One of the first things that really drew my eye at NAB, was the greenscreen at Zero Density’s booth. It looked… different but a good different that made me want to know what they were using. I’ve built a few green screens in my day, and have done a lot of work on greenscreens, but the color of this one was just different, which intrigued me. It turns out that they were using a new chromakey paint, from a company called ChromaLight.
So what is it that makes ChromaLight different? Well, they say it is the perfect greenscreen developed with a few things in mind. The first is durability. If you’ve ever had a greenscreen, you have probably had to really baby your floor, roping off sections and making people wear booties to keep from scuffing it because the paint isn’t particularly durable. ChromaLight’s solution is a two part paint, with a durable base coat/sealant, and a matte Topcoat. The result is a durable surface that when scuffed reveals the base coat, which looks similar, though not as matte, but should save your key.
ChromaLight was designed to maximize chroma performance while minimizing spill. The result is a green that to the eye, looks a little darker than Rosco paint, and way less yellow than Pro Cyc. It just looks different, maybe shifted a little more to the blue side of the spectrum than Rosco, but it looks very green and certainly has much lower spill than with Pro Cyc. What this means in real world application and the ability to pull a good key easily, I still have to do further tests on, but I had no problems pulling a key in the intro to the CinemaTechnica ChromaLight Demo video I shot at their booth. I was also given some sample paint and am very intrigued, so expect a proper review in the near future.
They also demonstrated bubbles being keyed in front of it, which can be tricky because of transparencies, and I image green spill would give you challenges along the edges or loose some of the detail. I don’t know, I’ve never tried to key bubbles before but they looked good on the ChromaLight. Keep an eye out for the review, I’ll definitely be testing bubbles.
