Making one character monochrome in a colour sequence

[Dave Watterson]

[Dave - John James asked me to post this ...]

I'm looking into how to make one character in a sequence monochrome whist the rest of the frame, including a second character, is in colour. Both characters move within the frame so the filter needs be one that can also move around within the frame.

We wish to do this on a PC so am wondering which piece of software would be best. We are using Premiere 6.5 for compatability between machines using Canopus Storm 2 cards. Drivers for Storm cards are only available up to Premiere Pro 1.5. We do however have access up to Premiere Pro CS4 without using the Canopus card. Would using 'regions' with Canopus filters be capable of delivering? And what about a feather edge to the region?

We understand that a filter in Final Cut called color will do what we need but Final Cut 10 has no facility to 'export to tape' now and exporting to a file has caused us many frustrating problems with compatability and quality when trying to use 720 x 576 AVI.

Does anyone know if the colour filter that I am talking about is available in Final Cut 5 which I have on an old PowerBook G4?

Would a program such as Boris or Adobe After Effects on a PC be able to do what we require?

Your help and advise would be very much appreciated.

Regards,

John James
(The Partners)

[FredD]

Hi John (through Dave),

If I was going to do this in post, I would use After Effects. There are several ways this could be done in AE, but I would probably use the Roto Brush to create a Matte and then Desaturate (or Tint) my monochrome character, then Motion track and composite back with my colour layers.

But, if I was not very familiar with After Effects, I would probably shoot my desaturated character separately with a blue / green screen, than chromakey/composite him with my colour material.

Hope this gives food for thought,

Best regards,
Fred D.

[FredD]

Hi Dave

Just wondered if you managed to pass my reply onto John ??

Best regards,
Fred

[Dave Watterson]

Hi Fred
Sorry I had not passed it on - hoping John James would join this forum ... I have now emailed him your helpful suggestion.

- Dave

[Dave Watterson]

John has replied:

Thanks Fred,

After all the advice that we received we finally decided to go with Final Cut Pro on the Mac and used an '8 point garbage matte' filter.

Many thanks for your help.

Regards,

John James and the Partners team.

[ned c]

I am interested in how this works out as my attempt to use the 8 point garbage filter on a moving object failed. I suspect that Color is perhaps a better method; I will check with the local Color expert to see how this may be done.

ned c