How to Make Green Screen Videos With Chroma Key Effect - Use Lighting, Backdrop and Green Screen Interactive Application Software
Backdrop/Background
The Screen "You're telling me I've got to have a green screen for my green screen video? Beyond just green, you need your backdrop to be three things: wrinkle-resistant, non-reflective and uniformly colored, all of which make creating the effect in editing much easier. There's special green screen paint, albeit somewhat pricey, sold for such a task.
Of course, the easiest way to get a good green screen is buying a professional-quality one, usually made from muslin cloth, from the many online retailers who sell them in all manner of dimensions (just do a Google search for "green screen backdrop"). I accomplish this feat by simply taping my bed sheet to the wall using masking tape.
Lighting
Evenness Lighting is the most critical element to the process, the one that, if done improperly, will sabotage your efforts entirely, making it impossible to key out the designated color range in post-production. The narrow range is accomplished by evenly lighting the backdrop--a task that is far easier to type about than bring to fruition, made onerous by those evil creatures called Shadows.
Setup For my videos, I use a basic setup of three lights, each of which I purchased at Home Depot. Toward the subject, I face a 500-watt Workforce work light, featuring two independently movable lamps on top of its extensible framework. To light the backdrop, I place clamp lights, holding 200-watt bulbs, on either side of sheet.
Editing
I use PhotoKey 4. I learned the particulars of creating the keying effect from YouTube tutorial videos. If you've done your lighting properly, summoning the effect is much less complicated and frustrating.
Background Image The background doesn't have to be a still image; it could be another video. An important note, also in regard to wardrobe: make certain your subject isn't wearing anything with green in it, because that will be keyed out along with the screen.
