Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.
Can you tell us step-by-step what you have tried, just a small, simple example, so that we can get an idea of what might be going on? That'll make it easier to help.
At the highest level, it should go something like this:
- Double-click the desired clip (the video you want to chroma key) in the timeline, so that it opens in the viewer.
- Set the timeline playhead to a frame within that that clip, so that you can see the effect that the key has.
- Add the appropriate keying filter by selecting it from the menu (Effects -> Video Filters -> Key -> ...).
- In the viewer window, select the tab that lets you fine-tune the parameters for the keyer. Adjust as necessary. If nothing else, you'll probably have to set the key color (make it match the background in your footage) and maybe set a tolerance.
And you shouldn't have to render your clip to see an effect. At a minimum, a still frame should show up alright in the canvas. Yes, to see it in motion at full speed, you may need to render it, but if the still frame doesn't show the desired effect, well then rendering the video more than likely also won't show it.
Actually, what I wrote is based on my FCP experience, but from what I hear, it should work the same way or very similarly with FCE.
- Martin
