Chroma Key / Green Screen

Watch as an animation →

In plain words

Erase a green or blue background to transparent and composite a different background in its place.

When to use it

Movie special effects, weather forecasts and news, YouTube lessons, background swaps in live streams, and surreal backgrounds in music videos.

Example videos

How to Do a Green Screen in CapCut | Chroma Key — Explainer: The part that applies chroma key in CapCut.
ffmpeg greenscreen - chromakey filter + despill — Explainer: An example of removing a green background with ffmpeg's chromakey and despill filters.
How Do KPOP Music Videos Look SO Good? — Explainer: The part that explains the set design and compositing of K-pop music videos.
Video Editing in a Minute — Quick Green Screen Tutorial in Davinci Resolve — Real
RaubayOfficial — Full AI Green Screen Workflow Breakdown | RAUBAY Studio EP01 — AI

In AI video, like this

When you make only the person or the product on its own, put "on a solid pure green background, evenly lit, no shadows on the background" in the prompt. Don't give the subject green clothes or props. Heavy compression makes the edges rough, so download at the highest quality. In editing, use DaVinci Resolve's 3D Keyer, Premiere Pro's Ultra Key, or CapCut's chroma key. In ffmpeg, chromakey=0x00FF00:0.15:0.05,despill=green removes the green and reduces the leftover green reflections, and then you put the result over the background with overlay (to key by RGB values instead, use colorkey). Choose the background to match the direction and color of the light that falls on the person.

One-click prompt

Generate the subject on a flat, evenly lit pure green background with no green on the subject, then replace the green with a new background: ffmpeg -i bg.mp4 -i green.mp4 -filter_complex "[1:v]chromakey=0x00ff00:0.15:0.1[fg];[0:v][fg]overlay=shortest=1[v]" -map "[v]" -map 1:a? out.mp4

Example films

The Thief of Bagdad (1940) — The first film to use proper blue-screen compositing, and it won the Academy Award for special effects · 300 (2006) — Most of it was shot in front of a blue screen and composited, to keep the look of the original comic's artwork

See it in real films and ads

Video Editing in a Minute — Quick Green Screen Tutorial in Davinci Resolve

AI-made examples

RaubayOfficial — Full AI Green Screen Workflow Breakdown | RAUBAY Studio EP01

Recommended for scenes like these

Techniques that pair well

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