THE BASICS OF

VIDEO KEYING

P
by Brad Weston
robably the biggest step in
integrating video into your services
is moving from a single video
signal to multiple video signals.
Generally, this means upgrading
from a computer hooked directly
into projectors to display words and
graphics, to a video switcher or switcher scaler with
one or more computers, cameras, playback devices,
etc. as inputs, with the output going to the projectors.
Usually when this step is made, it is done with the desire to combine,
or “composite” the words generated from the computer to the other video
signal inputs using a technology called “keying”. When you make this
leap, you will be well served to understand how to “key” the words gener-
ated from the computer over the other inputs, and the pitfalls that can
occur with the keying process.
Side Note: Many worship software applications allow you to take a live
video input into the computer, which could result in better results than
using a keyer, depending on the quality of the switcher, but it is gener-
ally not recommended to put a computer as the last “stop” on your signal
flow to the projectors; if the computer should go down for any reason,
your video production is completely shut down. If you decide to use this
method, it is good to have a simple VGA switch at the ready to switch
between the computer output signal and the “clean feed” from your video
switcher... just in case!

July/August 2009 tfwm.com 23

VIDEO/Keying
The Basics of Keying Chrominance Keyer (Chroma Key)
Think of keying as you would The easiest way
stencils. Do you remember those to understand
pieces of cardboard that had Chrominance key-
holes cut out of them in the ing is to think about
shapes of letters so that you the weatherman
could spray paint words onto standing in front of
signs? Keying involves three dif- his weather maps.
ferent pieces: the “key” signal, If you’ve ever
which is analogous to the stencil; seen a TV studio,
the fill signal, which is analogous you would notice
to the spray paint; and the back- that he’s actually
ground, which is the cardboard standing in front The keyable image
we are spraying the paint onto. of a blue or green
Keying is more sophisticated than screen. Special key-
this, though, as you also have ing equipment takes
ways of limiting the amount of out this green or
spray paint, or fill transparency, blue color to reveal
that you see on the image. the background
In video, our stencil, or key behind him. So, to
channel, is visually shown as a continue our stencil
grayscale image... every part of analogy, the three
the image that is pure white is a pieces are:
big hole that lets the fill image • Stencil/Key The mask created by the keying device
(our paint) show through. Every Image - created
area that is pure black is opaque dynamically the
and lets no part of the fill image weatherman stand-
show through. Every shade of ing in front of the
gray is a level of transparency of green screen -- if
the fill image. As such, if a part you were to look at
of the key image is 50% gray, this key image you
then the fill is 50% transparent. would see a white
When we talk about the three silhouette of the
most common types of keying weatherman over a
(Chroma keying, Luminance key- black background.
The combined image
ing, and Linear Keying) we are • Spray Paint/Fill
basically talking about how this Signal - This actually comes from the same image used to calculate the key
grayscale key image is created so image... it is the weatherman standing in front of the green screen.
that we know how much of the • Cardboard/Background - This is the weather map that we want to project
fill signal to let through. the weatherman on to.
Luminance and Chrominance When the keying processor combines these signals, the resulting image is
keying use some kind of video what you see every night on your local news. As these news stations use
source and create the key dy- sophisticated (read: expensive) keying equipment, it is smart enough to keep
namically based on how bright track of shadows within the keyer, so it appears that the weather anchor’s
the image is (Luminance), or a arm is casting a shadow on the map.
specific color (chrominance). For In the sample images, we have a figure against a green background. The
the example graphics, we are go- keying mechanism ignores all the green information and lets anything that
ing to use a stock photo taken on is NOT green show through, thus creating a composited image of the figure
the moon. standing on the moon.
Pros of Chroma-keying: Most every video switcher and switcher scaler that
has “keying” capability is usually some form of a Chroma key. Most of the
switcher scalers that say they also have Luminance keying are basically using
a black color signal for the key.
Cons of Chroma-Keying: You are limited in that you cannot use the key-color
anywhere within the graphic that you want to show up on the screen be-
cause it will appear transparent when keyed out. Also, note the ghosting ef-
fect issues that exist... explained in the sidebar, "The Ghosting Effect", pg.25.

24 tfwm.com July/August 2009

 THE GHOSTING
Luminance Keyer (Luma Key) EFFECT
Luminance keyers work best
when what you want to show One of the biggest problems with
on the screen is brighter than
luminance and chrominance keyers
the background you are using,
is the fact that you are usually using
such as white words. Usually,
you use this kind of a key with the same signal for both the key and
computer generated graphics. fill. This becomes a problem when
Using the example of white you are dissolving between two
The image we use as the keying input
words on a black background, different text slides.
you specify the tolerance level For example, let’s say we set the
of brightness from which you
tolerance on a luminance keyer to
wish to create your key. It’s
about 50% with white words on a
important to note that in video,
100% bright is pure white, so black background. As such, you can
that is 100%. Any color or shade say 50% gray means 50% transpar-
of gray would be less than ent so that as the text fades to black,
100%. So, if you specified 100% it gets more and more transparent.
The fill we are specifying for the key
white as your tolerance, then The problem is, if your fill signal is
any shade of gray under 100%
the same as that which is generat-
would not be shown over the
ing your key, then as white text
background.
In the examples (left) we’ve turns to black, it goes through 255
specified a matte white color different shades of gray. The result
as the “fill” for the key, which is that although the text is becoming
means that the graphic will transparent through the keyer, it is
The mask created by the keying device be composited with the back- also turning darker. This creates
ground using various transpar- a “ghosting” effect where dark
encies of white. To demonstrate residue is briefly seen where white
this, the image that is defining words used to be as you transition
the key signal has color in it, from one set of words to another.
but because a luminance keyer
pays no attention to color, the If your switcher has the ability to
mask created by the keying specify a matte white fill, then this
device is made up of various will work very well with the keyer,
The combined image levels of gray. Because we’ve because regardless of what level of
specified the fill signal to be pure white, the circles and squares appear at transparency is specified by the key
various levels of a transparent white over the background image. If we had channel going from white to black,
used the same image as both the key signal and the fill signal, the circles the text will simply appear as some
would be their respective colors, with the same transparency levels as what type of transparent white text.
is shown on the composited white image.
Pros of Luminance Keyers: If you are showing white or single color lyrics
over a camera signal, luminance keyers will generally provide better results
than a chroma-keyer. This is because the tolerances of the transparency
make for cleaner keys, particularly in lower-end switchers that don’t give
much control over the tolerance of colors that you want to key out in a
chrominance key. Also note that high-end switchers will often have a bor-
der or shadow option that will generate borders/shadows internally from
the same key signal using a color you specify. There is no “ghosting effect”
if you use a separate color-fill from the key signal.
Cons of Luminance Keyers: They are usually only available in higher end
switchers (as noted earlier, the low-end switchers and switcher scalers often
will call their keying devices “luminance key” capable, but they’re really
just doing a chroma-key of black which is not the same thing); You cannot
have dark colors as part of your visible image as it will show through as
transparent. The “ghosting effect” is also present in luminance keyers (see
above) if you use the same signal for both your key and fill.

July/August 2009 tfwm.com 25

VIDEO/Keying
Linear (Alpha) such as PNG or TIFF.
Keyer Video codecs that support
The problem with keys are Quicktime PNG
the Chrominance and and Animation codecs.
Luminance keys is that In the example im-
they limit the number of ages, notice that the
colors that appear as part key channel has some
of your key. For example, transparency on the trail
if you do a chrominance of smoke coming out of
key on blue, then noth- the airplane, and that the
ing blue can appear as red title at the bottom of
The fill channel
part of your image that the screen has a gradient
you want to show on that fades to nothing. The
screen. If you do a lumi- composited image shows
nance key, nothing black the clean results of being
can show up on your able to explicitly specify
key. An “Alpha” or “Lin- this level of transparency.
ear” key sends a separate Pros of Linear Keys: It is
video signal to the keying the gold-standard of key-
device that contains the ing systems as it allows
key information. This the mask to be explicitly
video signal just looks specified and thus gives
like a grayscale image you the full range of col-
and defines exactly the The Key Channel ors and transparency of
transparency of the way one signal over another.
the fill signal is supposed As such, you can create
to be overlayed on the feathered, transparent
background. shadows on your comput-
In the case of ProPre- er that will look beautiful
senter’s alpha keyer, you when composited over a
can either send two sepa- background.
rate SD or HD-SDI signals, Cons of Linear Keys:
or you can let the video Requires a more expen-
card of the computer do sive computer system
the overlay for you by and switching equipment,
feeding your background The combined image
as well as two separate
into the computer, and video signals. u
then letting the video card overlay the key and fill infor-
mation onto the background in real time. ProPresenter Brad Weston is President of Renewed Vision, makers of
creates key channels for generated text automatically, but ProPresenter, ProVideoPlayer, and ProVideoSync. He has
if you wanted to use your own graphics, you can create a long history of enhancing church and ministry produc-
them in graphics formats that support Alpha channels, tions. www.renewedvision.com

26 tfwm.com July/August 2009