The ULTIMATE Green Screen Tutorial

[00:00] So, do you want to know how you can get

[00:01] green screens like this or this or even

[00:05] this all whilst using AI and event

[00:08] resolve? Well, today is the end of

[00:09] gatekeeping because I'll be showcasing

[00:11] my full green screen workflow that I use

[00:14] for both my long form and short form

[00:16] content. Not only will I be walking

[00:17] through the platforms I use, but also

[00:19] how I key out my green screens, the

[00:21] lighting, and how I composite everything

[00:23] inside the Vincent Resolve. And don't

[00:25] worry if you don't use a Vincent Resolve

[00:27] because everything I teach in this video

[00:29] can still be applied in every single

[00:31] editing software as well. Now, this is

[00:32] going to be part of a long series on

[00:34] YouTube. We'll be breaking down my

[00:36] filming and editing process throughout

[00:38] the coming months. So, if you don't want

[00:39] to miss out, make sure you subscribe and

[00:41] hit the notification bell because I'll

[00:43] be revealing everything. And before I

[00:45] forget, if you do have any suggestions

[00:46] of any videos you'd like me to make,

[00:48] make sure you write it down below

[00:49] because I'll be reading everything and

[00:51] maybe picking out any that I see fit for

[00:53] the future of this channel. So, to break

[00:55] down my lighting setup that I use in my

[00:56] videos, firstly, I've got my main key

[00:59] light shining from this direction at 45°

[01:02] angle pointing downwards. And the light

[01:04] I'm specifically using is the Small Rig

[01:06] RC60B. Now, it's portable and I've just

[01:09] got a massive soft box just to soften

[01:11] the light. And secondly, just on my left

[01:13] here, I've got a tube light from UA. And

[01:15] just the main purpose of that is to

[01:17] light the green screen behind me. And

[01:18] thirdly, light here I have on my right

[01:20] is the Small Rig portable

[01:23] light box or panel. And again, it's just

[01:26] for a fill light just to fill this side

[01:29] of my face. And now we're going to be

[01:31] moving on to keying out the green

[01:32] screen. So the first thing I've done is

[01:34] I've just color graded the footage by

[01:36] converting it into Rex 709 and then just

[01:38] doing my basic adjustments. Then I've

[01:40] converted it into a compound clip just

[01:42] so it the grade is baked in when we come

[01:44] to actually key it out in the fusion

[01:46] page. So head to the fusion page now.

[01:49] And the key I'm going to be using is a

[01:50] delta key. So you can go ahead and

[01:52] search for that by pressing shift space.

[01:55] You can add that. I'm also going to view

[01:57] the delta key on the left viewer here.

[01:59] And I'm going to turn off show color.

[02:01] Now you're just going to see it appear

[02:03] white here. But what we need to do is

[02:05] using the eyedropper tool here on the

[02:07] right is we just need to go very close

[02:08] to the subject.

[02:11] Just like that. And we just have a very

[02:14] basic selection so far. Now we can see

[02:16] on the left it's black and white. And

[02:18] the easiest way to think of this is

[02:20] black is everything we don't want and

[02:22] white is everything that we do want. So

[02:24] So the main two sliders that we're going

[02:25] to be using are the gain and balance

[02:27] sliders. So if we just increase the gain

[02:31] a little bit, we can see that a lot of

[02:33] the green screen starts to be keyed out,

[02:36] but we also start to lose some of the

[02:39] subject as you can see here.

[02:42] So we need to move very carefully. And

[02:45] then using the balance slider, we're

[02:47] just doing the opposite thing. So by

[02:49] decreasing it, we can see a lot of the

[02:51] subject becomes more visible.

[02:54] Also, we start to introduce back a lot

[02:57] of this green screen. So, very minimal

[03:00] movements.

[03:02] [Music]

[03:03] Just like that.

[03:06] And now moving on to the premat. So,

[03:08] we're going to be moving from left to

[03:10] right. And one thing I forgot to

[03:11] mention. So,

[03:13] if I bring back the media in one clip.

[03:16] So the better you light your green

[03:19] screen, the easier it is going to be to

[03:20] key out only because as you can see

[03:22] here, there's a lot of creases in mine

[03:24] and so there's a lot of disparity in

[03:26] between the green shades just because of

[03:28] the shadows. But that's fine. I'm still

[03:29] going to show you how you can key out a

[03:31] imperfect green screen. So if you move

[03:33] back to the delta key, disable color

[03:36] once again.

[03:37] Now the way you can think of the premat

[03:39] is we're just removing more of these

[03:41] green shades by just drawing a box. Now

[03:44] we can see when we do that we start to

[03:47] remove some of the subject. So we can go

[03:50] back.

[03:51] Just select one more.

[03:55] Now I'm not going to select too much cuz

[03:57] as you can see now we've just gotten rid

[03:59] of a lot of the subject. So this is good

[04:02] enough. Now we can also improve the

[04:05] selection by increasing the blur.

[04:08] Just like that. We can see here that we

[04:11] start to reintroduce some of the

[04:13] subject.

[04:15] And so let's move on to the map. And

[04:17] this is probably one of the most

[04:18] important tabs. And the main slider

[04:21] we're going to be using is the threshold

[04:22] slider. So what I normally do is just

[04:25] increase the low point. You can see that

[04:27] a lot of the green screen is keyed out

[04:31] now. And then we just decrease the high

[04:34] point

[04:36] just like that.

[04:38] Now this is a very good selection.

[04:39] Obviously, we still have some

[04:41] imperfections here, which we're going to

[04:44] be able to mask out this one. But this

[04:45] one, we can get rid of just by going

[04:48] into the premat.

[04:51] And we can select some of that. And for

[04:53] small imperfections like this, then

[04:55] that's fine. We can keep it only because

[04:56] they won't be as visible when we come to

[04:59] actually add in our realistic

[05:01] background. I'm going to show you how to

[05:02] do that later. But right now, let's

[05:05] actually mask out everything that we

[05:07] don't need. And the way I'm going to do

[05:09] that is I'm just going to add a polygon.

[05:11] And then by pressing on option, I'm just

[05:13] going to

[05:15] press some garbage mat. And what I'm

[05:17] going to do is I'm just going to go

[05:18] around everything that we need.

[05:29] And now if we invert the selection, now

[05:31] we've just selected everything that we

[05:33] do need. And then we've just gotten rid

[05:35] of everything here on the left and right

[05:37] that were just distracting us from the

[05:39] main subject. And if we zoom in closely,

[05:42] we can see here that just got a bit of

[05:43] haloing. And the way we can get rid of

[05:45] that is by going into the map.

[05:48] And then we can just erode slightly.

[05:53] Can also introduce just a little bit of

[05:55] blur. And in the fringe, we can just

[05:58] reduce the fringe gamma as well. And now

[06:02] we can see we got rid of that white

[06:03] haloing that was around the subject. Now

[06:06] we can go around the edges just to have

[06:08] a look.

[06:13] Just like that.

[06:21] And there we go. Now I've just gotten

[06:22] rid of the haloing all around. Now, I'm

[06:26] just going to change the replace mode to

[06:28] source because that's just a more

[06:30] accurate representation of how we

[06:31] actually graded the footage. And so, we

[06:34] can move over to the fringe. And so,

[06:35] what I'm going to do is I'm just going

[06:37] to change the spill mode over to medium.

[06:39] Depending on how much spill you actually

[06:41] have on your subject, you can change

[06:42] that to medium or even well done. But

[06:44] I'm just going to keep it on medium for

[06:46] now. And that should be everything for

[06:48] the Delta Kia. So, what we can do now is

[06:51] we can move back to the edit page. What

[06:54] I'm also going to do is I'm going to

[06:56] effects and I'm just going to search for

[07:02] generators

[07:04] and I'm going to drag a solid color

[07:06] underneath our subject. I'm just going

[07:08] to make that a very bright green and

[07:11] you're going to see why when we actually

[07:12] come to import it into Mid Journey so we

[07:15] can actually get our background. Now

[07:17] head over to file, export, current frame

[07:21] as still.

[07:23] And then we're just going to grab a

[07:24] still of our video. We can name that

[07:27] green

[07:29] screen.

[07:30] Still

[07:33] just like that. So after you've exported

[07:36] your still frame, now head to midjourney

[07:38] and then hover over to the edit section.

[07:41] And then we're going to press on edit

[07:42] uploaded image. We're just going to

[07:44] import our green screen still. Using the

[07:46] smart select tool, we're just going to

[07:49] select the subject.

[07:54] And after you have a fairly decent

[07:56] selection, you're just going to press on

[07:57] erase background. Now, type in anything

[08:00] that you want. For example,

[08:02] a man sat in a cozy living room.

[08:08] Warm

[08:10] match lighting.

[08:13] You can also play around with the

[08:14] settings. So, you want to 16 by9. You

[08:17] can play around with the aesthetics, but

[08:19] we're just going to submit edit.

[08:21] [Music]

[08:24] Now, I've got some examples right here.

[08:28] Let's see.

[08:30] And you can just keep on generating

[08:32] samples until you settle on one that you

[08:34] actually like. So, let's try out a few

[08:37] more.

[08:40] [Music]

[08:47] Okay. So, let's just pick out this one.

[08:48] It's a decent example. There's a lot

[08:50] going on and we can then come to

[08:52] composite it later on in the Vinci

[08:53] Resolve. So, go ahead and download

[08:55] image.

[08:57] Now, the third program we're going to be

[08:59] using is Photoshop. So, go ahead and

[09:02] open

[09:04] the frame that we just downloaded from

[09:05] Midjourney and we're going to be using

[09:07] the generative fill tool. So go ahead

[09:10] and select everything that you want to

[09:12] get rid of because we just want the

[09:14] plain background.

[09:17] Just like that. Got some generative

[09:19] fill. And then we can just type remove.

[09:25] Now we're going to just get a few

[09:26] examples. You can go ahead and pick out

[09:28] which one you like. I'm just going to go

[09:30] with the first one. And then I'm going

[09:31] to go to file, export, and quick export

[09:35] as PNG.

[09:37] Now it's time for my favorite part,

[09:39] which is the compositing. So, you want

[09:41] to listen very closely because I'll be

[09:42] giving away some tips and tricks that

[09:44] you definitely don't want to miss out

[09:45] on. So, to begin, we're going to grab

[09:48] our plain background that we exported

[09:51] out of Photoshop and we're just going to

[09:53] line it below our subject. And then for

[09:56] the first part of compositing, I'm just

[09:57] going to add an adjustment clip

[10:01] just like that. And then we're going to

[10:04] move on to the color page. So, I'm just

[10:07] going to add a few corrections and a few

[10:10] effects that will really make the whole

[10:12] scene pop. So, to begin, I'm just going

[10:14] to add a vignette.

[10:19] It's a bit too strong. So, using a lips

[10:24] mask,

[10:26] just going to soften it slightly.

[10:34] Just like that. And the global blend, we

[10:36] can just bring that down ever so

[10:38] slightly as well.

[10:42] Just like that. And if I press on option

[10:45] P, it's going to get a parallel node.

[10:48] We're going to do a similar thing,

[10:51] but we're just going to make the subject

[10:54] pop by just increasing the exposure

[10:56] where our subject is. Just very

[10:58] slightly.

[11:01] Not too much.

[11:05] And we can see that already

[11:08] this makes a big difference. But we're

[11:11] not done yet.

[11:14] Another thing, we're also going to

[11:17] increase the saturation just a little

[11:20] bit.

[11:22] Just like that.

[11:24] And if you take a look at the viewer, we

[11:26] have some warm light casting on our

[11:28] subject from the left. And we have a

[11:31] cool light shining on our subject from

[11:33] the right. So we're just going to

[11:34] accentuate that by adding

[11:37] two ellipse masks once again.

[11:42] Just like that.

[11:44] And then we're going to move the offset

[11:48] towards the orange. Just like that.

[11:51] Another parallel node. Very similar

[11:54] thing, but this time with the cool light

[11:57] on the right hand side.

[12:07] Just like that.

[12:11] And already if we take a look,

[12:14] it just makes the lighting pop much

[12:18] more.

[12:21] And if you have a look at before and

[12:24] after,

[12:26] we've just added that very, very slight

[12:31] touch to it.

[12:34] Now, finally, we're just going to add

[12:35] some glow.

[12:38] We don't want it to be too much. Just

[12:40] going to lower the threshold. Just like

[12:43] that.

[12:45] And the spread. Can also lower the

[12:48] gamma.

[12:49] So that's

[12:51] we can see

[12:53] that this makes the bright areas pop as

[12:57] well.

[13:00] And now for the very important part

[13:02] which is adding light wrap just around

[13:04] our subject. If you don't know what that

[13:05] is, light wrap is basically a

[13:07] compositing technique where a bit of the

[13:09] background's light softly wraps around

[13:11] the edges of the subject and it just

[13:13] makes it look less like a cutout. So

[13:16] let's move on to the fusion page for

[13:19] that.

[13:22] So first thing I'm going to do is I'm

[13:24] going to add a Mac control

[13:28] and then I'm just going to connect Delta

[13:30] Kia from earlier into the yellow input

[13:32] of the Mac control and I'm just going to

[13:34] view it on the left here. Now we want to

[13:36] change the combine operation to subtract

[13:39] and the combine to combine alpha. You're

[13:42] going to see why later. And we also want

[13:44] to add a blur node as well.

[13:48] Then connect the blur node to the green

[13:50] input of the mat control.

[13:53] Now if we view we can see a very slight

[13:56] outline. We can make that more prominent

[13:58] by just increasing the blur size.

[14:02] Just like that. And then we're going to

[14:05] merge the Mac control on top of the

[14:07] delta key but just changing the input to

[14:10] the blue one. And then we're going to

[14:13] grab our background from earlier. Once

[14:14] again,

[14:17] we're going to add a blur just to blur

[14:20] it out all the way so you can view it

[14:24] here.

[14:28] And then we will add a transform.

[14:34] Plug it into the green input.

[14:37] And we're just going to

[14:40] increase the size just so it fits the

[14:43] whole frame. Just like that. And we can

[14:46] see already we have some light wrap. If

[14:49] I go before and after, you can see it

[14:52] more clearly.

[14:54] Just like that.

[14:57] And if you want a stronger light wrap,

[15:00] you can always up the blur. That's a bit

[15:02] too much. So, we just want to keep it

[15:04] very minimal. Just like that.

[15:09] Now head back to the edit page. And as

[15:12] you can see already, we have some light

[15:14] wrapping around the chair and around the

[15:16] laptop. This makes it 10 times more

[15:19] realistic.