masking scenery tutorial

well here is my method for masking scenery splits together:

First and most important is to make sure when you record your different splits of the track that you make sure that you can make perfect recordings so that each frame of one recording lines up perfect with each other recording. (links for good recording tutorials please)

Also, make sure that the aspect ratio and zoom levels also match in each recording. The best way to do this is to look for some section of track that guides your zoom where you barely see one line at 1 edge of the viewing area and another line at the opposite edge. Just remember to remember the lines you use so you can find them in each split.

Now for the masking method: (works on any editor that contains the chroma key feature)

1: put the first recording in the master video track
2: put the second recording in the first pip track
3: chop of that little bit before the track actually starts in each recording so that both recordings line up perfectly
4: on the recording in the pip track remove everything that doesn't contain scenery. that way each section of scenery in the recording should line up perfectly to the recording in the master video track.

5: for each section of the recording that you kept, highlight it and find and enable the chromakey feature (for powerdirector just double click the video and you and you should find it right there.

6: once you've found it, click to edit the chroma key filter, set the color to white, and adjust the intensity level to where it looks good. (I like it at
anywhere from 4-10)

7: finally once you're done with those recordings, render what you have using the best quality video settings you can, put that rendered movie in the master track, the next recording in the pip track, and repeat the process until you have successfully masked in every split.

tip: one thing I've noticed while using this method for masking is that when you mask naked track over scened track, the naked track will sort of 'glow' on top of the scenery, while it doesn't when you mask scenery over naked track. One thing I found that works is to minimize the ammount of 'glowing' is to go back to the final product and look for the areas in the video where you notice the glowing, go back the the recording that has that section of scenery, and mask that section over top of the video (using the method I explained) eliminating the 'glowing' in that section. some will be unavoidable, but you can eliminate the majority of the glowing effect in the final video.


if there is anything you don't understand about it, try to be specific so that know better what to change or make more clear.

Wow thanks that really helps