Green Screen

[braindeadsoftwareguy]

Hopefully when I get Steve's book and can get serious with this program, I certainly would like to mess with green screen. Without getting fancy, is there a common paint that one could get at a building supply that people have used well?
I'm thinking maybe a certain shade of green in a low gloss latex from Home Depot or the like? I think I'd rather paint a folding set of panels, than use construcion paper taped, or wrinkly cloth.

[Lammy]

Hey there. Just out of curiosity...are you using a Mac or a PC? I ask because, if you are like myself and using a Mac....there is no green screen option using PE10. You'd have to use iMovie for that.

As far as the color....if I recall correctly, you want to use a bright green color. There are paints out there that people have used from the little bit of reading I've done. However, for my purposes it was easier to just go ahead and purchase an actual green screen. I got a 6x10 piece for like $18 or so. If you go with paint, I'm not sure glossy would be the way to go because you wouldn't want a shiny glare in spots? Again, just thinking out loud there.

[Steve Grisetti]

Here's my favorite source for affordable green screen -- whether you plan to use paint or material as your backdrop.

Don't forget: Smooth and evenly-lit is the key to a good "key"! (and no shadows)

[Steve Grisetti]

Also, although the Mac version doesn't include Chroma Key or Green Screen, it does include the Videomerge effect, a simplified tool for doing chroma key effects.

[braindeadsoftwareguy]

Hey there. Just out of curiosity...are you using a Mac or a PC? I ask because, if you are like myself and using a Mac....there is no green screen option using PE10. You'd have to use iMovie for that.

I have a PC and it has a green screen icon on the effects panel. I shouldn't have said low gloss, but rather matte.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

One room in our house is painted green.

The house is about 175 years old and the paint colour is (apparently) a typical colour from the Victorian era.

Advantages are a permanently available green screen (albeit after a bit of furniture moving) no wrinkles and easy to light evenly.

[Bob]

Don't discount Premiere Elements Videomerge. Despite the strange name, Videomerge is a keying application and can produce excellant blue screen, green screen, and chroma key results. Adobe aquired the technology when they purchased the company Serious Magic. Besides the Videomerge feature in Premiere Elements, the technology has been incorporated into Premiere Pro as Ultra Key. If Adobe had used a name like that in Elements, I'd bet a lot more people would use it.

[Lammy]

Great news about the video merge feature. That actually made me smile a little bit

This news has me so worked up....that I better go take a nap now

Just kidding.....well....about the worked up part that is.

[braindeadsoftwareguy]

I was in a discount store today and noticed a queen-sized green sheet set for sale. I was tempted to try that out, but it was more than I'd pay for an experiment. It was a no sheen flannel type surface, so it might have worked?

[pch006]

Since I do a lot of green/blue screen things, thought I would throw in my two cents here. First, I went to Home Depot and got two canvas drop cloths and stitched them together then I actually bought a gallon of studio quality Chromo blue paint... about $64! Later I discovered you could buy a gallon of the most intense blue or green at Home Depot and that would work just as well. As far as wrinkles and things, Premiere Elements seems fairly forgiving. I found, to get the best results, I would set up my blue/green screen outside on an overcast day or some place without sun. When I have done it inside the results are inconsistent.

[braindeadsoftwareguy]

I just had a thought. Could one shine a green spotlight against a white wall to make it a green screen? Also by doing that, there is automatically no shadows. Or would the program know the difference between solid color and a lit wall?

[Steve Grisetti]

That might work. If you could get a smooth, even, non-shiny green.

[roadsideron]

Take a white piece of paper, shine a green light on it, place an object in front of it and see how well it keys.

[Bob]

Don't get carried away by the color green. You can do keying with any color providing it's reasonably uniform and doesn't match a color in the subject very closely. Blue and Green are frequently used because they are the furthest from skin tones. The Chromakey effect has an eye dropper to choose the color to key out.

The problem with a colored light is that you are likely to contaminate the subject with the light and that will result in a bad key.