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How to Superimpose a Virtual Background

A chroma screen shoot, also often referred to as a blue screen or green screen shoot, is a popularly used shooting technique to superimpose a virtual background onto a video footage. As an essential part of a production, this is a practical way to superimpose special effects shots like placing an actor in a space environment or an animation background. By simply replacing the green or blue screen with any virtual background, the video can provide an entirely different look.

Things You'll Need

  • Video shot on chroma screen background (green or blue screen)
  • Video of virtual background
  • Video-editing program
  • Computer
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Instructions

    • 1

      Open your video-editing program and then import your video footage, specifically the one shot on chroma and the virtual background to replace the chroma screen. Use the "Import" button in your editing program for the process. Although this is typically found under the "File" menu, its exact location depends on the program you use.

    • 2

      Drag the virtual background footage, which can be an animation, motion graphics, virtual 3D set or any similar computer-generated video, from the "Import" window to a video track in the "Editing Timeline." This timeline is composed of a number of video and audio tracks where the actual editing happens. Place this video clip on "Video Track 1." This is the nearest video track to "Audio Track 1."

    • 3

      Drag the chroma shoot video clip from the "Import" window to "Video Track 2." This is the video track right on top of "Video Track 1."

    • 4

      Crop or matte out the chroma video to select the elements you want to retain on the footage. This process is similar to physically cutting out a person and other elements in a photo, and then later on trashing out its background. This allows the remaining elements to be placed over any other background. To do this process in your video, go to the editing program's "Effects," "Filters" and "Matte" options from the menu to crop or matte out the green or blue screen background. These button names and their locations may slightly vary per editing program.

    • 5

      Make a chroma key by adding a filter to the loaded chroma footage through the "Chroma Smoothing" or "Chroma Keyer" function. This is typically done by going to the menu's "Effects," "Filters," "Key" and then "Chroma Keyer" buttons.

    • 6

      Remove the green or blue background from the footage by using the program's "Eyedropper" tool. Select the blue or green background, and then click "Select Color Eyedropper" to remove this background from the footage on your "Video Track 2." This allows you to keep the cropped out footage that is not colored green or blue. At the same time, it will already show your superimposed virtual background on "Video Track 1."

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