zMatte

To add practical fire, explosions, smoke or other footage not containing an alpha channel, is normally a challenge. A normal Math Composite Add function would cause areas of the background to get brighter. This is bad. Using a key of some type would most likely generate unwanted, dark edges. This is also bad. Holdout Composite effectively composites images such as fire, explosions and smoke.

Holdout Composite
before filter
Background
Foreground
before filter after filter
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