{"id":14157,"date":"2020-10-08T14:08:02","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T12:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ekaiadesign.com\/?p=14157"},"modified":"2020-10-08T14:13:55","modified_gmt":"2020-10-08T12:13:55","slug":"about-tracking-markers-in-green-backgrounds-and-animal-crossing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ekaiadesign.com\/?p=14157","title":{"rendered":"About tracking markers in green backgrounds (and Animal Crossing)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A few days ago, while playing Nintendo Switch’s Animal Crossing<\/strong><\/em>, I made a joke on Twitter that I had been able to create a VFX shooting studio inside the game with its green chromakey background and tracking markers. From there came a debate about why those backgrounds are used in movies and the possible complications they could have. I will try to explain it in the simplest way possible:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since I saw that people had liked that I used Animal Crossing<\/em>, to help me here I have Mini Edu<\/em> and the little pig Maggie<\/em>. Say hi guys!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The chromas are basically parts of the set (usually backgrounds) that we eliminate in compositing. They are usually green or blue because they are the colors that are farthest from the red shade of the actors’ skin.<\/strong> In addition to the green color, they usually put some markers (usually in the shape of a cross) around the set. These have several purposes such as recreating the movement of the camera in the background if it moves or anchoring something at the distance that the markers are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Markers of many types and colors are often used. Above all we look for contrast with the chroma key enough to detect them well\u2026 But sometimes this can cause some problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Red \/ orange markers: <\/strong>Quite problematic. Once we have made the chroma key disappear\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2026 the markers stay there because they are of a tone similar to that of the actors, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The image is composed of the Red, Green and Blue channels. The chroma key is based on green and here we can see how the markers directly pierce it. What you see below is the information of the green channel of the image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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One of the ways to solve this is, through some operations, to convert the red into a green tone before the process (called key<\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But still if the markers are interfering with the actors (or with THE HAIR of the actors) you will have to do a manual cleaning by selecting the zones by rotoscoping. This can take hours. Considering that time is money\u2026 This is money thrown away<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I’m especially interested in the hair because it’s usually something delicate to treat. When this happens many times it has to be redrawn or reconstructed and it won’t look the same. Add it to the above and go on. Basically, red markers can be a tremendous nuisance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n