DOF effect needed? of

Been given an 8 minute footage of an interview in a kitchen, the client wants the background out of focus.

Do i duplicate the footage, blur it, the somehow cut out the interviewee on the first footage?

Best idea/tips how to do this? Thanks

Don't know how to do in FCPX.
But masking in Motion would be an option.
If the cam is fixed you can use AE and a difference keyer.

-Andreas

Just FYI, that is normally done in-camera during the shoot. Difficult to do in post. SliceX is an option. But yes, you'll stack two copies on top of each other. The bottom one gets a Gaussian or focus blur, the top one has a mask isolating the person (feather the mask, too).

If there is any part of the shot with the person not in it, Phyx makes a good keyer that uses plates.

Hi BenB

No unfortunately none of the footage has a blank background. Yeah its normally done in the shoot but the client asked if I could add this effect.

Just been looking at core melt slice x and also ripple tools RT 16 point matt (not sure if this points can be keyframes as the subjects head moves slightly as he gets animated)

RT 16 will require manual keyframing, which will take a TON of time for a clip that long.

SliceX can automatically track matte points for you.

Motion has tracking that is pretty nice, but won't track a matte as easily (or as reliably) as SliceX will.

Ahh I see.

wonder if 'tracking mattes' will be on the next release

SliceX and TrackX is amazing tools that every FCPX editor should have, so if you don't have them yet, this would be a good project to get started. While the tools come in handy for these types of purposes, the amount of creative freedom they give you really give you some powerful tools. I use SliceX in about 99% of my projects one way or another, be it a shape mask or the object remover. It's just hands down one of the best plugins for FCPX and apparently they are going to be adding more cool new stuff soon.

Wonder what the new features are.... The deal for both slic-x and track x is pretty good

I second those comments by Julian. It's an outstanding plugin.