Green screen how to use

How to Make and Use a Green Screen Easily

Liza Brown

May 20, 2022• Proven solutions

Matrix and Lord of the Rings trilogies or the latest sequel of the Avengers have something in common. None of these movies could have been filmed thirty years ago because the Green Screen technique wasn’t as advanced as it is today.

The phantasmagorical landscapes, dragons spitting fire or wizards casting spells are just a glimpse of what can be accomplished by using a Green Screen in a movie studio. The advancement of digital technology has made this cinematic technique much more accessible to filmmakers and using it in your own video doesn’t mean that you have to have multimillion production budgets.

All you need to create mind-boggling visual effects that will leave viewers speechless is a piece of green cloth and a camera that can capture high-quality video.

Let’s dive deeper into the magical world of Green Screen filmmaking and discover how you can use it in your own videos, even if you are working on a low-budget film.

Check one of our creative green screen video in the video below [Don’t be Scared]

Part 1: What is Green Screen?

The term Green Screen or Chroma Key is self-descriptive because the technique features an actor against a green or blue background.

Naturally, you may wonder why does the screen have to be green or blue?

The reason is that these two colors are considered to be the furthest away from the natural skin color, which enables the editors to replace the background without the danger of damaging the human figure on the screen.

1. What’s the History behind Green Screen?

The Blue Screen technique originates from the early 1930’s and since then it has been used in countless films that have won Oscars for special effects, including George Lucas’ ‘The Empire Strikes Back’.

Watch the video below and you will get a more detailed understanding of the evolution of green screen compositing.

Green Screen is a technique much more recent that has become popular in the age of films shot on digital cameras. The basic concept of the technique is rather simple, place an actor against a monochrome background and film all the on-screen movement, dialogues or any other scenic action and then replace the background with landscapes, digitally generated cityscapes or futuristic interiors by using visual effects that every professional video editing software features.

2. What’s the Best Equipment to Shoot Green Screen Videos?

To make the green screen work well, using a good quality camera that shoots HD quality video is advised. However, any camera that shoots videos in MP4 and MOV formats will work, including phone cameras. You will also need a good quality Chroma key software, many are available on the market and some can even be downloaded for free. Some software include Windows Movie Maker 2.0, iMovie, and Final Cut Pro X.

However, consumer grade software have lower grade Chroma key effects. For still photographs, Adobe Photoshop has a built in Chroma key feature that allows users to manipulate photographs taken with a green background by changing it to whatever they would like. Many software comes with Chroma key backgrounds, others can be downloaded separately.

Part 2: How to Make a Green Screen Effect Footage?

Method 1 : How to DIY A Green Screen Effect Video

Despite what you may think, you don’t have to be Peter Jackson or one of the Harry Potter directors to be able to use the Green Screen technique in your film.

As a matter of fact, all you need is a camera that can shoot high-quality video, a tripod and a piece of green sheet you will be using as a background.

Step 1: Setup

Setting up the location for filming the Green Screen scenes is not very difficult, but before you start arranging your equipment, you must first decide whether you want to shoot the scene in a studio or on an exterior location in broad daylight.

Shooting outside can be an excellent choice if you don’t have spotlights because the sunlight can be used to light the scene perfectly. However, using spotlights in a controlled environment will probably give you more creative freedom, because you won’t have to worry about shadows or sudden light changes.

Step 2: Positioning the Green Screen

This may seem like an easy step, but failing to clear the green sheet of wrinkles may cause a fair amount of trouble in the post-production. Make sure that the piece of sheet you are using as your background is perfectly smooth because even the tiniest wrinkle will be visible once you remove the background in a video editing software.

Step 3: Clothes

The costume your actors will be wearing in front of a Green Screen shouldn’t be green, because the editing software will remove all green parts of the shot including the green parts of the costume.

In order to avoid dealing with these problems, choose the colors that are in contrast with the green or blue background so you don’t have to reshoot the scenes. If you would like to make your actor transparent using clothes that have similar tones as the background is completely justified.

Step 4: Shooting the Green Screen scene

Once you’ve chosen the location, adjusted the lights, selected the right colors for the costume you are ready to begin filming. Make sure that your camera is perfectly still by placing it on a tripod to avoid camera shakes. Let the actors perform the scene and try to pay close attention to each and every detail in the shot because it will allow you to achieve better results.

Method 2 : Download green screen backgrounds from website

The fastest way to get a Green Screen you can use in your video is to download it from a website, such as VideoBlocks or Shutterstock, or you can get some free green screen footage such as skeleton breaking screen and scary sadako ghost in Filmstock effects store. You can now also buy a single green screen footage in a one-time fee in Filmstock.

You can obtain hundreds of different video files that feature many different kinds of movement and elements that can be used for the creation of your videos. The advantage of using pre-existing Chroma Key footage is that you don’t have to go through the trouble of filming the footage yourself, which can be a daunting task if you don’t complete all the steps of creating the Green Screen footage correctly.

However, downloading the footage from of the photo or video stock websites isn’t free and it can prove to be quite expensive. Furthermore, the duration of the videos you can download is often limited to just five or ten seconds.

Green Screen videos that are available for download will help you save time in the post-production, but they aren’t a reliable option for filmmakers who would like to create unique visual material or if the Green Screen scenes last more than just a few seconds.

As we can see from the above video, apart from downloading green screen footage from website or shooting green screen footage by yourself, you can also use the specially designed video effects in Filmstock, which allows you to make a big movie within few minutes.

You can now download not only video effects for Filmora video editor, but also After Effects templates as well. Besides the video effects, Filmstock also provides video footage, music and audio effects and high quality images and photos.

Part 3: How to use a green screen video to composite?

Once, the filming is over you can start thinking which video editing software you should use to edit your video.

There are many green screen video editing software available on the market nowadays, but I’m fond of Wondershare Filmora because it is a reliable video editor that can be used to create a video that features Green Screen scenes easily. Layering scenes in Filmora is an easy process that can be completed in just a few simple steps. Click the Free Download button and install Filmora on your computer.

And I’ll use Filmora to demonstrate how to use a green screen footage to composite Chroma key video in Filmora green screen software.

1. Import the footage into the Filmora video editor

If you already have Filmora installed on your computer, start the program and create a new project and then proceed to import the background videos and Green Screen footage to the media library. Drag and drop your background footage in the first track and then place the Green Screen video clip to the track above. Double click the green screen footage in the timeline to enter the Edit panel.

You can also right-click on the green screen clip and then select Green Screen from the menu to access the Chroma Key feature.

2. Adjusting the Green Screen Settings

After the Edit settings window is displayed on the screen, click on the Video tab and scroll down to Chroma key green screen feature and choose it. Make sure it is green if you are looking to create the Green Screen effect, and Filmora will select the green screen color in the green screen footage and make the green color transparent automatically.

Offset, tolerance and alpha channel will allow you to adjust the clarity of your background, and edge thickness and edge feather will fix the edges of the subjects. adjust the levels of transparency, shadows, and borders. The flip option that enables you to rotate the clip is also available.

3. Positioning the background clip

The final step of the process is to position the background video clip on the video track on the timeline. The background footage will fill the transparent part of the Green Screen clip, and the two videos will appear as one coherent video. Resize the Green Screen clip to adjust the size of the figure to the background by scaling it down on the preview window.

Your Green Screen video is now ready to be exported.

4. Export the video

Once you’ve completed all of the above-mentioned steps, you are ready to export the footage you created. Click on the Export button and select some of the supported formats such as WMW, MP4 or MOV or select a video sharing platform you’d like to upload your video on and proceed with the process.

Once the video is exported, you can share it with your friends or upload it to a video sharing platform of your choosing.

We recommend using Wondershare Filmora to you for green screen video compositing based on the following reasons.

Download Filmora and make your own green screen video now.

Free Green Screen Software and How to Make the Most Out of It

February 8, 2021

Anyway, now that the technology is not a privilege of filmmakers only, you can bring magic to your videos too! And you certainly won’t need Hollywood budgets for that. In fact, you’ll be able to do it at zero cost. Keep reading, and you’ll find the best free green screen software for Windows and for Mac preceded by expert advice on bringing your idea to life without spending a dime.

What you’ll need:

In this article, we’ll walk through each part to explain the details and prevent you from making the most common mistakes.

What is green screen and where to get it?

So what do they mean when they say «green screen», eh? Technically, we’re talking about any (and I mean ANY) surface evenly coated with green cloth or evenly painted green. In fact, according to some video production experts, shooting in front of a painted wall is easier than stretching a piece of cloth onto a large object or a frame.

Let there be light

One of the best how-to illustrations of how to lighten the object when shooting with a green screen has been published by Videomaker online magazine. Here it is below:

Do I need a special camera for that?

No, you don’t. As long as you have a decent piece of green screen software and managed to achieve smooth light, you can use any device to record the video, even if it’s your iPod. It all comes down to the overall footage quality.

Where do I get images or videos to replace green background?

That depends on what you have in mind! You can use photos and videos shot by you in advance, stock materials, or a fragment from a famous movie – it is entirely up to you. We just have a couple of recommendations, though.

First, if you’re going to use something you recorded yourself, make sure both videos have the same parameters. Having a different quality footage as a background will ruin the effect, and you’ll end up with a very unnaturally looking clip. And don’t worry if your background footage has sound. You’ll be able to remove audio from video during the editing process and add a soundtrack of your choice, so that the viewers will only hear what you want them to hear.

Second, if you’re looking for high quality footage, you can check free stock video marketplaces. There are dozens of them online. Here are just few we’ve tested: Videvo, Vimeo Free HD stock, Pexels and Pixabay. Be sure to look through the terms and video quality description before downloading to avoid surprises. Most of these websites allow you to filter videos by their parameters. By the way, you may find a few videos already shot with the «green screen» as well! Videvo has at least three separate videos with a chicken, an alpaca, and a monkey recorded in front of a green background. Hey, perhaps, you have an idea on how to authentically add them to your clip.

How does green screen software work?

Here is a quick video tutorial showing exactly how green screen software works.

So, when we say «green screen software» we mean video editing software with a built-in Chroma Key tool or effect (we’ve noticed that terminology varies a lot from developer to developer, so again: don’t get confused).

Sometimes, however, it can lead to unexpected post-production surprises, like this transparent weather forecast host, who obviously was wearing a green dress during that shooting:

Hey, now you know that weather forecasts are the most common use cases of Chroma Key effect!

Going back to the video editing magic. In the second scenario, if your green screen software doesn’t have a default color for Chroma keying, you might need to set up the chroma (the color) to be keyed manually with an eyedropper tool. That means you’ll need to click anywhere on your video background to choose the color you want to remove. This technique will also be useful for uneven or poorly lighted screens, because you’ll be able to choose the parts software failed to detect.

When the process of green/blue/pink screen removal is over, technically, what you have left is the scene object with a transparent background. Therefore, whichever image or video you overlay it with will fulfill the transparent areas and become a new background. Isn’t it fascinating?

Well-known professional programs may cost you an arm and a leg, but if you want to stick to a zero budget, we recommend checking out VSDC because it’s free and has a well-performing tool for removing green background from your videoVSDC is intuitive and lightweight, so even if you’re new to this, you’ll be able to figure things out.

Here is how to remove green background in VSDC

Once you’ve added your green screen video to the timeline, go to the menu at the top and choose Video Effects tab. Click on «Transparent» and proceed to «Background remover». By default, VSDC detects and removes bright green chroma, so if your video background happens to be bright green, it will disappear automatically once you apply the effect.

If it hasn’t happened, just select the eyedropper icon located in front of the Chromakey color settings and click anywhere on the background to specify the color you want to remove.

There might be a bit of green color left around your scene object, but you shouldn’t worry about it. Go to the Properties menu on the right-hand side to adjust settings and remove the green border. You should be looking at the following parameters:

Increase or decrease the values until you see that the presence of green has been minimized. Once that’s done, all you need is to add your background picture and make sure your main video is placed at the front layer on the timeline. If it’s not, make a right mouse click on your main video (the one that had green screen initially) and choose «Up» or drag the layers around manually.

Removing green screen is way easier than it may sound. In fact, the process will take you less time than you’ve just spent on reading these paragraphs.

The keying process in iMovie, however, goes differently compared to VSDC. Once you have both clips added to iMovie timeline, you can literally drag a video with green/blue screen over a video that you want to appear as a background. Once you notice a green round «+» sign, you can release the mouse button. If the green/blue color of your background is solid enough, it should automatically disappear. If it hasn’t happened, you need to open Video Overlay controls and choose green/blue screen in the pop-up menu.

I need ideas. Inspire me!

Glad you’ve asked! We’ve gathered 6 use cases which could not be solved without green screen software. Hopefully, you’ll find them inspiring for your videos.

2. You need to add emphasis to your message. Because what you’re saying is important and needs to be heard. You got it. Add a special effect instead of a background to grab your viewers’ attention. Doesn’t Shia Labeuf look motivating with flames bursting behind him? You can do it too!

5. You want to record a Christmas video postcard, but it’s 90 degrees above zero outside. Replace green background with freezing footage from Siberia! You may as well be sending postcards from Hawaii or Paris, while staying in your room.

Now that you know how green screen software works and that you don’t need to spend a fortune to make use of it, why don’t you share your ideas on our Facebook page? We’d love to see what you’ve come out with!

How to Use a Green Screen

A green screen has many uses in a production. Whether it’s for the sake of comedy, instruction, or storytelling, a green screen can increase a project’s production value. However, using one correctly can be tricky. Here are a few helpful tips for lighting and keying out green screen shots.

Lighting the Screen

One of the most important steps is lighting your green screen properly. While you obviously need to concentrate on lighting your subjects, unwanted shadows and dark spots on the screen behind them can be difficult to key out in post-production. The perfect key comes from a clean, evenly exposed backdrop.

If you’re in a pinch, a good rule of thumb is to position the subject or actor about 6 to 10 feet in front of the screen. This distance should effectively eliminate any unwanted shadows on the screen while also giving you space outside of the frame to properly set up your lights. However, you can get better results if you take the time to properly calculate this distance beforehand.

Check out the following video for a better understanding of how to balance your chroma and make sense of waveform monitors and color levels.

You can make your life easier by using diffused lights. If you use harsh lights without diffusion, you’ll get an uneven spill. It’s also important to use two of the same type of light so that you can avoid two different fills or temperatures, which would make things very difficult for your editor. However, it’s okay to use two different types of lights for your subject and your screen — provided you light the screen evenly with two of the same type of light. (Side note: be sure to get rid of any distracting or reflective props exposing the green screen before you roll cameras.)

Keying Out the Green

In Adobe Premiere Pro CC, navigate to Video Effects > Keying > Ultra Key. Set the output to “composite,” then you’ll be able to choose your key color, which in this case will be green. After this, you’ll be given a few different options for image control under “Matte Generation.”

After Effect users have a little more wiggle room with their shots. The following tutorial demonstrates the workflow you can expect. As you’ll see, if your green screen isn’t as big as you’d like, you can still capture the image you want. With a little bit of masking, you can isolate the subject and your green screen (or in this case, a loose sheet).

If you’re using a green sheet that allows some background light through, you can fill the area in post-production with the “Screen Matte” tool. This tool allows you too see the grayscale image, which divides the colors into black and white. This way you can eliminate unwanted backdrops by increasing the “Clip Black” property until the transparency is gone.

Working with a green screen can be difficult, but if you know how to plan your shoot with the right software and lighting equipment, the process should go smoothly.

For more info on shooting with and editing green screen footage, check out the following articles.

How To Use Green Screen In Your Marketing Videos

Green screen technology has been around since the early 1900s. But did you know that green screen technology isn’t exclusive to the color green?

This visual effect is often called chroma key compositing or chroma keying. It is a post-production effect that allows video editors to replace backgrounds and insert footage or images into their scenes.

Many companies use a green screen to produce informative product videos, company updates, and more. It is a useful and valuable tool when you want to produce a professional-looking marketing video quickly and affordably.

In this post we’re breaking down how to use green software for beginners. The first thing to know is that it’s incredibly easy to produce a green screen video these days!

To help you get started, here are a few key things to remember when producing any video:

1. The first time is always the longest. Anytime you do something new it will take time. Be patient and continue to execute. You’ll get faster every time you do it.

2. Make a plan and carry it out. We wrote a great post on video pre production that explains the importance of a script and making a plan!

3. Last but not least, have fun! Green screen videos can be a blast to create. Don’t take yourself too seriously (even if it’s a serious video) and your production is sure to be more relatable to the masses.

What is Green Screen Used For?

There are many practical use cases for green screen and it all depends on what you are trying to achieve with your video production.

On big Hollywood sets you will see green screens as large as a city block! It’s unlikely that you’ll have that type of budget, but if your company is ready to invest in video marketing, you will have the tools to produce some amazing marketing videos!

Some common use cases for green screen are include:

1. Marketing Videos

Filming a quick marketing video for your organization can be easy. Keep in mind it doesn’t have to be green! You can purchase simple pop up green or blue screens for cheap online.

These are usually the best colors to use. Lucky for you, we’ve also put together a step by step guide on how to get started using green screen.

2. Creating Engaging YouTube Videos

Some of the most popular YouTube vloggers use green screen to add interesting backgrounds to their videos. Replacing the background can add depth and visually interesting patterns to keep the viewer engaged.

3. Split Screen Videos

With green screen technology you can create fun side by side or split screen videos to add comedic relief to your video production. Just make sure to write your script before pressing record!

4. Replacing Backgrounds

Green screen can be used to replace backgrounds on devices, computer screens and more. This is a great visual effect to use if you are creating a marketing video for a new application or piece of software, or making a video to share out campaign results with your co-workers.

It’s not as hard as it looks

You do not have to be a director on a fancy movie set to use green screen technology. This process can actually be very cost effective and easy to setup. Over 33,000 people search for green screen help each month, and most people think that it takes complicated software to accomplish this visual effect. But you only need a few things to get started.

Check out our in depth How to Create A Green Screen tutorial that lists the materials you need to get started. Below you’ll find out what software to use to achieve this effect.

How to Use Green Screen Software

Green software can be intimidating for many people, but there are simple and effective solutions that allow you to save time and make fantastic videos quickly. We should note that there are many different types of video editing software out there. If you’re just getting started we recommend finding the easiest and most user friendly software possible.

The first thing you will need to do is select the software you want to use for your green screen video. We’re pretty fond of Camtasia, which includes a click and drag “remove a color” feature that allows you to quickly replace the background. It is really that simple. We’ll be using Camtasia below in our examples.

Step 1 – Drag and Drop

Select the “remove a color” feature in the visual effects menu in Camtasia. Then all you need to do is drag and drop on the clip. Simple as that!

Step 2 – Select Color

Select the color you want to remove from your scene. This usually works best with green or blue in your scene. Fun fact, filmmakers have used many different colors including red, yellow and black to replace backgrounds, but often green and blue work the best.

Replace the image or background in your scene with your desired footage, background or image. In Camtasia, you can adjust the replaced image using the rotation tools in the properties panel to easily scale your image.

As you can see, green screen software can be very easy to use. With three simple steps in Camtasia you can replace a background using the “Remove A Color” feature.

Creating a Marketing Video With Green Screen

Now that you have the basics and use cases, it’s easy to see that creating a green screen marketing video won’t take you a ton of time. In fact, you have probably seen examples of these short marketing videos in your Facebook feed. Here is an example of one of ours:

Videos like this allow you to display information quickly and can be played silently while users are scrolling their feed, but did you notice that the computer screens were replaced? With simple editing tricks like the “Remove A Color” feature in Camtasia, you can create these exact same videos. Why not try it out for yourself?

You can find even more information on getting your DIY green screen set up on our blog.

You can make these same videos for your company. Even if you don’t have your own copy, you can try Camtasia free for 30 days. Give it a try and let us know how it goes on Twitter or Facebook.

David Patton

David Patton is the Media Coordinator for TechSmith. Follow him on Twitter @davidpatton6 Favorite things: Star Wars, iPhone, and Dr. Pepper Personal motto: «If you’re at a buffet, be first and fill up your plate.» Currently reading: The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens

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Learn How to Properly Use a Green Screen

Shooting with a green screen can open up a world of possibilities. Let’s learn how to properly use this versatile video production tool.

In today’s digital world, there are all types of reasons for needing to complete a sequence with a green screen. How effective that shot becomes rests solely on how well you can process that green screen. With that in mind, let’s look at how to properly use a green screen.

Before you Begin: Plan

In order to properly use a green screen, you need to know exactly how you’ll use it in the finished cut. In order to do this, you need to pre-visualize and plan your shot. By developing a solid concept before you roll the camera, you can ensure that you’ll get exactly what you need and want.

Now that we’ve planned everything out, let’s look at how to actually use a green screen. Here’s a great video from Green Screen Systems.

A Quick Rundown of What We’ve Learned

1. Eliminate Wrinkles by Using Clamps

Wrinkles on a green screen are your worst nightmare, so use clamps whenever you go to set up your screen. By using clamps like these pony spring clamps, you can stretch out the screen and eliminate those wrinkles.

2. Carefully Fold Your Screen for Storage

There are many different ways to fold a large cloth green screen. But no matter which way you choose to fold your screen, just sure to keep one thing absolutely clear in your mind: “As I fold, there can’t be wrinkles.” If you fold your screen and there are wrinkles, then you’ll see those very clearly the next time you use it. Trust me… if you don’t fold it right, you may find yourself with an iron in your hand trying to get out the wrinkles.

3. Make Sure Your Subject Sits Away From the Screen

You don’t want the green of the screen spilling over onto your character or subject. The best way to ensure that this doesn’t happen is to pull the subject away from the screen. Having your subject set away from the screen by at least four to six feet should eliminate all green spill, aka the green “halo” effect.

4. Light the Screen and Subject Separately

Now that you’ve pulled your subject or character away from the screen, you’ll want to light them. The important things to remember here is that you need to light your subject separate from the green screen. What this means is that your green screen needs a nice even light shining across it so you can easily key it out in post. Once this is done you can then light your subject as needed for the scene.

5. Camera Setup for Green Screen

The key to using green screen is to make sure you’re reducing motion blur and capturing as much detail as possible. With this said, you’ll want to up your ISO and then close your aperture down. By doing this you can reduce motion blur which gives you a really detailed show. Also, you’ll want to be sure to match the focal length on the green screen to what you putting behind it.

6. The Last Few Things to Keep in Mind

When lighting your green screen, never light the screen from the back. Also be sure to remove any and all reflective material when using the green screen. If your subject has glasses or earrings, ask them to take the items off — the reflection can easily cause havoc when in post.

The History of Green Screen Compositing

Compositing has been around since the dawn of cinema. The legendary filmmaker and illusionist Georges Méliès used compositing many times during his film career. What he was able to accomplish at the time with the equipment provided to him was amazing. But how did we get from Méliès’s matte double-exposure technique to the insanity we see today? Filmmaker IQ has a video that shows us this very thing.

Want to read more about effective production processes? Then check out these articles from RocketStock:

Do you use a green screen on a daily basis? Do you have it down to a science? Share your tips and experiences in the comments below!