Primatte Chromakey 3

Reviewed by Geetesh Bajaj, August 17th 2007

Introduction

Primatte Chromakey 3, is a Photoshop compatible plug-in which helps create a mask for a solid plane background. Chromakey allows the user to create a mask and replace the background with some other background.

Primatte Chromakey 3 is from Digital Anarchy, a company based in San Francisco, USA States that specializes in special effect filters for image editing and video programs.

The following are notable features in Primatte Chromakey 3:

• Batch Processing
• AutoMask: which removes the background automatically in one click.
• Light Wrap: New control panel gives  better spill suppression and a more convincing blend of the foreground and  background.
• Primatte Chromakey 3 fully  supports Macintoshes using Intel processors. 
  
• Photoshop CS3 Support
• A variety of tools and preview modes are available
  

A trial version is available on their site..., the demo version has all the options enabled, but it applies the watermark on the output file.

My contact at Digital Anarchy for this review was Debbie Rich, thank you Debbie.

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How To Use

Here’s how you can use Primatte Chromakey 3 to apply an alpha mask on a image:

1. Open any image in Adobe Photoshop.
   
   
2. Choose Filter | Digital Anarchy | Primatte, as shown in Figure 1.
   
   
   Figure 1: Primatte
   
   
3. This will open the Primatte Chromakey interface that you can see in the Figure 2 below.
   
   
   Figure 2 : Primatte Chromakey Interface
   
   
4. To create an alpha mask out of the image, click on the AutoMask button as shown in Figure 3
   
   
   Figure 3 : AutoMask
   
   
5. AutoMask creates a very basic and quick mask -- you could use this if it works for you, or you can opt for the other options to create a mask. On the right side of interface are tools that will help you fine-tune and edit the mask (see Figure 4).
   
   
   Figure 4 : Tools
   
   
6. Step Mask allows the user to select a particular area of the the image for masking, after applying masking use Remove Spills, Fix Details to fine tune the masking.
   
   
7. There are some other options such as removing noise from the image, fix matte, and display options.
   
   
8. Once done with, click the apply button as shown in Figure 5, which will apply the changes and returns back to Photoshop.
   
   
   Figure 4 : Apply changes

Here is a sample images of before and after:

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Specifications

Photoshop Versions:	5+
Platforms:	Windows, Mac
Site:	Digital Anarchy
Price:	US$299.00
Trial Version:	Available

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