These 3 plug-ins are demo versions of the plug-ins that are included in our 'Ultimatte for Macintosh' product. They will run in Adobe After Effects 3.0 or higher.
To install the plug-ins, drag them into Adobe After Effects plug-ins folder. The next time you launch After Effects an 'Ultimatte' menu will appear in the 'Effects' menu.
The 'Ultimatte' plug-in is the core plug-in within the plug-in set. It is the blue/green screen image compositing plug-in. However, the 'Screen Correction' plug-in which helps eliminate uneven lighting and anamolies in the blue screen and 'Grain Killer' which helps eliminate grain/electronic noise in the blue screen area are both important parts of this package. These two plug-ins are part of what seperates us from the other "keying" tools on the market.
We have provided sample images to help demo the plug-ins, but we encourage you to experiment using your own images. To demo the plug-ins, import the 'foreground 1', 'background', and 'screen correction' images into After Effects using the File/Import/Footage Files menu. These images are all 320x240 PICT files. Create a new 320x240 composition using the Composition/New menu. Place the 'background' image into the composition. Place the 'screen correction' image into the composition. Place the 'foreground 1' image into the composition. Make the 'screen correction' layer not-visible(One way to do this is to click on the eye {under the V} in the Time Layout window).
You are now ready to begin using the plug-ins. In the typical scenario you would Screen Correct the image first, then Grain Kill it, then Composite it. Launch the Screen Correction plug-in using the Effect/Ultimatte/Screen Correction menu. A dialog box telling you that the plug-in will run in demo mode will be displayed, click OK. The first step is to tell the plug-in what layer to use as the Correction layer. Use the Correction Layer pull down menu to select the 'Screen Correction' image as the Correction layer. Now use the Eye Dropper tool to select an area of the blue screen. Change the view to Corrected Foreground. You will now see the Foreground image against an even blue screen. The demo version of the plug-ins place a colored grid over the output image. Toggle back and forth between the Foreground and Corrected Foreground views to see the effect of Screen Correction.
Launch the Grain Killer plug-in using the Effect/Ultimatte/Grain Killer menu. A dialog box telling you that the plug-in will run in demo mode will be displayed, click OK. Use the Eye Dropper tool to select an area of the blue screen. Change the view to Filter Area. This view is used to display which areas of the image will be filtered, and which will not. Any area that is white will be filtered, any area that is black will not be filtered. Use the Master, Red, Green, and Blue Offset controls to define which areas of the image will be filtered and which areas will not. Now change the view to Filtered Foreground.
Now you are ready to actually create the composite image. Launch the Ultimatte plug-in using the Effect/Ultimatte/Ultimatte menu. A dialog box telling you that the plug-in will run in demo mode will be displayed, click OK. Use the Eye Dropper tool to select an area of the blue screen. Change the view to Composite. Now we need to change the Transfer mode from Normal to Luminescent Premul. To change the transfer mode, change the Switches control in the bottom of the Time Layout window from Switches to Transfer Modes. This will change the information next to the layers from switches to a Transfer Mode pull down menu. For the foreground image, select Luminescent Premul as the new transfer mode(if this option is not available, release the menu, hold down the option key and try again). Try toggling back and forth between Normal and Luminescent Premul mode to see the difference. Try playing with the rest of the controls in the Ultimatte plug-in to solve some of the subtle problems that still exist in the composite(hint: Try using Matte Density to remove the print thru from the woman's shirt and Black Balance & Gray Balance to remove Blue Spill from the edges of her hair).
A final step would be to use the Masking tools supplied by After Effects to mask out the light in the upper right corner of the foreground image. Putting a 2 or 3 pixel feather on the mask should make it disappear very nicely.
If you like what you see and are interested in purchasing 'Ultimatte for Macintosh', contact Ultimatte at:
