I am just starting a project and I need to have a tennis player figure playing on a virtual tennis court.

The plan is to shoot some live action footage against a blue or green screen, and then create a gamma layer so I can then add the figure's shadows back in using maya.

I am then going create the net, lines and ball in maya and combine it with the live action footage mapped on to a polygon plane.

I have around 3 years of experience with maya, but have never done any chroma keying.

My questions are:
1. I assume I will need to use a separate piece of software e.g. after effects?, to cut out the figure from the green background and create the gamma layer. What is the best way to do this?

2. Although I've never done it before, I am expecting that maya will create some nice shadows from the live action footage if I use a gamma mask. Is that a good idea?

3. The player (i.e. me) has green eyes, so should I use a blue screen instead of green?

If anyone has any other tips I would be most grateful.