CHROMA KEY:
Green screens come in Collapsable, Backdrop Stand, or Chair Mounts.
Collapsible Backdrops are portable, less wrinkles. Collapsable screens are straightforward to set up.
Backdrop Stands take more time to set up, with mounts and backdrop stands, works wonderfully. If you are looking to create a wide scene for your stream or have more room to move around, for doing VR.
Chair Mount – Won’t be able to turn around in your chair without breaking the illusion. A collapsable green screen or even a chair mount will work best.
Set-up Proper Lighting – You want the subject to stand out in front of a well-lit green screen background. Use 3-point lighting, evenly distributed soft lighting to eliminate hard shadows. Keep screen clean, avoid wrinkles. Light both sides to prevent any inconsistencies that break the effect.
Get a Decent Camera – Most built-in web cams won’t have enough video quality.
The chroma key will remove EVERY pixel that matches the color chosen; be sure not to wear a green shirt to your filming session. You can apply a chroma key filter in OBS to any image or video source, but you will usually apply it to a video source.
Apply the chroma key filter –
*Open OBS Studio
*Create a new Scene
*Add your Camera Source
*Check if your green screen fully covers your background. If not, crop the video in OBS: Hold down ALT key & grab the sides of the video in the main menu.
*Right-click on Video Capture Source.
*Click Filters
*In the bottom left-hand corner of the window that just popped up, click the ‘+’ symbol.
*Choose ‘Chroma Key’ & select ok.
The chroma key filter is now applied to your video capture source. You can also apply a chroma key to a still image or moving image source such as an mp4; be sure to right-click on the image or video source instead of the video capture source. Your green screen background might be grainy & look terrible; the chroma key settings are not optimized to your screen hue yet.
Chroma Key vs. Color key Filter in OBS – When you go to select your filter, there are 2 key options, chroma and color. On the face of it, they seem to do the same job, but: The chroma key is optimized for camera footage such as green screen footage captured by a webcam. The color key is optimized to search for digital color information in the image & is better for computer graphics & image files. If in doubt, stick to chroma key.
Adjust Chroma Key Settings – Just slapping on the Chroma Key filter may look terrible – there’s a range of settings you can fine-tune the chroma key.
Assuming you have a green screen and not any other color like blue, these are the recommended values:
Similarity: 300-400
Smoothness: 20-80
Key Color Spill Reduction: 20-100
Add a new Background. If you want to add a new background to your stream, you can easily add a new image source to your scene in OBS.
It’s possible to remove your background without a green screen. Follow the below steps:
Go to ChromaCam website select the free plan.
Download & install the app.
Select Green Screen background.
Add video source from ChromaCam in OBS.
Remove background using Chroma Key Filter in OBS. You can also use a built-in background in ChromaCam.
Issues You Might Have With Chroma Key in OBS –
Color Spill – is when your green screen reflects onto the back of your subject, often can create a green glow or outline on your subject. To remove, increase ‘Key Color Spill Reduction’ val until you can no longer see the issue. You may also want to increase your ‘Similarity’ value.
Some of the Green Screen is keyed, some isn’t – make sure the entire screen is lit evenly. When the chroma key searches for a color to remove, it has a minimal threshold, the shade of green must be consistent across entire screen. Using 3-point lighting can help. Light your screen with a different light source to your subject. Consider having 2 lights focussed on your screen.
Keying Out Other Objects – If you’re wearing an item of clothing that has a similar color to your key, it WILL disappear, be sure not to wear clothes of a similar color to your screen!
Can’t Find the Sweet Spot in Settings – Whereby the Screen Is Keyed, & My Subject Is Not – lack of lighting. Make sure screen is taut & brightly lit & your subject is a different color to your screen. If you’re using a low spec camera, consider an upgrade.
Use a Different Color Screen as long as it’s bright & well lit. Lime green & royal blue are favorites as they stand out well and can be keyed easily.
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