Selective Colour in AVID using ChromaKey

Software: Avid Adrenaline / Meridien / Xpress
Platform: Windows / Mac
Skill Level: Intermediate

If you have ever wanted to create a selective colour effect like the one above, then it can be done using the Chroma Key effect in AVID combined with the Colour Effect or the Colour Correction Tools.

The key to this process is to have a good source such as the one below, where there is an object such as the red boat of one reasonably uniform colour occupying a large portion of the frame. (You can fine tune this effect to further isolate objects using the cropping tools in the Chroma Key, or an Animatte effect - but I'm going to keep this simple.)



The steps to create our effect are as follows, assuming that you already have the source shot edited into your Avid timeline.

• Edit an exact copy of the shot onto V2.
• Using the Colour Effect or the colour correction tools, set the saturation level for V1 to 0.
• Drop the Chroma Key effect onto the shot on V2.
• Using the eyedropper, sample the red colour of the boat as the key colour.
• Select the Invert Key setting in the General Controls of the Chroma Key effect.

Our shot should look something like the shot below - good but not perfect. There's still some coloured pixels on the hull.


Red Boat Partially Keyed Out

• Using the Eyedropper on the Spill Supression tab, sample the yellow pixels on the inside of the hull. You may also need to turn on the spill supression setting.
• Use the Gain and Soft controls until the yellow pixels disappear and you're done.

Timeline for keying the boat

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