Green screen/white screen/red...
- Thread starter Libby
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Green and Blue are most commonly used for ChromaKeying - why? 'Cause keying those colours out doesn't interfere with fleshtones - after all, you don't want to key out your background and lose a big chunk of your talent's face
Okay thanks.
On that note...what can be used as a green screen? The media center here uses a green curtin that is stretched out...do you have to use only fabric?
and any other colors such as the red /black and white would be used as a background for something like an interview?
On that note...what can be used as a green screen? The media center here uses a green curtin that is stretched out...do you have to use only fabric?
and any other colors such as the red /black and white would be used as a background for something like an interview?
I have used blue, green, and red. All worked equally well. Although I've never tried, I think you could feed your keying software any color that you want. Obviously a primary color is better because it is pure. Blue is blue and red is red but purple is blue and red. Remember, the keying software doesn't automatically key out a certain color. You have to tell it which color you want to use.
Use anything you like - it just needs to be a pure colour and consistently lit (and obviously a different colour to anything you want to keep in the final shot). I've seen purple, red and yellow used for keying miniatures, so I think anything goes really.
Green's often the best choice for digital video, because sensors in digital cameras often have greater sensitivity in the green channel/to green light. However, blue is usually a better choice when keying anyone with blonde hair, and blue seems to be more common when working with film, but that's purely anecdotal.
Green's often the best choice for digital video, because sensors in digital cameras often have greater sensitivity in the green channel/to green light. However, blue is usually a better choice when keying anyone with blonde hair, and blue seems to be more common when working with film, but that's purely anecdotal.
blue looks better when NOT using it for blue screen.. I mean you COULD paint a room in your house that color and it could pass for a regular room.. green.. not so much..
I was watching highlights of some cheap, homegrown crappy movie that is pure special effects. In one scene a guy is seated down somewhere and gets attacked by a monster and you can see the shadow of the actors body .
I looked it up on youtube and one of the guys stated on there not to get too close to it or you will produce that effect...funny...I don't know in this movie (I didn't see the movie only a clip) if that was the intent to have shadows or something overlooked in that scene but it looked really bad to me.
I looked it up on youtube and one of the guys stated on there not to get too close to it or you will produce that effect...funny...I don't know in this movie (I didn't see the movie only a clip) if that was the intent to have shadows or something overlooked in that scene but it looked really bad to me.
Yes, you want to keep your actors at least 5' away from the screen when shooting, otherwise you'll often run into the shadow problem you saw in that movie, and you can also end up with green color spill around the edges of your actors from the light bouncing off the chromakey green screen onto them.
As for what you can use for the chromakey background, I recently wrote an article about that here that you can check out: chromakey background materials comparison
As mentioned already, you CAN use any color you want for the effect, but green and blue are used most commonly. In addition to what's already been said about those two, blue is better for night scenes because you end up with less color spill on the actors, whereas green is better for day time shots, especially if you're going to create an outdoor scene with your key.
Hope that helps.
As for what you can use for the chromakey background, I recently wrote an article about that here that you can check out: chromakey background materials comparison
As mentioned already, you CAN use any color you want for the effect, but green and blue are used most commonly. In addition to what's already been said about those two, blue is better for night scenes because you end up with less color spill on the actors, whereas green is better for day time shots, especially if you're going to create an outdoor scene with your key.
Hope that helps.
I'm going to add a more specific answer to the color choice. The green is specifically opposite (complementary) the flesh line on the color wheel. If you are compositing anything green, you'll want an orange/red screen... the key (hehe - pun) is to have the complementary color to what you are compositing so you can isolate the image and the background.
I've debated using green screen, and I might have to if a certain project ever comes to fruition, just never done it before, so I'm a newbie too at it...its...it's something DIFFERENT!!!
Not a fan personally. I see WAY too much where I can tell instantly that it's green screen. Not denying it has it's uses, but it gets WAY overused by low budget filmmakers, and executed badly way too often.
Green screen, white screen, red screen, blue screen,
You screen few screens, who screens new screens?
I'm in agreement with Gonzo. This technique is better left to be big-budget studios, in my opinion.
You screen few screens, who screens new screens?
I'm in agreement with Gonzo. This technique is better left to be big-budget studios, in my opinion.