Primatte Node

Primatte is an advanced keyer from IMAGICA, a standard in the VFX industry (used on major film productions). Its approach: sort each pixel into one of 4 algorithmic zones, which lets it treat the pure backing, the spilled semi-transparent edges, the lightly spilled areas and the pure subject separately.

Available in DaVinci Resolve Studio (the paid version) - not in the free version.

A distinctive workflow: instead of adjusting sliders, you click operation buttons, then scrub in the viewer to tell Primatte which areas to process. Less intuitive to learn than the Delta Keyer at first, but higher quality on hard cases.

• Effects Library: Tools > Matte > Primatte
• Quick add: right-click in the Node Editor → Add Tool > Matte > Primatte
• Requires Resolve Studio (paid license) to be available.

The algorithm sorts each RGB pixel of the image into one of 4 zones:

1. Pure background - a backing pixel (green/blue screen), fully transparent.
2. Foreground with spill + transparency - spilled semi-transparent pixels (hair edges, smoke).
3. Foreground with spill - opaque pixels contaminated by spill (green reflections on skin).
4. Pure foreground - an intact subject pixel, fully opaque with no correction.

The algorithm treats each zone differently (transparency, spill removal, preserved detail), which produces much cleaner edges than classic keyers on problem cases.

• Foreground (orange) - required. The green/blue screen plate with the subject.
• Background (green) - optional. The replacement background for the final composite. Without it, the output = the keyed subject on transparency.
• Replacement Image (magenta) - optional. The source image used for spill suppression (replacing the spilled color with one that matches the new background better).
• Garbage Matte (gray) - optional. Areas made transparent.
• Solid Matte (white) - optional. Areas forced to opaque.
• Effect Mask (blue) - optional.

MediaIn (plate) → Primatte (FG) → Merge 2D → Saver
MediaIn (new bg) → Primatte (Background, optional)

Connecting the Background directly to Primatte gives you the final composite at the output. Without a Background, Primatte only outputs the keyed FG, which you merge manually.

Instead of sliders, buttons that turn on selection modes in the viewer. Each button handles a specific zone:

Auto Compute

Automatic analysis of the plate → detects the backing and the FG. A common starting point, even if not always perfect.

Select Background Color

Samples the screen color as you scrub in the viewer. The first manual step when Auto Compute is not enough.

Clean Background Noise

Removes the unsampled variations of the screen. Scrub over the gray/white areas in alpha mode.

Clean Foreground Noise

Removes the transparent areas inside the subject (holes in the matte). Scrub over the dark areas of the FG.

Spill Sponge

Removes spill with a complementary color, a solid color or replacement imagery.

Matte Sponge

Restores opacity to areas of the FG that became transparent by accident.

Restore Detail

Brings back translucency in areas that became fully transparent. Useful for fine hair, light smoke, motion blur.

Make Foreground Transparent

A one-off use. Subtly adjusts the opacity of smoke / cloud areas.

Spill(+/-), Matte(+/-), Detail(+/-)

Incremental adjustments. Click several times to strengthen gradually without breaking everything.

• Primatte - the operation buttons + the View Mode selector (Black, Composite, Defocus Foreground, Processed Foreground, Hybrid Matte, Lighting).
• Fine Tuning - slider-based refinements (spill, transparency, detail) with sampled color references.
• Replace - 3 spill replacement methods (Complement, Image, Color).
• Matte - standard alpha refinement (blur, contract/expand, gamma, threshold, restore fringe).
• Degrain - film grain mitigation with Grain Size (Small/Medium/Large) and Tolerance.

1. Connect the FG (orange) and optionally the BG (green).
2. Click Select Background Color, then scrub in the viewer over a representative area of the screen, close to the subject.
3. Switch the viewer to Alpha mode. Click Clean Background Noise, then scrub over the gray/white areas that should be transparent.
4. Click Clean Foreground Noise, then scrub over the dark areas inside the subject that should be opaque.
5. Switch to Composite mode. Click Spill Sponge or go to the Fine Tuning tab to remove the spill from the edges.
6. Refine in the Matte tab (blur, contract, restore fringe) if the edges need more work.

Complement

Replaces the spill with the complementary color. Keeps the most detail, but can add noise in heavily spilled areas.

Image

Replaces it with a color sampled from the Replacement Image. Good color consistency with the new background, potentially less detail preserved.

Color

Replaces it with a solid color. The strongest treatment for severe spill, but it can erase detail on the edges.

• Fine hair on green/blue screen - Primatte excels where other keyers produce pixelation or edge fringing. Restore Detail to bring back the strands.
• Smoke, haze, fog - highly semi-transparent areas where the Delta Keyer fails. Primatte puts these pixels in zone 2 (FG with spill+transparency) and handles them correctly.
• A complex film shot with an imperfect screen - hot spots, lighting variations, heavy spill. Primatte handles these cases better than the free keyers.
• Motion blur on a fast subject - motion blur = lots of semi-transparent pixels. Primatte preserves the continuity of the blurred motion.
• Spill replacement with color consistency - use the Replacement Image (the new background on magenta) → Primatte replaces the spill with plausible colors from the new environment.

• Single-pixel sampling is sometimes better than a range selection - on difficult footage, clicking a single pixel rather than scrubbing can give a cleaner result.
• Don't sample dark areas of the screen - intentional shadows (from the subject, for example) come out transparent in Primatte if you include them in the backing. Stick to the bright areas of the screen.
• Hybrid Rendering needs a detected BG color - in other words, do Select Background Color first. Otherwise Clean FG Noise does not work properly.
• Clean Background Noise is often unnecessary - dark pixels close to black automatically come out transparent. Don't bother unless you actually see noise in the alpha.
• Fine Tuning Detail for light smoke - the Detail slider brings back the thin smoke lost by the main key. The Transparency slider for dense smoke.
• Primatte vs Delta Keyer - the Delta covers 95% of cases. Primatte for the hardest 5% (fine hair, smoke, serious film shots). Overkill on a standard YouTube shot.
• Studio license required - if the node does not show up in the Effects Library, you are on the free version of Resolve. Upgrade to Studio or stick with the Delta Keyer.