Final Cut Green Screen Keyer Changes

Up until very recently, Final Cut Pro was a dream at cutting out the Green Screen when dropping in the built in Green Screen Keyer effect. I'd add it to a clip, all green would be gone and very little tweaking was required on my end.

Recently, this has not been the case. I will drop the built in Green Screen Keyer on a clip and weird parts of the actor on screen (a puppet I've filmed the same way for years) would be weirdly pixelated and not even a little of the background green would be removed.

Yes, I know I can go in and completely resample the green and get it to look okay, and that's what I do.

I am just wondering what might have caused this to happen when nothing about my setup changed (green screen, phone, computer, etc). Is there some master setting I clicked accidentally? In Final Cut, on my iPhone, etc? It just used to be so bullet proof.

Sample of the original footage (1st pic) and what happens when I add the keyer effect (2nd pic) attached. Also listed my equipment.

Equipment:

Mac Studio M2 Ultra

192 GB

macOS 14.6.1 (23G93) - Can't to the latest yet due to waiting on a mission critical piece of software to be updated.

Final Cut Pro 10.8

Filmed on:

iPhone 15 Pro Max

Footage:

2160 × 3840

MPEG-4 AAC, Timed Metadata, HEVC

HD (1-1-1)

Mac Studio (2023)

Posted on Oct 3, 2024 1:22 PM

Top-ranking reply

terryb

Level 4

2,608 points

Posted on Oct 4, 2024 7:00 PM

The items I notice:

Gatekeeper disabled - Gatekeeper security protection is disabled. This computer is at risk of malware infection.
Apple security disabled - Apple security software is disabled. This computer is at risk of malware infection.
No TimeMachine backups
3rd party Intego anti-virus is installed
Google's keystone and autoupdate software is installed

I don't know if Etrecheck is accurately reporting that the built-in security software on Sonoma is not running since there is an XProtect update listed on 10/2. I don't have any experience with Intego, but if you feel the need to run 3rd party anti-malware software, long-time contributors here recommend Malware Bytes that is only run on demand, not installed to run continuously in the background as it appears is the case with Intego.

Google's autoupdating software has caused issues with the Mac's video subsystem, breaking FCP and requiring a reinstall from the AppStore after removing everything Google scatters across your drive. See https://chromeisbad.com for instructions on how to completely remove. Simply trashing Chrome.app is not enough. If a Chrome-like browser is necessary, Edge has been recommended by others here.

If not Time Machine, be sure to use another backup strategy.

If it were me, I'd uninstall Intego and use Malware Bytes instead, then uninstall all Google's cruft, reboot and reinstall FCP from the AppStore.

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