Archive notice: This article was originally published on October 30, 2017. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Whether black, white or green, if the downloaded footage comes with a background, meaning there is no alpha channel, you need to know a few tricks to make it usable. The easiest way is simply to hide the background. But this simple trick is not always suitable because the layer—although not visible—is still present. This can cause difficulties, especially in compositing. For this reason, there are other options. If you use plug-ins such as Demult or Unmolt to create alpha channels directly, the background disappears completely. In the event that the footage background is not uniform and an alpha channel therefore cannot be created, Rodolphe Pierre-Louis demonstrates advanced keying.
Anyone who wants to try this out straight away can browse our download section, where we have plenty of free footage.
