Best way to Extract ?

ok i am trying to put together a short film using action figures but cannot afford a stop frame video camera so i am taking one shot at a time with the digi cam then putting the series of images into flash.
What i need to know is how best to extract the model from its background to enable me to put them onto a seperate background (like blue screen technique) - i have tried using the extract tool in PS but its impossible to configure, either i have to spend ages touching it up with the eraser of it chops off limbs...basically i need a quick, simple way to doctor each shot to speed up production.....i found it easier to extract in flash to be honest but its still not ideal.

Hope someone can help

C

Hmm, so you want to sort or cut out someone so that you can change the background? That's a pretty hard task. Although, why not use the bezier tool to cut around the person and then delete the background? I don't know if that's what you mean though. you could then import the images into flash, or even better, make an animated gif out of it, and it *might* look cool. I hope you have a camera stand...

nah its a wee more complicated than that - its not a pic of a person its action figures like Neo, Bender stuff like that and they would be interacting with each other on stage so just for a model to raise his arm might take 3 or 4 seperate images....each one of those images need to be doctored so i can just have the model showing and not its backgroundthen i can take that image of just the figure and put it onto a ready made background so i can cut down on file size etc...comprende?!...

well, if you're using a digital camera, and you have seperate frames, you can still cut around them in each frame. If you don't have all the frames as seperate frames, yopu'd have to buy bad-ass expensive software to cut the figures out. In PS, you'd have to use the bezier tool to do it frame by frame i'm afraid.

im afraid you dont get what im trying to do but thanks for trying to help...basically 5 mins worth of film would equate to several hundred frames - can you imagine cutting each one up seperately?!!...thats why i need a quick and simple way to do it...

No, i do know what you're trying to do, and doing the way i explained above is the only way to do it in photoshop. What you're trying to do is like Matrix stuff, you need powerful programs to cut them out. It's like the Star Wars Episode 1 DVD where they show you how they made the waterfall scene which was cut out of the film in the end. They had software which cut out the figures over a series of frames. Animation is not eaysy you know. Do you want like a 3D background or something? Other wise why not create a background yourslef with your own to hands and use that as the background, instead of creating a digital one? What you're trying to do isn't possible using standard progs.

hmm...ok i see what you are saying, sorry if i offended but this problem has been bugging me 4 too long now.
I do have experience with animation but i am trying to avoid making another regular animated gif - now i want to make a proper film with dialogue etc. Originally i wanted to build a set which would have the characters moving about in (maybe flying a pretend space ship etc) and ad in the dialogue after as a soundtrack but i was warned off that as each picture i took with the camera would have a massive file size, so being no good 4 the web....the only way i can see around the file size issue is to take a picture of each movement the figure makes (claymation style) which i could extract in photoshop then superimpose it onto a drawn background. Obviously i would love to do all this in 3D Max or watever but im still learning all the software so i wanted to do this for now.

:confused:

You just about answered your own question in your first post, talking about blue-screening.

What would make your task as easy as possible would be to shoot the figures against a backdrop that'll be easy to remove in Photoshop. I'm thinking you might want to go to a fabric store and purchase several yards of some fabric in a color like lime-green...some color that won't be present in the figures you're trying to isolate. Lighting will be kind of critical here—it should be even and diffused, but unfortunately, that'll severely limit any kind of dramatic shadowing on the figures' faces and bodies. The finish of the fabric should be as flat and non-reflective as possible...lime green velvet or felt would be two good choices. Then, you might be able to generate a Photoshop Action that selects the background using the "Color Range..." function, possibly in conjunction with an adjustment layer. I've never tried this, so you'll need to experiment.

When it comes time to separate the figures from the background, well....just like any stop-action animation (I did lots of it way back in High School) it's going to be a slow process. Probably the most important thing you need to have is a large measure of patience and perseverance. Also keep in mind that even though you're using Flash, you'll still have a gigantic file for the finished movie, if every frame shot in camera is used as a separate frame in Flash. You'll need to compress those images as small as possible...still...5 minutes would be a huge file. I know people who've done this sort of thing, and they found that a better way to keep file sizes small is to articulate the models by cutting the various joints and making each part of the body a separate symbol. Then it's a matter of manipulating their movement by changing the position of their instances within Flash. You might save a little time doing this, and you'd definitely save a lot of file space...How good are you at Flash?

well im only at beginner level on flash im afraid, just started up Director for the first time the other day and i was so blown away i may use that instead well see....
Anyway i see what u say on the cloth thing, i have tried this to distraction - trying to get the focus right, the angle, the lighting etc etc and it drove me crazy thats why i thought of doing the set thing - i guess that will have to wait but it was sposed to be the central point of a site for my portfolio...hmm..ok well i have seen a guy where this DBZ figure is leaping about which looked pretty cool so if i can find that again i will bug the guy who made it until i get his secret. That looked like it was 'chopped up' so u could move the arm independant of the body each but im scared i will lose a lot of effect that way and it will end up looking like some South Park ripoff u know?!....oh well i guess experimentation is the key huh...

You should buy the Collector's Edition of The Nitemare Before Christmas. It has a long documentary on how they made the movie that would be quite a bit of help to you.

It took them like 3 years to make it... So you definitely need some patience.