Green Screen

How to use a Green Screen in your Video Project

Written by Bill

www.stratsound.com

I have used a green sheet behind me as my initial background on the majority of my guitar videos.

The reason for a green sheet is that when processing the video of yourself playing against this coloured background, it is easy to remove the entire sheet and replace it with any other background that you want.

Your new background can be a solid colour, many colours, a photo, a video or a combination of all of these.

The Video Software that I use is Corel Video Studio Ultimate version 8. (Version 10 is now available in 2017).

Hopefully the following short guide should help if you want to achieve similar results.

There are other video editing software available and most will offer green screen processing.

The term to look for in the help section of your program is likely to be called Chroma key or using a Green Screen perhaps.

Equipment needed.

My own Green Screen is simply a large non-reflective sheet coloured a bright green.

I have two uplighters (floor standing lamps that emit a very bright halogen light at the top).

The room I use has a white ceiling with a central light with four halogen bulbs emitting quite a bright light.

Between these two uplighters, I tie my green sheet at the top and bottom to each of the uplighter metal shafts.

The light from the uplighters bounces off the ceiling and lights the entire green sheet.

It is important to try and get the whole sheet lit up uniformly so that it can be removed easily when processing the video. If you see some areas of your green sheet are darker, then they won’t be removed properly and your background will not look as good as you want.

I sit on a black stool in front of the Green Screen, probably about sixty centimetres away from the sheet.

My video camera is on a tripod and I zoom in first of all to get just my top half visible with me holding the guitar, showing against the Green Screen.

I then switch all the lights on and start the recording.

Removing the green background from your Video.

This guide isn’t meant to teach you how to use your whole video program but more along the lines of how to use the green screen feature that your software has.

1. Copy your video to a folder on your hard disk and you are ready to start.
2. Open your video program
3. Usually most video programs have a layout referred to as a Timeline. Choose this option.
4. The Timeline layout will have various track options to select, and you want at least two video tracks. One will be the main video track and the other/s will be called overlay tracks.
5. Insert your recorded video as it is onto the first overlay track.(Mine is video track 2).
6. All video software comes with a large selection of effects and tools to use. Look for the effect called Chroma Key or something similar in your own software.
7. Drag the Chroma Key icon onto the recorded video on track two – this will allow you to select the colour green as the one to remove from the entire video.
8. Usually a separate window opens in your video software showing your recorded video, and using a Dropper Tool (looks like a tube) you can select the green area on the video.
9. After clicking with the Dropper Tool, the green background area should now be removed and replaced with black.
10. Insert onto Track One any other backgrounds you want: solid colours, multiple colours, photos, videos. Adjust the timing length of each background as needed.
11. When you play your video, you should now see yourself playing the guitar (or whatever instrument) and your new backgrounds will be seen.
12. Save and render your new video ready to publish.

Please remember that the above guide is a mini one – not an absolute step by step guide.

Hope it helps you to achieve what you want.

Bill

www.stratsound.com