Your OBS green screen is all wrong, and the fix is so simple!

[00:00] viewers of my stream know that I love

[00:03] creating fun special effects to spice

[00:06] things up a bit. Now, one of the

[00:08] fundamental building blocks of those

[00:10] effects is a high quality chroma key

[00:13] using a green screen. And I know that

[00:16] setting up a green screen and a chroma

[00:18] key can seem a little bit daunting. Not

[00:20] only do you need the screen, but do you

[00:22] need studio quality lighting and a

[00:24] really good camera? And what's up with

[00:26] all the dials that you have to adjust in

[00:28] OBS? Well, I'm here to tell you it's

[00:31] actually not that complicated. With a

[00:35] typical streamer lighting setup, a

[00:37] decent webcam, and a green screen, you

[00:41] too can have an amazing chroma key on

[00:43] which to build your effects. I'm Finite

[00:46] Singularity, and today I'm going to show

[00:49] you how to set up a green screen that'll

[00:51] leave your viewers scratching their

[00:53] heads. But stick around to the end

[00:56] because I'm going to share with you a

[00:57] cheat code that'll make it even easier.

[01:02] [Music]

[01:06] Now, let's start by talking about the

[01:08] screen itself. You could see my green

[01:11] screen behind me, which is a pull down

[01:14] green screen mounted to my ceiling. Now,

[01:17] as streamers, we typically like to do

[01:20] things as inexpensively as possible. And

[01:23] a lot of tutorials will claim a good way

[01:25] to cut corners is on the green screen

[01:28] itself. They'll say things like, "Just

[01:30] get yourself some green cloth and throw

[01:32] it up on the wall behind you." And while

[01:35] this can work, it causes two big

[01:38] problems. The first is setup and tear

[01:42] down. You have to figure out a way to

[01:44] mount it to the wall. And when you mount

[01:46] it, you have to figure out how to iron

[01:48] out all the wrinkles that will appear

[01:51] every single time you put it up.

[01:55] Speaking of those wrinkles, that's the

[01:57] second problem. I've never had much luck

[02:00] ironing out all those wrinkles. And a

[02:03] smooth green screen like this one is

[02:06] much easier to chroma key, and you'll

[02:08] get significantly better results. So, if

[02:11] you're serious about wanting to make

[02:13] these sorts of effects on your stream, I

[02:16] would recommend investing a little bit

[02:18] more in a quality green screen. Uh,

[02:21] something like a pull down green screen

[02:23] or maybe one of those Elgato pop-up

[02:25] green screens. They don't wrinkle. They

[02:28] have a nice quality green color, and

[02:31] they set up and they tear down quite

[02:34] easily. And you'll find that you

[02:35] actually use them.

[02:37] [Music]

[02:42] A flat green screen is fantastic, but if

[02:45] you don't have any lights, you're going

[02:48] to have a bad day trying to key it out.

[02:50] Now, if you've spent any time watching

[02:52] tutorials on green screens on YouTube,

[02:56] super boring, I know. You'll hear

[02:58] lighting, lighting, lighting. And then

[03:01] you'll see studio setups with expensive

[03:03] lights for the green screen and separate

[03:05] systems dedicated to the subject. and

[03:07] you'll see roomsized green screens that

[03:10] are far away. And I don't know about

[03:11] you, but I don't have the room nor the

[03:14] money in my streaming space for that. My

[03:16] screen placement, it breaks all the

[03:19] rules. It's way too close to me. I don't

[03:22] have dedicated lights, and I don't know

[03:24] if you noticed, but there's shadows.

[03:28] However, if we can keep those shadows

[03:30] diffuse and we can reasonably limit

[03:33] them, we can easily make up for that in

[03:36] software. So, how do I get lighting like

[03:38] this? Well, frankly, by following every

[03:41] lighting suggestion for streamers on the

[03:44] internet. To my left and up high, I have

[03:47] a bright LCD panel key light. And to my

[03:51] right, I have a dimmer LCD panel fill

[03:55] light. And that's it. I'll leave some

[03:58] links in the description for streaming

[04:00] lighting setup. And so if you can set up

[04:03] like a typical stream lighting setup

[04:05] like this and you have a flat green

[04:07] screen, you'll get a great chroma key.

[04:16] The last piece of hardware we need to

[04:17] consider is the camera. Now, any decent

[04:21] webcam will work, although you might

[04:23] start to struggle with one of those

[04:24] cheap $5 webcams that you got for free

[04:28] at some conference. As lower-end

[04:30] cameras, they tend to have lower color

[04:32] quality, less chroma information, and a

[04:34] lot more noise, which makes keying much

[04:37] more difficult. I've had good luck on a

[04:40] wide range of webcams and cameras,

[04:42] including the classic C920,

[04:45] the Elgato Face Cam, my iPhone. I've

[04:48] also used this on like high-end

[04:50] mirrorless cameras. So, it's really

[04:52] applicable to a wide range of cameras.

[04:55] And as long as you're not trying to use

[04:57] an actual potato, this method should

[05:00] work well. And with that, let's dive

[05:03] into OBS and start the fun part,

[05:06] removing our background.

[05:10] [Music]

[05:15] Here we are in OBS. I've set up a simple

[05:18] scene of just my camera as well as a

[05:21] background image that we want to have

[05:23] show through our key. Go ahead and click

[05:26] on the camera and then on filters to

[05:28] bring up the filters menu for that

[05:30] source. This is where we'll apply our

[05:33] chroma key. Uh click the plus button and

[05:36] select chroma key. Uh once you click

[05:39] okay, you should see something similar

[05:42] to this. uh you'll have a chroma key

[05:45] using the default values and it likely

[05:48] won't look very good. This is because

[05:50] the green of your green screen likely

[05:53] does not match the default green

[05:56] provided by the filter. Uh to fix this,

[06:00] we'll go ahead and select a custom color

[06:03] for our key color type. Uh before we

[06:06] actually select a color though, I want

[06:08] to talk briefly about these three

[06:10] sliders. Uh these are the three

[06:13] important sliders for setting up our key

[06:15] and what we're going to go over today.

[06:17] Uh the first is similarity. Similarity

[06:20] is the range of green that you'll be

[06:24] able to key out. Higher values mean

[06:26] you're going to key out more light and

[06:28] more dark, a larger range. Smaller

[06:30] values mean you're going to focus in on

[06:32] very specific colors of green. If you

[06:34] had an absolutely perfect chroma key,

[06:36] you could set this value way, way down.

[06:39] But again, as streamers, we don't have

[06:41] the space. So, we cast shadows. We don't

[06:43] have professional lighting. We don't

[06:45] have dedicated lighting for our green

[06:46] screens. And so, we are going to have

[06:49] variance in that color. And so, we are

[06:51] going to need to have a similarity value

[06:54] that isn't one or two. That leads us to

[06:58] our smoothness value. One of the side

[07:00] effects of a chroma key is the edges of

[07:03] your subject can look rough or unnatural

[07:07] or noisy. Uh the smoothness slider,

[07:10] well, it smooths those out and allows

[07:13] the subject to blend a little bit more

[07:15] nicely into the background and look more

[07:18] natural. Now, smoothness and similarity

[07:21] are linked. Uh the general rule of thumb

[07:23] is the lower you can get your similarity

[07:26] value, the more range you have to play

[07:29] with your smoothness value. So if you

[07:32] can get that similarity value down low,

[07:34] it means you've got more ability to make

[07:37] your key look natural. Finally, we have

[07:41] key color spill reduction. One other

[07:44] thing that green screens do is they put

[07:46] a green cast on the subject. You'll

[07:50] notice this a lot of times in the

[07:51] shoulders, in the hair. You'll see like

[07:53] that green around someone when it's a

[07:56] pretty bad chroma key. Uh, spill

[07:58] reduction helps to fix this. It'll

[08:00] desaturate those greens around the

[08:03] edges. However, if you set it too high,

[08:06] it's going to desaturate your skin tones

[08:08] and it's not going to look real good.

[08:10] So, I found for spill reduction, I keep

[08:13] it under 100. Usually, I set it around

[08:15] 50. Uh, for my smoothness, I'm usually

[08:18] shooting for something around 15 to 25.

[08:22] And similarity, I find getting a key

[08:25] with a similarity under 80 can give a

[08:28] very nice key. Our first step now is

[08:30] we're going to select our key color. So,

[08:34] start by dialing these all down to one

[08:37] so that you can see your original

[08:39] background here. And go ahead and click

[08:42] select color. Move your color picker

[08:46] here off to the side a little bit

[08:47] because you need to be able to see. And

[08:48] click pick screen color. And this is

[08:51] somewhere where a lot of people mess up.

[08:54] Uh when they go to pick a color, you're

[08:56] going to just click on any green in your

[08:58] background. Here you can see the value

[09:00] changing. A lot of people zero in on

[09:02] like this really nice chroma green here,

[09:04] thinking, "Okay, I'm going to get that

[09:05] great chroma green, and that's what

[09:07] we're going to filter out." Other people

[09:09] might pick stuff like really close to

[09:11] their subject to try to get rid of that

[09:12] that haze around their subject. Other

[09:15] people might choose the darkest color.

[09:18] In fact, the best green to pick is, as

[09:21] the kids say, the mid green. You're

[09:24] looking for that green that's smack dab

[09:26] in the middle. So that when we expand

[09:28] that range, we're expanding from the

[09:31] middle to the outside versus having to

[09:33] expand from one side, you know, out. you

[09:36] you want to keep that value as low as

[09:38] possible. Uh so we're going to try to

[09:40] find sort of the middle shadow color

[09:42] here. I'm going to pick something about

[09:44] here. So I'm going to click there and

[09:46] then in my color picker here, click

[09:48] okay. You can kind of see some of the

[09:50] stuff that's getting filtered out cuz my

[09:51] similarity is low. Now the way we know

[09:53] we picked a good color, we'll start to

[09:56] increase similarity. And the goal is to

[09:58] have the lightest part, which is above

[09:59] my head here, disappear at the same time

[10:02] as the darkest part, which is down here.

[10:04] So clearly I picked a color that is

[10:07] quite a bit too light. You can see my

[10:10] similarities around 70. Uh so we're

[10:12] going to rinse and repeat here. I'm

[10:14] going to click select color. Uh we'll

[10:16] move this off to the side again. Pick

[10:18] screen color. And I'll pick a little bit

[10:20] darker green here. And we'll click okay.

[10:24] And again we'll try that. And now you

[10:27] see it's not perfect, but we're a lot

[10:30] closer. And our similarity value is down

[10:32] around 50 52. We we'll set it to about

[10:35] 55 here. Gives us a little bit extra

[10:38] room to work with. And if I move this

[10:40] out of the way, you can see we have a

[10:42] pretty good key without even doing any

[10:44] smoothness here. That picking that

[10:46] middle color makes a huge huge

[10:48] difference. I'm going to go ahead with

[10:51] my smoothness value. I'm going to bump

[10:53] that up to around I don't know 14 or so.

[10:56] And uh you know, you can see that it

[10:58] smooths out the edges just a little bit.

[11:00] If you do it too much, you'll find that

[11:02] you'll start to disappear. You'll start

[11:04] to turn into a ghost. Uh so yeah,

[11:07] something around 14 seems to work pretty

[11:09] well there. And even though I don't have

[11:11] much green cast on me right now, I

[11:14] always set my spill reduction to 50. I

[11:17] find some shirts will show that cast a

[11:20] lot more. If I set it to 50, it gives me

[11:22] enough room to play with uh so that I

[11:25] don't have to adjust my key every time I

[11:28] change clothes and fire up the stream on

[11:30] the next day. Uh so with these settings,

[11:33] oh, we set ourselves I guess I hit the

[11:36] opacity here somehow. Uh with these

[11:38] settings, we have got a pretty good

[11:42] looking key here. Now, I mentioned at

[11:45] the beginning of this video that I was

[11:47] going to share with you a little cheat

[11:49] code. And here is what that cheat code

[11:52] is. We're going to go here and we're

[11:54] going to delete our chroma key. Uh in

[11:58] the latest version of my advanced masks

[12:00] plugin, version 1.5.0,

[12:02] I've added a chroma key. Uh we can find

[12:06] it by looking through alpha masks and

[12:09] the mask type will be chroma key. This

[12:12] algorithm is the same algorithm that the

[12:15] OBS team uses, but it's got a couple

[12:18] nice extras. Uh, the first of these,

[12:21] let's dial these all down. So, it's like

[12:23] we're starting from scratch again. Uh,

[12:25] the first of these is a double color

[12:27] select for our key color type. And what

[12:31] this lets us do, rather than having to

[12:33] try to pick out that middle green, we

[12:35] can pick the lightest green and the

[12:37] darkest green, which are much easier to

[12:40] see and identify. So, let's go ahead

[12:42] here. Move this. Oh, no. We'll use this

[12:45] window. Uh, we're going to go ahead and

[12:47] click select color and pick screen

[12:50] color. And the lightest color is going

[12:52] to be something right around here. So,

[12:54] we'll select that green and click okay.

[12:57] Uh, we'll then click select color for

[12:59] the dark one and pick screen color. And

[13:02] I'm going to go down here. This is by

[13:03] far the darkest green. Click okay. And

[13:07] now we can bring that similarity. And

[13:09] you see they disappeared at the same

[13:10] time at an even lower value of 44 here.

[13:14] So it was able to pick that a little bit

[13:16] better than I could by eye. Our

[13:19] smoothness value would probably be the

[13:21] same as would our spill reduction. And

[13:25] here we have another really good looking

[13:28] key uh picked out much easier because

[13:30] you're able to pick those two colors.

[13:33] The advanced mask chroma key also comes

[13:35] with a show mat option. Uh this makes it

[13:39] easy to identify. You can see I've got

[13:41] some some little noise going on in my

[13:43] shoulder here which tells me that my

[13:45] smoothness might be a little high. So

[13:47] maybe we'll bring that down to eight.

[13:49] And you can really start to finetune. I

[13:52] mean, I might have a good enough key

[13:53] here that I can go without any. You can

[13:55] really start to finetune your key with a

[13:57] mat. It's much easier to see in this

[13:59] black and white format. Uh, the other

[14:02] thing that we can do with advanced mask

[14:04] to make your key even better, I've added

[14:07] a feather mask option. So, you'd want to

[14:09] add another advanced mask filter right

[14:12] after your chroma key filter. And you'll

[14:15] go down and you'll your alpha mask will

[14:17] be a feather mask. And now a feather

[14:20] mask is going to blur the edges of the

[14:23] mask. So if I crank it way up here, I

[14:25] look like a ghost or something. But if I

[14:27] set my feather to like two or three

[14:29] pixels, it's just going to add that

[14:32] little bit of extra smoothing to the

[14:36] edges of the subject. And that adds just

[14:38] a little bit more realism to your chroma

[14:41] key.

[14:43] For those of you who made it this far,

[14:45] congratulations.

[14:47] I hope I provided you with some new

[14:49] knowledge that'll help make your green

[14:51] screen look incredible. By using

[14:54] reasonable lighting, a flat green

[14:56] screen, and understanding the chroma key

[14:58] settings in OBS, you have one of the

[15:01] fundamental building blocks to create

[15:04] amazing real-time special effects for

[15:06] your stream. If you found this useful,

[15:09] please hit the subscribe button as I'll

[15:11] be adding plenty more tutorials in the

[15:13] future including

[15:17] how to drop a TV on your head.

[15:20] Also, please stop by my live stream

[15:22] where we build these effects as well as

[15:25] the software that's used to drive them.

[15:28] And I'll see you in the next one.

[15:32] [Music]