What Is A Matte; Types Of Mattes - Blackmagicdesign Ultimatte 12 Operation Manual

Talent Out 1 and 2
The talent output lets your talent monitor the final composite so he or she can position
themselves in the frame and coordinate their actions to the composited image.
TIP The talent output has a 'mirror' setting that lets you flip the talent output
horizontally. Using this feature, the talent can see his or her positioning without needing
to compensate for reversed camera left and right staging. Refer to the 'configure
settings/talent mirror' section for more information.
Monitor Output
Plug the monitor output marked MONITOR OUT into a monitor or recording deck. This
connector is also used for daisy chaining to other Ultimatte 12 units when using the powerful
monitor cascade feature. Refer to the 'configure settings' section for more information.
Monitor Input
The monitor input is important for daisy chaining to other Ultimatte 12 units when using the
powerful monitor cascade feature. Refer to the 'configure settings' section for more information.

What is a Matte?

Before looking at how to use all the features and settings on your Ultimatte, it's worth
taking a moment to look at the types of mattes you can use, and how they are arranged in
your composite.
When a section of an image is intended to be composited over another image, it requires an
accompanying matte, either generated internally by Ultimatte, or supplied via an external
source. A matte is also known as an 'alpha', or 'key', and is displayed as a grayscale image.
The matte determines what will be visible in the accompanying source image that is being
composited. The source image to be composited is called the 'fill'.
Black regions in the matte will allow those regions in the corresponding 'fill' image to be visible
in the composited output, and any areas that are white will be cut out, or removed, showing the
image behind it. Variations of gray means those areas of the corresponding fill image will be
partially transparent.

Types of Mattes

Different matte types are used for specific purposes, to separate areas of the corresponding
image into foreground and background elements, or to include or exclude sections of the matte
you want to keep or discard.
Below is a description of the types of mattes used.
Background Matte
The background matte is a powerful way to extract a section from the background and place it
over the foreground.
For example, you may have a virtual set as your background image. Inside the virtual set is a
row of tall marble pillars. Using a background matte that precisely matches the pillars in your
virtual set, you can extract the pillars from the background and the talent can walk behind them.
This is an excellent way to create a foreground element using the background image and keeps
the layer input free for additional foreground items. It's important to note that elements to be
extracted from the background must be completely opaque.
Connecting Sources and Outputs 13