much these days, I loaded up the footage and applied the various dvMatte plug-ins. The great results surprised me. In fact, I am going to use the footage now for a new promo project — it looks that good.

Coincidentally, I also did a lot of still photography of the subject on the same greenscreen during that session. DvGarage has just released dpMatte, which uses the same keying technology in this package as a plug-in for Aperture 2.1. I can't wait to play around with this new product. It's clear that the company has plans to dominate the Mac-keying market with easy-to-use tools that produce great results.

As with most keying programs, I always wish for a more automated workflow. To pull the perfect key, it really takes the use of at least two or three of the plug-ins. I would enjoy using them together in one combined plug-in that offers some one-click presets. As it stands, once you get the hang of the individual plug-ins, you can knock out a great key in about 5 minutes via some experimentation.

What really sets the program apart are its tools for matching the edge colors and the color balance between elements. That is where the real power kicks in. If you do any sort of keying, and especially if you spend your days doing client work in Apple's creative programs, dvMatte Pro Suite 3 is a must-have for any media artist, creative boutique, or visual arts production company. The company's website claims that “dvMatte will give you the professional edge.” Judging by the sharp keys I've been able to pull, that statement is true in more ways than one.

If you use Final Cut Pro or Motion, the low price ($199) makes dvMatte Pro Studio 3 a great package to add to your arsenal.

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bottomline

Company: dvGarage www.dvgarage.com

Product: dvMatte Studio Pro 3

Assets: Matches edge colors and color elements with ease, wide variety of keyer controls, low price.

Caveats: Requires multiple plug-ins within the package like most keying programs.

Demographic: Any media artist or production company.

PRICE: $199

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© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.