Ultra Keyer Node

Like the newer Delta Keyer, the Ultra Keyer node has two keyers built in to it: a pre-matte keyer acts as a garbage matte creator and the color difference keyer that extracts fine detail and transparency. Generally, you start with the Delta Keyer as your first keyer of choice. If you do not get good results, try Primatte if you are using Fusion Studio. A good third choice is to try the Ultra Keyer.

Ultra Keyer Node Inputs

The Ultra Keyer node includes four inputs in the Node Editor.

• Input: The orange input accepts a 2D image that contains the color you want to be keyed for transparency.
• Garbage Matte: The gray garbage matte input accepts a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps masks. Connecting a mask to this input causes areas of the image that fall within the matte to be made transparent. The garbage matte is applied directly to the alpha channel of the image.
• Solid Matte: The white solid matte input accepts a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps masks. Connecting a mask to this input causes areas of the image that fall within the matte to be fully opaque.
• Effect Mask: The optional blue input expects a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps masks. Connecting a mask to this input limits the pixels where the keying occurs. An effects mask is applied to the tool after the tool is processed.

Ultra Keyer Node Setup

A single keyer can rarely get perfect results because most green- or blue-screen shots have problems the keyer is not made to handle. Keyers often need the help of garbage mattes or solid mattes created with a Polygon or B-Spline node. Shots can also require more than just one keyer to achieve perfect results. Below, the Ultra Keyer node has the blue-screen content connected to the orange input. The result is an image with alpha that can then be connected into the foreground of a Merge node.

Pre-Matte Tab
The Pre-Matte tab is where most keying begins. It is used to select the screen color and smooth out the color of the screen.

Background Color
The Background Color is used to select the color of the blue or green screen of the images. It is good practice to select the screen color close to the subject to be separated from the screen background.

Red Level, Green Level, Blue Level
These color sliders tune the level of the difference channels to help separate the color. When the background color is green, Red and Blue level options are provided. When the background color is blue, Red and Green level options are provided.

Background Correction
Depending on the background color selected above, the keyer iteratively merges the pre-keyed image over either a blue or green background before processing it further.

In some instances, this leads to better, more subtle edges.

Matte Separation
Matte Separation performs a pre-process on the image to help separate the foreground from the background before color selection. Generally, increase this control while viewing the alpha to eliminate the bulk of the background, but stop just before it starts cutting holes in the subject or eroding fine detail on the edges of the matte.

Pre-Matte Range
These R,G,B, and Luminance range controls update automatically to represent the current color selection. Colors are selected by selecting the Ultra Keyer node’s tile in the node tree and dragging the Eyedropper into the viewer to select the colors to be used to create the matte. These range controls can be used to tweak the selection slightly, although selecting colors in the viewer is all that is required.

Lock Color Picking
This checkbox prevents accidentally selecting more colors from the view. It is a good idea to activate this checkbox once the color selection is made for the matte. All other controls in the node remain editable.

Pre Matte Size
The Pre Matte Size control can be used to soften the general area around the keyed image. This is used to close holes in the matte often caused by spill in semitransparent areas of the subject. This can cause a small halo around the subject, which can be removed using the Matte Contract tools found later in the tool.

Reset Pre Matte Ranges
This discards all color selection by resetting the ranges but maintains all other slider and control values.

Ultra Keyer Node Image Tab

The Image tab handles the majority of spill suppression in the Ultra Keyer. Spill suppression is a form of color correction that attempts to remove the screen color from the fringe of the matte.

Spill is the transmission of the screen color through the semitransparent areas of the alpha channel. In the case of blue- or green-screen keying, this usually causes the color of the background to become apparent in the edges of the foreground subject.

Spill Suppression
When this slider is set to 0, no spill suppression is applied to the image. Increasing the slider increases the strength of the spill method.

Spill Method
This selects the strength of the algorithm used to apply spill suppression to the image.

• None: None is selected when no spill suppression is required.
• Rare: This removes very little of the spill color and is the lightest of all methods.
• Medium: This works best for green screens.
• Well Done: This works best for blue screens.
• Burnt: This works best for blue screens. Use this mode only for very troublesome shots.

Fringe Gamma
This control can be used to adjust the brightness of the fringe or halo that surrounds the keyed image.

Fringe Size
This expands and contracts the size of the fringe or halo surrounding the keyed image.

Fringe Shape
Fringe Shape presses the fringe toward the external edge of the image or pulls it toward the inner edge of the fringe. Its effect is most noticeable while the Fringe Size value is large.

Cyan/Red, Magenta/Green, and Yellow/Blue
Use these three controls to color correct the fringe of the image.

This is useful for correcting semitransparent pixels that still contain color from the original background to match the new background.

Ultra Keyer Node Matte Tab

The Matte tab refines the alpha of the key, combined with any solid and garbage masks connected to the node. When using the Matte tab, set the viewer to display the alpha channel of the Delta Keyer’s final output.

Filter
This control selects the filtering algorithm used when applying blur to the matte.

• Box: This is the fastest method but at reduced quality. Box is best suited for minimal amounts of blur.
• Bartlett: Otherwise known as a Pyramid filter, Bartlett makes a good compromise between speed and quality.
• Multi-Box: When selecting this filter, the Num Passes slider appears and lets you control the quality. At 1 and 2 passes, results are identical to Box and Bartlett, respectively. At 4 passes and above, results are usually as good as Gaussian, in less time and with no edge “ringing.”
• Gaussian: The Gaussian filter uses a true Gaussian approximation and gives excellent results, but it is a little slower than the other filters. In some cases, it can produce an extremely slight edge “ringing” on floating-point pixels.

Blur
Matte Blur blurs the edge of the matte based on the Filter menu setting. A value of zero results in a sharp, cutout-like hard edge. The higher the value, the more blur applied to the matte.

Clipping Mode
This option determines how edges are handled when performing domain of definition rendering. This is profoundly important when blurring the matte, which may require samples from portions of the image outside the current domain.

• Frame: The default option is Frame, which automatically sets the node’s domain of definition to use the full frame of the image, effectively ignoring the current domain of definition. If the upstream DoD is smaller than the frame, the remaining areas in the frame are treated as black/transparent.
• Domain: Setting this option to Domain respects the upstream domain of definition when applying the node’s effect. This can have adverse clipping effects in situations where the node employs a large filter.
• None: Setting this option to None does not perform any source image clipping at all. This means that any data required to process the node’s effect that would normally be outside the upstream DoD is treated as black/transparent.

Contract/Expand
This slider shrinks or grows the semitransparent areas of the matte. Values above 0.0 expand the matte, while values below 0.0 contract it.

This control is usually used in conjunction with the Matte Blur to take the hard edge of a matte and reduce fringing. Since this control affects only semitransparent areas, it has no effect on a matte’s hard edge.

Gamma
Matte Gamma raises or lowers the values of the matte in the semitransparent areas. Higher values cause the gray areas to become more opaque, and lower values cause the gray areas to become more transparent. Completely black or white regions of the matte remain unaffected.

Since this control affects only semitransparent areas, it will have no effect on a matte’s hard edge.

Threshold
This range slider sets the lower threshold using the handle on the left and sets the upper threshold using the handle on the right.

Any value below the lower threshold setting becomes black or transparent in the matte.

Any value above the upper threshold setting becomes white or opaque in the matte. All values within the range maintain their relative transparency values.

This control is often used to reject salt and pepper noise in the matte.

Restore Fringe
This restores the edge of the matte around the keyed subject. Often when keying, the edge of the subject where you have hair is clipped out. Restore Fringe brings back that edge while keeping the matte solid.

Invert Matte
When this checkbox is selected, the alpha channel created by the keyer is inverted, causing all transparent areas to be opaque and all opaque areas to be transparent.

Solid Matte
Solid mattes are mask nodes or images connected to the solid matte input on the node. The solid matte is applied directly to the alpha channel of the image. Generally, solid mattes are used to hold out keying in areas you want to remain opaque, such as someone with blue eyes against a blue screen.

Enabling Invert inverts the solid matte before it is combined with the source alpha.

Garbage Matte
Garbage mattes are mask nodes or images connected to the garbage matte input on the node. The garbage matte is applied directly to the alpha channel of the image. Generally, garbage mattes are used to remove unwanted elements that cannot be keyed, such as microphones and booms. They are also used to fill in areas that contain the color being keyed but that you wish to maintain.

Garbage mattes of different modes cannot be mixed within a single tool. A Matte Control node is often used after a Keyer node to add a garbage matte with the opposite effect of the matte applied to the keyer.

Enabling Invert inverts the garbage matte before it is combined with the source alpha.

Post-Multiply Image
Select this option to cause the keyer to multiply the color channels of the image against the alpha channel it creates for the image. This option is usually enabled and is on by default.

Deselect this checkbox and the image can no longer be considered premultiplied for purposes of merging it with other images. Use the Subtractive option of the Merge node instead of the Additive option.

For more information on these Merge node settings

Subtract Background
This option color corrects the edges when the screen color is removed and anti-aliased to a black background. By enabling this option, the edges potentially become darker. Disabling this option allows you to pass on the color of the screen to use in other processes down the line.

Ultra Keyer Node Settings Tab

The Settings tab in the Inspector is also duplicated in other matte nodes. These common controls are described in detail HERE.

About the Author

Justin Robinson is a Certified DaVinci Resolve, Fusion & Fairlight instructor who is known for simplifying concepts and techniques for anyone looking to learn any aspect of the video post-production workflow. Justin is the founder of JayAreTV, a training and premade asset website offering affordable and accessible video post-production education. You can follow Justin on Twitter at @JayAreTV YouTube at JayAreTV or Facebook at MrJayAreTV