Green Screen Stream Setup in OBS Studio or Streamlabs OBS

[00:00] What's up guys. Welcome back once again

[00:02] to the Gaming Careers YouTube channel

[00:05] today we're going to be talking about green

[00:06] screens and how you can use a green

[00:08] screen within your stream so you can do

[00:11] cool things, actually one sec, like this!

[00:17] Now obviously I'll throw some other

[00:19] examples of streamers using a green

[00:22] screen and some of the creative ways

[00:23] that they have used them to incorporate

[00:26] some funny or epic moments into their

[00:30] stream but in this video we're going to

[00:31] be going through why you'd want to use a

[00:33] green screen for your stream, what

[00:35] equipment you need exactly and I'm going

[00:36] to be covering different budgets for

[00:38] this so right from the cheapest way of

[00:40] implementing a green screen up to

[00:42] something more expensive like the elgato

[00:44] green screen that I've got. We're also

[00:46] going to be talking about how you can

[00:48] use a green screen in OBS and streamlabs

[00:50] OBS, so exactly how you set it up to

[00:53] chroma key out the background. And

[00:54] finally I'll be going over some tips and

[00:56] tricks for lighting and exactly how you

[00:59] want to set up your green screen to make

[01:02] sure you get the crispest image. All of

[01:04] that coming up!

[01:12] So obviously the main purpose of having

[01:14] a green screen is to be able to cut your

[01:16] talent out from their background and

[01:19] then you can overlay that talent on

[01:21] your game or maybe it's your

[01:23] desktop or your twitch chat or whatever

[01:25] you want to do. But the idea is that you

[01:26] can have both your your talent and some

[01:29] sort of background in the same shot

[01:31] composited one above the other. So what

[01:33] you're going to need to be able to achieve

[01:34] this look is obviously a camera of some

[01:38] sort.

[01:39] This can be a webcam, it can be

[01:40] a camera plugged into an elgato

[01:43] cam link like mine is and basically

[01:45] the the higher resolution, the more

[01:47] detail you're going to get and the better

[01:49] quality the cut between the talent and

[01:52] the green is going to be. So I would

[01:54] recommend certainly using one of the

[01:56] higher-end webcams to achieve really

[01:58] great results.

[01:58] Something like the Logitech c920 which

[02:01] is often recommended. I've been

[02:02] recommending it in my kits for absolutely

[02:04] ages. That will do absolutely brilliantly, but

[02:07] if you have the luxury of being able to

[02:08] use an actual camera mirrorless or DSLR,

[02:10] plugged into a capture device like the

[02:12] elgato cam link, then that will do even

[02:14] better. In terms of the actual green

[02:16] screens, it's one of those things that's

[02:18] going to be completely dependent on your

[02:19] budget. Here on Amazon I found three

[02:22] different types of green screen for

[02:24] three different budgets so hopefully one

[02:26] of these will be perfect for you. At

[02:28] the start we've got these sort of

[02:30] foldable green or blue screens that they

[02:33] sort of fold up into a circle similar to

[02:35] some of those pop-up tents that you can

[02:37] get for camping and festivals and things

[02:38] like that. So they pack away nice and

[02:40] small but when they actually open up

[02:42] they open up to a decent size. The

[02:43] difficulty with these is that they have

[02:45] to be hung or placed against

[02:49] the wall or something like that, so these

[02:51] are really great if you have the ability

[02:54] to be able to hang it or to be able to

[02:55] put it against the wall if that is what

[02:57] your streaming setup is but they're

[02:59] super cheap and you know you can't

[03:01] really go wrong with something like this

[03:02] for forty dollars. Next up you have the

[03:05] traditional green screen which is the

[03:06] green material. This one here is is nice

[03:10] and large 9 by 15 feet, comes with three

[03:13] clips but you would need to have a place

[03:16] to secure it to and most of you I

[03:18] imagine would have to purchase something

[03:19] like this, so a studio rail

[03:22] which is two light stands with a beam

[03:26] across the top which you can hoop

[03:27] through the green screen. These are

[03:30] pretty much what a traditional green

[03:32] screen setup is, something nice and large,

[03:34] does take up quite a bit of room but can

[03:37] pack down quite quickly unless you're

[03:40] going to leave it up the whole time. But

[03:41] this is the traditional sort of around

[03:43] $50-60 when you factor in both the stand

[03:46] as well as the green screen. Then

[03:48] finally we have what I have, which is the

[03:50] new elgato green screen. Well I say new,

[03:52] it's probably been out for six months or

[03:54] so now, super handy, super convenient,

[03:57] packs all the way down into its body has

[04:01] its own support beams at the back so you

[04:03] can set it to any height. I've absolutely

[04:05] loved the product but it is on the

[04:07] pricey side, so I think this is the ideal

[04:10] solution and there isn't really any

[04:11] competitor for it in terms of how

[04:13] convenient it is and how quickly it

[04:15] packs away and you can set it up but it

[04:17] is a little bit pricey, so I understand

[04:19] for some people this might be out of

[04:20] budget. The last bit of equipment that

[04:22] you're going to need is some decent

[04:24] lighting, now you might not think that

[04:26] lighting is that much of a key aspect in

[04:28] terms of a green screens, you actually

[04:30] need to be able to light both your

[04:32] talent or your subject yourself I would

[04:34] imagine, as well as the green screen

[04:36] separately to make sure that you have

[04:38] that consistent green color which is

[04:40] going to make it much easier when it

[04:41] comes to chroma keying it out. I've got a

[04:43] couple of examples here on Amazon, the

[04:45] neewer 160 is a very popular light for

[04:48] filmmakers, gets very very bright even in

[04:51] such a small panel or something like the

[04:53] VILTROX panel as well, there's so

[04:55] many of these LED light kits on Amazon

[04:58] I'm sure you can find one that is large

[04:59] enough for you but the main purpose

[05:01] obviously is to be able to light

[05:03] yourself as well as your green screen

[05:05] independently so you might need to pick

[05:07] up a couple of these kits. A couple of

[05:08] tips to do with the actual lighting, the

[05:11] further away the green screen is from

[05:13] the talent, so the bigger the distance

[05:15] between the talent and the green screen,

[05:17] the less harsh the shadows are going to

[05:18] be so if you're stood right next to your

[05:20] green screen and you may have to be,

[05:21] you're going to get harsher shadows and

[05:23] in that case you probably are going to

[05:25] want to light the green screen

[05:27] separately with a second light source.

[05:29] Before we jump into OBS and streamlabs

[05:31] OBS,

[05:32] one tip would be that you don't want the

[05:35] green screen to be too narrow

[05:37] when surrounding your talent or yourself,

[05:40] you want to have some leeway so that the

[05:43] person on screen can raise

[05:44] their hands and things like that without

[05:46] the hands being cut off because of the

[05:48] narrow green screen.

[05:49] The second thing worth mentioning is

[05:51] that keying out in OBS or any of these

[05:54] programs is actually quite CPU intensive,

[05:56] so if you are struggling to keep frame

[05:59] rates and not drop frames anyway, you

[06:01] might consider maybe just having a

[06:02] normal webcam without any keying because

[06:04] it is a CPU intensive task, your computer

[06:07] is having to do all the processing of

[06:08] removing that background information and

[06:10] so just bear that in mind if you're

[06:12] having any issues. Ok so here we are in

[06:15] OBS and the first thing that we want to

[06:17] do probably is just to play around with

[06:19] the cropping of our webcam to make sure

[06:21] that it's completely surrounded by green.

[06:22] I've just got an example scene set up

[06:24] here with a picture of

[06:27] fortnight just as if I was playing it

[06:28] and my webcam camera in the bottom

[06:31] corner so the first thing you want to do

[06:32] is crop the webcam to make sure that we

[06:34] are completely surrounded by green and

[06:36] this section just here where you can see

[06:38] some of my background shelving unit

[06:40] isn't changed. So to do that you can hold

[06:42] down the Alt key and drag in any of the

[06:44] areas that you want to crop, so I'm

[06:46] just going to drag in the sides a little

[06:47] bit, so they're surrounded by green and

[06:49] the top right just a touch and there we

[06:52] go.

[06:52] Now I am completely surrounded by green.

[06:54] My background isn't completely the same

[06:56] color but it's a pretty good attempt. So

[06:59] next we're going to be looking at removing

[07:00] this green background so that I can sit

[07:02] just on top of the game layer, to do that

[07:04] we want to come down to the camera

[07:05] source here or your webcam source, right

[07:08] click and go to filters, now you can see

[07:10] in the effect filters list, we do

[07:12] actually have the LUT that we set up a

[07:14] couple of weeks ago, so if you haven't

[07:15] yet watched that video of how to add

[07:16] filters and LUTs to your webcam to

[07:19] change the look and make them look

[07:20] a little bit more cinematic, do go and

[07:22] check out that video, I'll link it up in

[07:23] the top card, but we're just going to have

[07:25] that disabled for now and we're going to

[07:27] come and add a new effect filter by

[07:28] clicking the plus icon and selecting

[07:30] chroma key. Obviously you can name this

[07:32] whatever you want, chroma key works for

[07:34] me so I'm just going to leave it at its

[07:35] default and click OK. Now you can see as

[07:38] soon as I click OK, OBS has applied its

[07:41] default settings which is a green chroma

[07:43] key and you can see it's done a pretty

[07:45] decent job really, if you look to

[07:46] the bottom corner where it's already

[07:47] been cropped, it's not bad. There's a

[07:49] little bit of green on my shoulders and

[07:52] in my hair, obviously blonde hair and

[07:54] light colored t-shirts aren't ideal to wear

[07:56] for this but I thought I would challenge

[07:57] myself and get the settings perfect for

[08:00] you guys. So the first option that we have is

[08:02] this key color type and you have the

[08:05] choice between green blue magenta as

[08:07] well as a custom color, this is just the

[08:09] color of the screen behind you that you

[08:11] are wanting to remove so that the most

[08:12] typical ones are green and blue.

[08:14] Obviously they've got the option of a

[08:15] magenta or by keying in your custom

[08:18] color if you know exactly what it is or

[08:21] you can use the color picker. I've

[08:22] actually found that for the elgato green

[08:24] screen I'm using the green one seems to

[08:26] work the best so I'm going to leave it at

[08:27] green and then move on to the other

[08:29] options. Similarity is on a scale of 1 to

[08:32] 1000 so if you drag this left and right

[08:34] you can see it's choosing how similar of

[08:37] a color to the green that they've got

[08:38] set you want to remove. So if I lower

[08:40] this you can see that some of the darker

[08:42] areas in the bottom corners of my green

[08:43] screen are still showing so you want to

[08:44] get this to the point where all the

[08:46] green screen is removed but you know

[08:47] none of your t-shirt or your body or

[08:49] your face so around 400 seems to work

[08:54] quite well for me. Next we have

[08:55] smoothness and this is how smooth of the

[08:58] keying effect will be so again you don't

[09:00] be removing any of your t-shirt or your

[09:02] hair by going too high so somewhere

[09:05] around 100 seems to work quite well for

[09:06] me but this will be completely dependent

[09:07] on your your setup and your lighting and

[09:10] all those kind of things your camera. Key

[09:11] color spill reduction this is just

[09:13] trying to reduce the amount of spill

[09:15] that might appear on the shoulders or in

[09:17] the hair if you certainly if you have

[09:19] blond hair it's a little bit more

[09:20] difficult so you're just trying to

[09:21] remove that spill of green from those

[09:24] areas and that looks pretty decent

[09:26] actually. Then finally you have some

[09:28] options for a contrast, brightness,

[09:30] gamma, those kind of things I'm going to

[09:32] leave these all as default but do feel

[09:34] free to play around if you need to and

[09:36] then if we can just click close and you

[09:37] can see that has now applied my green

[09:39] screen effect and you can see how clear

[09:41] that is, if I hold my hand up especially

[09:43] you can see straight through my fingers

[09:44] onto the green screen. There is still a

[09:46] little bit of green color in my hair so

[09:49] I would probably go back into the

[09:51] settings and just make sure that I'm

[09:52] fine-tuning to make sure that that is

[09:54] removed but bearing in mind I haven't

[09:57] set of any sort of lights just specific

[10:00] for the background here and I've tried

[10:02] to make it challenging as possible by

[10:03] wearing a light t-shirt and obviously

[10:05] having blonde hair, I think that looks

[10:08] pretty decent. I'm just going to go back in

[10:09] and just play a tiny bit just to try and

[10:12] remove that green from my hair, so I

[10:14] should be able to play around with the

[10:15] color spill a little bit and maybe the

[10:18] smoothness as well and there you go, you

[10:20] can see it's reduced now and then if you

[10:22] went back to apply your LUT you can see

[10:24] that even looks even better, so there I

[10:27] am in the bottom corner of my screen,

[10:29] obviously if I put my hands on the

[10:31] outside of where I've cropped my camera

[10:32] that's going to remove so I want to try and

[10:34] remain in this frame as much as possible

[10:35] but there I am in the bottom corner of

[10:38] my fortnight game example. If streamlabs

[10:41] OBS is your your streaming software of

[10:43] choice the process is exactly the same

[10:45] as it's part of that core OBS

[10:47] functionality that was originally moved

[10:49] across into streamlabs OBS. So all you

[10:51] have to do is find your webcam or your

[10:52] camera source, right click, filters find

[10:55] the color key and make sure you dial in

[10:58] the settings to be able to remove your

[10:59] background without removing any of your

[11:01] subject. Another really important point

[11:03] is that you want your subject not to be

[11:05] wearing any of the color that your

[11:06] background is so if your background is

[11:08] green avoid wearing any green as that

[11:10] will also be removed so if you have a

[11:11] green logo on your t-shirt or something

[11:13] like that that's obviously also going to

[11:15] be removed. Another bonus tip for OBS and

[11:18] streamlabs OBS is it's not just video

[11:20] capture devices that you can apply the

[11:23] color keying to, you could also do it to

[11:24] video so if you find some videos on the

[11:26] internet that have a green screen you

[11:28] can also apply the color key in OBS or

[11:31] streamlabs OBS to a video. One last

[11:33] thing I will mention is if you are using

[11:34] a webcam that has sort of some drivers

[11:37] installed and those things with auto

[11:39] white balance you're probably going to

[11:41] want to jump into those options and

[11:42] disable it because when auto white

[11:44] balance is enabled sometimes that's

[11:45] going to mess up what the green looks

[11:47] like and obviously OBS is looking for a

[11:49] specific color of green to remove from

[11:52] the keying so if it's going to keep

[11:53] changing white balance because of this

[11:55] auto white balance setting within the

[11:56] webcam that's going to mess up so make

[11:58] sure you disable that. The last thing

[12:00] that I will mention is just to raise the

[12:01] question do you actually want to remove

[12:03] your background from your livestream? A

[12:06] lot of people find that having a

[12:08] background with you know some things on

[12:09] shelving units I know I don't have

[12:10] anything interests

[12:11] on there yeah but over time I'd like to

[12:13] think I'm going to build up parts

[12:15] of my personality and have them on this

[12:16] shelving unit so maybe a green screen

[12:18] isn't right for you but if it is I hope

[12:20] you found this video useful, if you have

[12:22] please do give it a thumbs up and

[12:24] subscribe if you haven't already. As

[12:26] always a massive thanks to the patrons

[12:28] this month who have helped fund the

[12:30] creation of these videos do check out my

[12:32] patreon page if you haven't already and

[12:33] subscribers I will see you in the next

[12:35] video. Peace!

[12:38] [Music]