PHYX Keyer Review

PHYX Keyer is available through Noise Industries' FxFactory Pro plug-in hosting program.

PHYX started out producing plug-ins for Apple''s Shake compositing software, and the company has since branched out to develop a solid keying solution for Final Cut Pro, Motion, Adobe After Effects, and Final Cut Express. PHYX Keyer is available via Noise Industries FxFactory Pro (read my review), which is a single-host program that allows the major compositing/editing programs (such as FCP and AE) to support hundreds of third-party plug-ins. After installing FxFactory, which is free, PHYX is available for purchase from inside the software.

This method allows the individual plug-in developers to update their software, offer free demos, and launch new plug-ins all from one interface. Once you are inside your edit/motion software, your plug-in appears like any other effect, selectable from the Effects menu. Like most of the FxFactory plug-ins, you can try a free version of PHYX Keyer before you purchase it. The keyer retails for $199.

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Keyers generally come in two flavors: a plug-in that combines many features in one or a set of plug-ins that splits specific tasks among individual plug-ins. PHYX Keyer is the latter, comprising five plug-ins: Keyer, Despill, Diffkeyer, Lightwrap, and Screencorrector. You might need a couple of plug-ins for the desired effect, and by combining several plug-ins you can get great results with minimal fussing over parameter settings. Most of the time you will start off with the Keyer, which includes three keying engine modes: YUV Difference, 3d Keyer and Channel Keyer. YUV Difference converts the key into YUV color space and produces a color matte; Channel Keyer, which is the most basic, keys out green or blue; and 3d Keyer mathematically creates a 3D map of the distance from the keyed color to the source pixel's value. You don''t need to know much about the science behind these modes; simply selecting one of the three will usually give you a nearly finished key matte.

There are additional controls for tweaking the channel''s boost, density, and contrast, and just adjusting a few of these sliders can produce a great key. The keyer also allows you to choose the chroma subsampling mode you want to key in, which typically is dictated by your footage. Choosing 4:4:4, 4:1:1, or 4:2:2 matches the keying method to the chroma of the original source footage. The road to HD has been paved with numerous SD and HD formats over the years, and most handle chroma differently. PHYX Keyer slides into the correct mode to avoid the blocky artifacts that can arise, especially with older archival footage.

Adding the Despill effect after a key usually cleans up most of the stray pixels. If you''ve done any keying, you know that artifacts tend to crop up. They can be difficult to correct, costing you time and money. As long as you've set the keyer correctly, adding Despill leaves an amazingly realistic key, free of the little fringes that are often left over from a standard key. After you adjust the Despill amount, you''ll usually have your final key.

The next one you may want to add is the Lightwrap effect. This taps into the background image or video and creates a light source that is blended into your keyed-in scene in the foreground. When this works, it adds a higher level of realism. Sliders help you keep this mode subtle. On a recent client project, I tried the Lightwrap effect and found that it did the job quickly. The results were better, however, if I sampled the background colors and mixed them in via proper color-timing tools within After Effects. It's worth noting, though, that this manual process took considerably longer. The Lightwrap effect is definitely meant for deadline-driven projects or those in which you want to add just a hint of the background hue for added realism. Like most of the plug-ins in this kit, they are designed for quick, professional results. Just applying the plug-ins themselves should get you 90 percent of the way most of the time, and minimal fiddling will take you the rest of the way.

Rounding out the package, the Diffkeyer produces a matte based on two separate images. So if you lack a green screen, you can film a person against a plain wall, then film again without the person. The Diffkeyer will calculate the difference between the two shots and pull a clean matte for keying. Screencorrector is handy for uneven lighting on footage to be keyed. This plug-in takes a clean plate and a solid key color and adjusts the key color in your shot, usually brightening it up and making it more even, so that it's easier to key. It won''t compensate for bad key lighting, but in a couple of clicks it goes a long way toward keeping the color consistent throughout the shot.

The package of five plug-ins is quite a great value; however, some might find it a little inconvenient that they need to install the host FxFactory program before they can install PHYX Keyer. Don''t let that stop you. Not only is FxFactory a free download, it comes with it a lot of free plug-ins as well as demos of many other cool effects software. FxFactory has grown into its own little ecosystem, and it's definitely worth checking into.

PHYX Keyer serves an emerging market well: It's a low-priced keying solution that does most of the heavy lifting for you. In the past, keying software offered a dizzying array of parameters and options to tweak. This level of control came in handy for laborious adjusting, but sometimes programs offered little in the way of automatic options. PHYX Keyer lets you combine two or three of its included plug-ins and produces professional results with little effort. It does not have the number of features the larger keyers have, but you generally shouldn't need all the extra parameters as the software does a great job on auto-pilot. Despill goes a long way toward obviating the need for constant correcting. That you can operate in different color spaces and choose your chroma-sampling mode ensures that the software will be up to the task on any SD or HD project. Take the plug-in package for a test drive; it does the job, and its purchase certainly will not break the bank.

Company: PHYX

www.phyxware.com

Product: Keyer

Assets: Affordable price; automatic settings provide good results with little effort; ability to choose color space for keying.

Caveats: Mild incovenience in requiring FxFactory.

Price: $199 (retail)