CUT UP OF BLUE/GREEN BACKGROUND (Method 1) (hide)
CUT UP OF BLUE/GREEN BACKGROUND (Method 1)
A) Introduction
Alpha mask: this is an option you might need (to sum up briefly) to cut up a plain blue/green background (to know what you might use it for, follow the link).
3D Mask: produces images (the bleu or green background becomes entirely white and the subjet or the character becomes entirely black, or the contrary … depending on the user’s choice in the interface) that can be later imported (the images) in a computer-generated images software (as the Blender) and to be able to put/embed all of your work (the/the characters(s) initially filmed on a blue background, for instance ) in a 3D set.
Method 1 is a way of calculating (pretty) good (in the time of caluclating and in the quality of the cut up). It is recommended to make some tests between method 1 and 2 to know which one is going to be the best comparatevely to what you want to do. Time of calculation is faster in method 1, but considering that it is based on a cut up by a calculation in HSV, the cut up we’re talking about will be a little bit more rough than the one with method 2… so if (for instance) you have a character with the hair a bit mess up, filmed or shoot on a plain blue (or green) background , in the final cut up the rebel hair will be a bit cropped (and the main character will be with a slicker hairbrush).
B) Settings
Shade (beginning and end): Shade is the representation of the color (it is calculated in degrees), for instance: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, purple, we can see his belongings wheter it’s far or not from another color (source : HERE). In EKD, and this is valid for the cut up of a plain bleu background, the shade values by deafult (beginning and end) are between 176 et 298. That means that setting has to be made between 176 et 298. If we had a plain green background, setting would have been between 76 et 175. For the setting of the different shades of color, check the chromatic circle (or chromatic wheel) of the image just below (source : HERE). The possible settings go from 0 to 360 .
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_et_meth_2_roue_chromatique.jpg Δ
Saturation (beginning and end): According to the definition about this very good article that comes from HERE, “Saturation describes how pure is the shade compared to a white reference. For instance, a color which is entierely red and without any white, is entirely saturated. If we add a little white to the red, the result gets a bit more pastel and the color moves from red to pink. The shade is always red but it became less saturated. Saturation is a percentage which goes from 0 to 100 (or some values between 0 and 1). A pure red without any white is 100% saturated”. So, in this exemple, saturation goes from white to pure red. Let’s put this in an exemple with a character on a plain blue background, and let’s imagine he just took a picture of a woman with some make-up (a light bleu make-up) on a plain blue background, well thanks to this setting of the saturation, we can act so that the blue make-up is not cut up at the same time than the background. Here’s a small image showing what the saturation is about (exemple with the color red):
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_et_meth_2_saturation.jpg Δ
Brightness: Again, according to the definition about this very good article that comes from HERE, “A color has got a brightness. It is a description related to the quantity of light that is coming from the color. If the color reflects a lot of light, we would say it’s a bright color. Let’s imagine you’re watching a sport red car in the day light. Its color seems to be bright. Compare this to the view of the car when the night falls. We can see that the car is red but it seems to be a bit more mat because the surrounding lighting reflects less light in the eye. Less light means that the color seems to be darker. Values are from 0 to 256 (or a percentage between 0 and 100). This interval can be considered as the quantity of light shading from a color. For instance, when the shade is red and the value is high, the color seems to be brilliant/bright. When the value is low, it looks darker”. So here the value goes from the very dark red (almost black) to the brighter red. Here’s a small image showing what the brightness is (exemple with the red color):
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_et_meth_2_luminosite.jpg Δ
C) Alpha mask
c1) Loading images
In the Image(s) source tab load your images by the button Add.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_001.jpg Δ
A dialogue box apperars, unfold it and select the directory in which you have your images (on the left side), your images are shown as thumbnails (by default) on the right side. To select a single image one by one, select the first thumbnail, then, by keepin the CTRL key pushed, click on every image you want to select, to finish click on Add.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_et_meth_2_charg_img_001.jpg Δ
Here are the images (represented by the thumbnails) once in the main window.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_002.jpg Δ
Select your Method in the scroll list (Method 1), then your Mask type (Alpha Mask).
c2) Settings Applying and display
In the Mask settings tab select your plain background type (we’re here choosing the blue background because we downloaded some images with a blue background), to go on we can make the settings of Shade (beginning), Shade (end), the results of these settings are shown in the chromatic wheel (in a visible way), than we can make the settings of the Saturation (beginning), Saturation (end), Brightness (beginning), the results of these settings are shown in the two squares on the right of the chromatic wheel (for our exemple here, we choose the values by default which are given by the blue background of Plain background type) … to end it make the Sharpness choice, by selecting Sharper forms’.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_003.jpg Δ
Select now the Other settings tab and leave the values by default. If you wish to know what these two settings are for, follow this link).
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_004.jpg Δ
c3) Here’s the result
You can see the result by the image in a new window (and before the final treatment) to do this go back to the Image(s) source tab and select the image in which you wish to see the plain background (blue, in this case) cut, click on the button See the result.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_et_meth_2_voir_le_resultat_001.jpg Δ
Here’s the result in the dispaly window. The squared background represents the plain blue background that has been cut and that leaves the place to a transparent background, click on the button Come back to go back to the main window.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_005.jpg Δ
If you make a right click on the image, you have the possibility , especially, to display the image at the Real scale, to make a Zoom in, at a Zoom out, do not hesitate (!!!), the aim is to check if the settings that you made in the Mask settings’ tab allow you to have images in which the plain bleu background disappeared (but also to check if the cut up didn’t crop too much on the pixels that are not supposed to belong to the bleu shade, so belonging to the background).
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_et_meth_2_fen_visual_clic_droit.jpg Δ
You can also do it by using the button on the down side of the window.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_et_meth_2_fen_visual_boutons.jpg Δ
As soon as everything seem to be ready to go and that the settings are fine, you can go to the final treatment, click then on Apply and save button.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_et_meth_2_appliquer_001.jpg Δ
The saving window (Save) gets open, in this one, on the left side, select the destination dirctory (if you need it, unfold the sub-directories), write the title in the text frame File name: and click on the button Save.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_006.jpg Δ
The progression bar starts to work. After a certain lap of time (during the treatment of the second image of the set) you can see an estimation Remaining rendering time of the time left.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_007.jpg Δ
At the end of the treatment, the images whose background has been cut up become visibles in the Images after treatement tab and you can use them by their thumbnails.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_008.jpg Δ
c5) Full informations
If you go to the Infos tab, you can see some statistics (quite exact) of the rendering.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_009.jpg Δ
c6) Statistic rendering file
For each treatment (images that have been saved) a text file is generated ; this file contains some rendering statistics (the day and the hour in which it has been made, the image numbering, the rendering time, the rendering time average and the full rendering time).
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_010.jpg Δ
c7) Image result
Here’s an image after the plain bleu background cut out in EKD with Method 1.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_011.jpg Δ
D) 3D Mask
d1) Images loading
In the Image(s) source tab load your images by the button Add.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_001.jpg Δ
A dialogue box apperars, unfold it and select the directory in which you have your images (on the left side), your images are shown as thumbnails (by default) on the right side. To select a single image one by one, select the first thumbnail, then, by keepin the CTRL key pushed, click on every image you want to select, to finish click on Add.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_et_meth_2_charg_img_001.jpg Δ
Here are the images (represented by the thumbnails) once in the main window.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_002.jpg Δ
d2) Settings applying and display
Select your Method in the scrolling list (Method 1), then your Mask type (3D Mask), then in the Mask settings tab choose your Plain background type (we’re choosing the Blue background because images with a bleu background have been loaded), to go on we can set the Shade (beginning), Shade (end), the results of these settings are shown in the chromatic wheel (and in a vbisible way), then we can make the settings of the Saturation (beginning), Saturation (end), Brightness (beginning), the results of these settings are shown in the two squares on the right of the chromatic wheel (for our exemple here, we choose the values by default which are given by the blue background of Plain background type) … to end it make the Background and form choice by clicking on Black background white shape(s)’.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_012.jpg Δ
Select now the Other settings tab and leave the values by default. If you wish to know what are these two settings about, follow the link).
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_004.jpg Δ
d3) See the result
You can see the result in images in a new window (and before the final treatment) so go back in the Image(s) source tab and select the image in which you want to see the plain background (blue, in this case) cut out, click on the button See the result. What is shown here in this window it is not the 3D mask but the alpha mask (in order for you to see it in a better way than the cut up).
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_et_meth_2_voir_le_resultat_001.jpg Δ
Here’s the result in the dispaly window. The squared background represents the plain blue background that has been cut and that leaves the place to a transparent background, click on the button Come back to go back to the main window.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_005.jpg Δ
If you make a right click on the image, you have the possibility , especially, to display the image at the Real scale, to make a Zoom in, at a Zoom out, do not hesitate (!!!), the aim is to check if the settings that you made in the Mask settings’ tab allow you to have images in which the plain bleu background disappeared (but also to check if the cut out didn’t crop too much on the pixels that are not supposed to belong to the bleu shade, so belonging to the background).
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_et_meth_2_fen_visual_clic_droit.jpg Δ
You can also do it by using the button on the down side of the window.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_et_meth_2_fen_visual_boutons.jpg Δ
d4) Final treatment
As soon as everything seem to be ready to go and that the settings are fine, you can go to the final treatment, click then on Apply and save button.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_et_meth_2_appliquer_001.jpg Δ
The saving window (Save) gets open, in this one, on the left side, select the destination dirctory (if you need it, unfold the sub-directories), write the title in the text frame File name: and click on the button Save.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_013.jpg Δ
The progression bar starts to work. After a certain lap of time (during the treatment of the second image of the set) you can see an estimation Remaining rendering time of the time left.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_014.jpg Δ
At the end of the treatment, the images whose background has been cut out become visibles in the Images after treatement tab and you can use them by their thumbnails.
Attach:masque_alpha_3d_meth_1_015.jpg Δ
d5) Full informations
As for the alpha mask, if you go to the Infos tab, you can see some statistics (quite exact) of the rendering…and here for each treatment (images that have been saved) a text file is generated ; this file contains some rendering statistics (the day and the hour in which it has been made, the image numbering, the rendering time, the rendering time average and the full rendering time).
d6) Image result
Here’s one of the images after the treatment 3D Mask in EKD with Method 1.
