Use a hold-out matte

Use a hold-out matte (also known as a hold-back matte) to patch a scene to which a keying effect has been applied.

A hold-out matte is a masked-out portion of a duplicate of a layer that you have keyed. The duplicate is masked to include only the area of the image that contains the key color that you want to preserve as opaque. The hold-out matte is then placed directly on top of the keyed layer.

Example of using a hold-out matte 

A.
Original bluescreen image. The background for the number is also blue.

B.
After keying, the background for the number is also transparent.

C.
Hold-out matte containing the part of the image you want to remain opaque

D.
When the hold-out matte is placed on top of the keyed image, the background for the number is now opaque.

  1. Duplicate the layer containing the color screen.
  2. Apply keying effects and Matte effects to the original layer to create transparency.
  3. On the duplicate layer, create masks to mask out everything in the image except the area that you want to preserve.
  4. Make sure that the copy (the hold-out matte) is positioned directly on top of the keyed layer.
    Note: Don’t change Transform properties of only one of the layers after making the duplicate; keep the layers moving together. Consider parenting one to the other. (See Parent and child layers.)