The Virtuallessness of Virtually No Virtual Set Software I can virtually afford

October 5, 2006 12:23 PM

I'm looking for a lower cost alternative to Serious Magic's Ultra 2, which looks perfect but is completely out of my budget at the moment. Can you help? The solution must not involve any heavy lugging of stuff ... one portable green screen and one computer laptop are all I want to carry, please! Thanks in advance.
posted by thewhynotgirl to technology (5 comments total)

Any number of After Effects plugins would give you superior results, I looked for your e-mail but didn't find one... I could uh, direct you to some sources. Keylight, DVMatte, Zmatte, etc

Filmgeek is going to tell you to use Shake, so you might as well acquire it now if that's the platform you run and give it a spin.
posted by prostyle at 1:42 PM on October 5, 2006

oops - my apologies. I now haved an email addy in my profile :)

Thanks for the info. I really appreciate it. I'll go take a look right now.
posted by thewhynotgirl at 2:29 PM on October 5, 2006

ok, whoa -- I think I need to edit the post to explain that I'm not a video artist or anything -- I'm a speaker, and all I want to do is sit in a chair and video my presentation while providing some interesting background scenery behind me.

I looked at the links you gave for after effects and I really do think that is more work intensive than I can supply right now (this has to be ready in less than 2 weeks and I have a gazillion other tasks on that timeline).

On the other hand, while I was looking, I began thinking that, had I known my work was going to include as much audio and video work as it's beginning to, I would have opted for an apple instead of a PC when I got my last laptop (remember my post from last November? Well, metafilter was my saving grace ... that laptop died painfully and only your extremely observant replies to my naive post gave me time enough to save most of my files ... you have my belated gratitude!!!).

But I digress. The point is, I got an XP, but I just now rooted around in the back room and found an old IMAC 5521. Is this too old to be used for my video needs? Could people on PC's view video I create on it?

I've never used MAC, this was a family member's discarded machine, and I won't know it's specs till I root around some more and find the keyboard, mouse, etc., but is it worth rooting at all? Shake also looks complicated and geared more toward filmmaking than simple one-shot presentation recording.

The thing about the Ultra is that it seems straightforward -- pick, click and voila. The first impression I get from After effects is learn, install, learn, pick, plugin, learn, sweat and hope.

In repetition: I'm hoping to only set up a screen, point a camera, click a button and start talking -- but on a lesser budget than $500. Am I being too simplistic/optimistic?

Thanks again for replies.
posted by thewhynotgirl at 3:49 PM on October 5, 2006

I'm not aware of any purpose-built software that exists just for the purpose of "Input two video files, one with a green background. Key out the green and superimpose them. Export." Then again, I run in pro video circles, for sure. After Effects, Final Cut Pro (on the mac side) or Premiere (on the PC side) would be my "low end" tools of choice.

Do you have Adobe Premiere? This might be the simplest option that'll let you do compositing. I'm trying to remember if any of the lower-end consumer packages (from Ulead, Pinnacle, etc) support chromakey compositing, but I'm pretty sure they don't.
posted by Alterscape at 4:01 PM on October 5, 2006

well, I am thinking now that I will choose one of their more junior products, either the vlog or the communicator, until I can upgrade to the ultra. I am still open to any alternatives ... if only to keep this post from being a commercial for SM lol!

Thank you for your suggestions, tho -- they are simply more complex than I am currently looking for.
posted by thewhynotgirl at 11:29 PM on October 5, 2006