Erasing background of video?

[portauthority]

Is it possible to "erase" the background of a video clip - make it transparent so I can paste it into an another video?

I only have access to Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, and I really don't care if it is complex and involved, I just want to know how to do it.

Do I have to split the video clip into images and then erase it from there?

[Soldiers33]

dont u need to use the greenboard?

[CelticWhisper]

The problem is this...what part of the clip is the background? I know that you and I know what the "background" is, but how does Premiere know that? Unless you're using some kind of multi-layered video format, it's going to involve isolating moving versus stationary parts of the video and extracting one while blanking the other. Traditionally this is why blue/green screens were used, to make it easier to isolate actors from the environment.

Not easy, though motion-detection tools have gotten a lot better.

[grid001]

The problem is this...what part of the clip is the background? I know that you and I know what the "background" is, but how does Premiere know that? Unless you're using some kind of multi-layered video format, it's going to involve isolating moving versus stationary parts of the video and extracting one while blanking the other. Traditionally this is why blue/green screens were used, to make it easier to isolate actors from the environment.

Not easy, though motion-detection tools have gotten a lot better.

Celtic nailed it.

Your going to have to do some extensive masking\animating...

[neufuse Veteran]

Unless you have a chroma key to "erase" it will be very hard to do

[Lasker]

I think after effects cs3 can do that, not sure about it.

[portauthority]

I know why people do it on green backdrops but this is a clip recorded in a outside environment

I know I need to do most of the work myself but how do I get started? Should I output the clip to GIFs, make them transparent, and rejoin them?

[CelticWhisper]

You'll need to output each frame to a still image, erase the undesired parts in GIMP/Photoshop/Fireworks/MSPaint/what-have-you and then re-import them into the video.

Mind you that NTSC video is juuuuuuuust shy of 30FPS, so you're going to need to do 30 erasures for each second of video you have. If you've got the will to do so, then you are a greater videographer than I.

[stfu.]

You can do it the way CelticWhisper just said - if you have a lot of time to waste and don't mind dying of boredom. Or simply, download the Adobe After Effects CS3 trial and rotoscope (keyframing a mask) which will be quick and will definitely look better if you do it properly.

[portauthority]

Now does the trial watermark the output file or anything?

[adokilla]

can anyone give me adive on how to do

keyframing a mask ? thank you

[_kane81]

mydamnchannel.com

See you suck at photoshop -in the latest season there is an episode where he breaks up video into frames for editing / removing ;)