Greenscreen + Keying Primers

Alex Lindsay has his Greenscreen Primer at PVC, which begins to show you the benefit of using video scopes to get a good key and maximize dynamic range.

Other helpful resources include:

• Jonas Hummelstrand's Greenscreen and Bluescreen Checklist
• Mark Christiansen's chapter in AE Studio Techniques, which covers the Keylight filter in After Effects and much beyond. A small portion of his info was released in book teasers, Color Keying in After Effects CS3 and a video presentation of Keylight.
• Chris Meyer's quick overview of Keylight on Adobe Video Workshop that gets right to the point.
• After Effects Help has nice succinct overview and tips
• Amidst other advice Adam Wilt says use Chroma Smoothing in Final Cut, as quoted in an AEP post Jaggies on Chroma Key.
• Alex Lindsay's explanations of AE's Color Difference Keyer (a sample from the Composite Toolkit) will feed your head and help you understand some of what goes on behind the scenes in keying filters.

Purely personal observations include: 1) for some reason converting to uncompressed picture formats can help you better key some compressed formats, and 2) under a deadline duplicating a layer with a-bit-too-aggressive key on hair can help give the hair some extra blending detail.