Ultra key: the latest from Serious Magic, Ultra Key simplifies chroma keying.

If you've worked with chromo key (electronically matting or inserting an image from one camera into a picture produced by another), you know it requires time and money to do correctly. Building a set, installing the proper lighting, renting or purchasing the necessary equipment--it can become expensive very quickly. Serious Magic has changed all that with the release of Ultra Key chromo key and virtual set software for broadcast and video professionals.

According to Serious Magic, Ultra Key enables video editors to produce high-quality keys from less-than-ideal sources and conditions, such as unevenly lit and wrinkled backdrops, frizzy hair, and DV sources with reduced color bandwidth. The company promised it could produce complex keys featuring smoke, glass, and liquids with minimal effort. And it ships with animated backgrounds and a library of professional 3D virtual sets, with features such as multiple camera views, virtual camera moves, and floor reflections. All this was listed with a price of only $795. Skeptical? Such a product at that price, if it performed as advertised, could change chroma keying forever.

Upon receiving Ultra Key, I immediately began preparations to see if these promises would ring true. Remembering the adage, "Garbage in, garbage out," I began by building the epitome of a less-than-ideal set. I wanted to create the absolutely worst environment I could think of, so I framed a 8x8-foot wall. After hanging the drywall, I laid two pieces of 4x8-foot plywood on the floor in front of the wall, placing a quarter round along the edge where the floor met the wall. I spread joint compound wide and thick on the seams in the wall and floor, and it hardened into a lumpy mess. The next step was to paint the set, using the cheapest off-the-shelf green paint I could find at the local hardware store.

My studio lighting, a $40 work light, was placed to one side of the backdrop to create an unevenly lit background. My subject, dressed from head to toe in black, stood close enough to the wall to throw a strong shadow. After filming sample footage with a Canon 3CCD MiniDV camera, and an inexpensive Sony Digital8 for good measure, I took off for the studio, where I brought the captured video clips into Ultra Key.

Well thought out and highly intuitive, Ultra Key's user interface effectively contains three main areas: an Input window, a Preview window, and a work space consisting of tabbed sections along the bottom. The ...