Processing video frames
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I've been interested in making a 2D side-view platformer. I've been experimenting with video footage of an actor, and how to process that footage down to useable game sprites. Image: http://www.18giants.com/example1.jpg As you can see, seperating the figure from the background (in code) is a real challenge. Her arms are especially close to the color of the wall behind her. I've tried keying on r,g,b, on chroma, on hue, on saturation, and several combinations thereof. I tried keying on frame-to-frame changes. I tried getting a reference frame (without her in the shot) and keying off the differences. I also tried counting the colors, sorting them by a two-color cutout of the figure, and applying the results back to each frame. Nothing's really working, especially on the arms. I KNOW I'm supposed to spring for a green stage and all that, or just get an artist to hand-process every frame, but I wanted to find a cheap, software solution if I could. Do you know of anybody doing this kind of thing? Have you heard about an algorythm I haven't tried yet? Thanks!
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I've been interested in making a 2D side-view platformer. I've been experimenting with video footage of an actor, and how to process that footage down to useable game sprites. Image: http://www.18giants.com/example1.jpg As you can see, seperating the figure from the background (in code) is a real challenge. Her arms are especially close to the color of the wall behind her. I've tried keying on r,g,b, on chroma, on hue, on saturation, and several combinations thereof. I tried keying on frame-to-frame changes. I tried getting a reference frame (without her in the shot) and keying off the differences. I also tried counting the colors, sorting them by a two-color cutout of the figure, and applying the results back to each frame. Nothing's really working, especially on the arms. I KNOW I'm supposed to spring for a green stage and all that, or just get an artist to hand-process every frame, but I wanted to find a cheap, software solution if I could. Do you know of anybody doing this kind of thing? Have you heard about an algorythm I haven't tried yet? Thanks!
How i solved that stuff normally is that i think of every element of the person as a different layer that i need. So i end up with multiple movies , one wih the legs , the other with the head , and a oher with ..Then i impose them ontop of each other. You can do basic pos effects in Adobe Premiere , but if you have to go more hardcore,try After Effects. A hint with after effecs : You can nest projects in projects. So tweaking of one colourkey in a layer will show you a nice result in all those nested colour key layers together.
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I've been interested in making a 2D side-view platformer. I've been experimenting with video footage of an actor, and how to process that footage down to useable game sprites. Image: http://www.18giants.com/example1.jpg As you can see, seperating the figure from the background (in code) is a real challenge. Her arms are especially close to the color of the wall behind her. I've tried keying on r,g,b, on chroma, on hue, on saturation, and several combinations thereof. I tried keying on frame-to-frame changes. I tried getting a reference frame (without her in the shot) and keying off the differences. I also tried counting the colors, sorting them by a two-color cutout of the figure, and applying the results back to each frame. Nothing's really working, especially on the arms. I KNOW I'm supposed to spring for a green stage and all that, or just get an artist to hand-process every frame, but I wanted to find a cheap, software solution if I could. Do you know of anybody doing this kind of thing? Have you heard about an algorythm I haven't tried yet? Thanks!
I think the answer you received does not address your question. At least I got it diferent. I assume you want to record an actor and then remove the background so that you can use the frames of the actor over the background of a game. The tricky part is that you don't want to spend a lot of money on a "green" background (which would be easilly removed, of course). Is this right? If I got it right then I can imagine a number of solutions and also many details that should be observed (depending on the final quality you intend to achieve). The easiest solution I can think of is dressing the actor in colors, instead of using a green background. From the image you posted I would sugest: 1) Paint her face light blue (this paint should not be too expensive). 2) Leave the hair black. 3) Paint the arms green (or dress them in a tight green bluse and gloves). 4) Wear a red sleavless shirt. 5) Wear blue pants. 6) Wear green shoes (or socks, I can't see the details very well). (this is for the given image only, other images may sugest a diferent colour scheme) Then it will be easier to remove the background against the actor's colors. Simply learn the background and subtract. Well, it is not as easy if you get a lot of noise (if you do then reply to this message for techniques how to remove noise). When you have removed the background then you just replace the actor's colours by software. All shadows should be valid and accurate after this and you get your actor isolated. Then, for realism and credibility, you should use an alpha channel (for transparency) for the sprite drawing (during the game). Make at least one alpha pixel in contour. If you have a typical color for background then reply to this message for techniques on how to recompute the best contour. I hope this helps, Rilhas
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I've been interested in making a 2D side-view platformer. I've been experimenting with video footage of an actor, and how to process that footage down to useable game sprites. Image: http://www.18giants.com/example1.jpg As you can see, seperating the figure from the background (in code) is a real challenge. Her arms are especially close to the color of the wall behind her. I've tried keying on r,g,b, on chroma, on hue, on saturation, and several combinations thereof. I tried keying on frame-to-frame changes. I tried getting a reference frame (without her in the shot) and keying off the differences. I also tried counting the colors, sorting them by a two-color cutout of the figure, and applying the results back to each frame. Nothing's really working, especially on the arms. I KNOW I'm supposed to spring for a green stage and all that, or just get an artist to hand-process every frame, but I wanted to find a cheap, software solution if I could. Do you know of anybody doing this kind of thing? Have you heard about an algorythm I haven't tried yet? Thanks!
thanks: https://movied.org
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I think the answer you received does not address your question. At least I got it diferent. I assume you want to record an actor and then remove the background so that you can use the frames of the actor over the background of a game. The tricky part is that you don't want to spend a lot of money on a "green" background (which would be easilly removed, of course). Is this right? If I got it right then I can imagine a number of solutions and also many details that should be observed (depending on the final quality you intend to achieve). The easiest solution I can think of is dressing the actor in colors, instead of using a green background. From the image you posted I would sugest: 1) Paint her face light blue (this paint should not be too expensive). 2) Leave the hair black. 3) Paint the arms green (or dress them in a tight green bluse and gloves). 4) Wear a red sleavless shirt. 5) Wear blue pants. 6) Wear green shoes (or socks, I can't see the details very well). (this is for the given image only, other images may sugest a diferent colour scheme) Then it will be easier to remove the background against the actor's colors. Simply learn the background and subtract. Well, it is not as easy if you get a lot of noise (if you do then reply to this message for techniques how to remove noise). When you have removed the background then you just replace the actor's colours by software. All shadows should be valid and accurate after this and you get your actor isolated. Then, for realism and credibility, you should use an alpha channel (for transparency) for the sprite drawing (during the game). Make at least one alpha pixel in contour. If you have a typical color for background then reply to this message for techniques on how to recompute the best contour. I hope this helps, Rilhas
thanks: https://movied.org
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How i solved that stuff normally is that i think of every element of the person as a different layer that i need. So i end up with multiple movies , one wih the legs , the other with the head , and a oher with ..Then i impose them ontop of each other. You can do basic pos effects in Adobe Premiere , but if you have to go more hardcore,try After Effects. A hint with after effecs : You can nest projects in projects. So tweaking of one colourkey in a layer will show you a nice result in all those nested colour key layers together.
thanks: https://movied.org
-
I've been interested in making a 2D side-view platformer. I've been experimenting with video footage of an actor, and how to process that footage down to useable game sprites. Image: http://www.18giants.com/example1.jpg As you can see, seperating the figure from the background (in code) is a real challenge. Her arms are especially close to the color of the wall behind her. I've tried keying on r,g,b, on chroma, on hue, on saturation, and several combinations thereof. I tried keying on frame-to-frame changes. I tried getting a reference frame (without her in the shot) and keying off the differences. I also tried counting the colors, sorting them by a two-color cutout of the figure, and applying the results back to each frame. Nothing's really working, especially on the arms. I KNOW I'm supposed to spring for a green stage and all that, or just get an artist to hand-process every frame, but I wanted to find a cheap, software solution if I could. Do you know of anybody doing this kind of thing? Have you heard about an algorythm I haven't tried yet? Thanks!
thanks
