Better Keying Using DaVinci Resolve’s 3D Keyer

Good topic, Jason.

I don’t seem to remember anyone covering this tool,  in this much detail before. I have, ( as you mentioned) thought that the tool was self explanatory and just jumped in and started keying.

I have all kinds of issues with keying though, one of which is that by going that route, I have to then pixel peep every frame in the video. I have been burned in the past with a client asking what all that noise in the corner is about, on a frame that the lighting had slightly changed, and the chatter from the key was creating dancing pixels.

So I think it is good idea to contain them with a power window as you did in the second example, so that doesn’t happen where something gets by you like that. Especially in a large project.

But my newest philosophy is to concentrate on the subject and do all colouring and processes directly on that subject, and ignore everything else.

This includes exposure, my workflow is to set the exposure and balance and adjust color on things like skin tone, and ignore everything else. Then the place where people’s eyes are looking have been given the attention that on secondaries, I can then expose or change colours etc. to the background or things in the frame that are not scrutinized by the viewers attention.

But I have to say that I will now think about using the 3d keyer more often for some of the keying that still requires it. It is now, thanks to you another option for me.

Great job as always Jason 

I have been waiting for tutorial or an explication on how to use the 3d keyer for such a long time.Thanks alot Jason, please make more of this and also  different colourspaces.

One thing I find I have to always do is to turn on the HIGHLIGHT mode and check to see how much “chatter” is going on with the key qualification alpha. Sometimes the 3D mode is best; sometimes the conventional HSL mode is faster. I do appreciate the reminder from Jason on the “Soft,” “Flat” and “Tight”,” which help. The Matte Finesse modes allow me to really refine and stay on top of the keyed area, but I often rely on a tracked garbage window matte to avoid unwanted artifacts. I cheat and use all the knobs on the Advanced Panel, and you can get really fast going that route.

Great tutorial. I always dismiss the 3D keyer because it seems noisy to me, but I have never use it on the soft mode. I think that people like me, who has been on Resolve a lot,  don’t explore the new tools because they tend to be not fully developed when they put it on the software, and then forget there existence.

The question I have is why you use another node instead of doing the power window in the same node as the keyer. Thank you!