Green screen technology has been around since the early 1900s. But did you know that green screen technology isn’t exclusive to the color green?
This visual effect is often called chroma key compositing or chroma keying. It is a post-production effect that allows video editors to replace backgrounds and insert footage or images into their scenes.
Many companies use a green screen to produce informative product videos, company updates, and more. It is a useful and valuable tool when you want to produce a professional-looking marketing video quickly and affordably.
In this post we’re breaking down how to use green software for beginners. The first thing to know is that it’s incredibly easy to produce a green screen video these days!
To help you get started, here are a few key things to remember when producing any video:
1. The first time is always the longest. Anytime you do something new it will take time. Be patient and continue to execute. You’ll get faster every time you do it.
2. Make a plan and carry it out. We wrote a great post on video pre production that explains the importance of a script and making a plan!
3. Last but not least, have fun! Green screen videos can be a blast to create. Don’t take yourself too seriously (even if it’s a serious video) and your production is sure to be more relatable to the masses.
What is Green Screen Used For?
There are many practical use cases for green screen and it all depends on what you are trying to achieve with your video production.
On big Hollywood sets you will see green screens as large as a city block! It’s unlikely that you’ll have that type of budget, but if your company is ready to invest in video marketing, you will have the tools to produce some amazing marketing videos!
Some common use cases for green screen are include:
1. Marketing Videos
Filming a quick marketing video for your organization can be easy. Keep in mind it doesn’t have to be green! You can purchase simple pop up green or blue screens for cheap online.
These are usually the best colors to use. Lucky for you, we’ve also put together a step by step guide on how to get started using green screen.
2. Creating Engaging YouTube Videos
Some of the most popular YouTube vloggers use green screen to add interesting backgrounds to their videos. Replacing the background can add depth and visually interesting patterns to keep the viewer engaged.
3. Split Screen Videos
With green screen technology you can create fun side by side or split screen videos to add comedic relief to your video production. Just make sure to write your script before pressing record!
4. Replacing Backgrounds
Green screen can be used to replace backgrounds on devices, computer screens and more. This is a great visual effect to use if you are creating a marketing video for a new application or piece of software, or making a video to share out campaign results with your co-workers.
It’s not as hard as it looks
You do not have to be a director on a fancy movie set to use green screen technology. This process can actually be very cost effective and easy to setup. Over 33,000 people search for green screen help each month, and most people think that it takes complicated software to accomplish this visual effect. But you only need a few things to get started.
Check out our in depth How to Create A Green Screen tutorial that lists the materials you need to get started. Below you’ll find out what software to use to achieve this effect.
How to Use Green Screen Software
Green software can be intimidating for many people, but there are simple and effective solutions that allow you to save time and make fantastic videos quickly. We should note that there are many different types of video editing software out there. If you’re just getting started we recommend finding the easiest and most user friendly software possible.
The first thing you will need to do is select the software you want to use for your green screen video. We’re pretty fond of Camtasia, which includes a click and drag “remove a color” feature that allows you to quickly replace the background. It is really that simple. We’ll be using Camtasia below in our examples.
Step 1 – Drag and Drop
Select the “remove a color” feature in the visual effects menu in Camtasia. Then all you need to do is drag and drop on the clip. Simple as that!
Step 2 – Select Color
Select the color you want to remove from your scene. This usually works best with green or blue in your scene. Fun fact, filmmakers have used many different colors including red, yellow and black to replace backgrounds, but often green and blue work the best.
Step 3
Replace the image or background in your scene with your desired footage, background or image. In Camtasia, you can adjust the replaced image using the rotation tools in the properties panel to easily scale your image.
As you can see, green screen software can be very easy to use. With three simple steps in Camtasia you can replace a background using the “Remove A Color” feature.
Creating a Marketing Video With Green Screen
Now that you have the basics and use cases, it’s easy to see that creating a green screen marketing video won’t take you a ton of time. In fact, you have probably seen examples of these short marketing videos in your Facebook feed. Here is an example of one of ours:
Videos like this allow you to display information quickly and can be played silently while users are scrolling their feed, but did you notice that the computer screens were replaced? With simple editing tricks like the “Remove A Color” feature in Camtasia, you can create these exact same videos. Why not try it out for yourself?
You can find even more information on getting your DIY green screen set up on our blog.
You can make these same videos for your company. Even if you don’t have your own copy, you can try Camtasia free for 30 days. Give it a try and let us know how it goes on Twitter or Facebook.
