Ultra Tutorial 8: Fixing those DV Jaggies

By Karl Soule'

DV video has always presented some challenges for keying. The low color space and the DCT compression can make it very difficult to key cleanly in some situations. ULTRA's Vector keyer does an amazing job of keying DV sources, but there are times where a "DV artifact hit" can appear in the image. Such artifact hits come about because DV's compression is based on blocks. If a block falls on the edge of a key, it can introduce a "stair-step" in the edge of the key. This is where ULTRA's postprocessing sliders can save the day. Here is an example of a DV artifact in the edge of the key. Due to the DCT compression, there are some small color dropouts in the key edge that cannot be removed with the Start Threshold and Alpha Curve sliders.

Fig 1: extreme magnification of DV compression artifacts By using the Soften Matte slider, we are able to blur the edge of the matte, thus softening and blending in the DV artifact.

Fig 2: Softening the border

Then, to make the edge distinct, we use the Sharpen Matte slider to bring the edge back into focus. Notice how the edge artifact is now gone.

Fig 3: Sharpening the Matte The final adjustment to make is to adjust where the sharpening takes place. By using the Sharpen Range slider, you can widen or shrink the matte edge and line it up exactly with the edge of the jacket.

Fig 4: Making the final adjustment