Question / Help How to setup Chromakey

buttery

New Member
I'm new to the whole chromakey thing, and just need to know how to properly set it up in OBS. Any help is definitely appreciated!

Edit: Really just need to figure out how to get it to work under Global Sources. When I add it to global source it doesn't show up.
 

FerretBomb

Active Member
1. Add a camera to Global Sources.
2. Add that camera (from the new 'global sources' option in the right-click menu on the Sources list) to a scene.
3. Preview the scene. You should see your camera's video.
4. Right-click on the global source in the list, select 'properties'.
5. Check the 'Use Chroma Key' box. Click the 'Select' button. Move your mouse to your preview window, and use the now-eyedropper to select an example color (you want to hit the middle of your color-range, so not a shadow and not a highlight).
6. Fiddle with the Similarity values, and the Blend until you get a good, clean chromakey. Add spill reduction only if part of the edges of you are being chroma'd out (spill).

I use a Similarity of 80 and a Blend of 60 on my own screen; it's really a question of how good a greenscreen you have, and if you've lit it properly.
 

Videophile

Elgato
Also, If you have any sort of good webcam, say a logitech C920, and you have the crossbar installed, make sure to turn off "right light" or any other automatic lighting thing's. It will mess around with your lighting automatically, and will mess up the green screen. Took me days and many bad looking green screen streams to figure this out. Auto focus is ok, and I would leave it on.

-Shrimp
 

FerretBomb

Active Member
I'd have to second that; switch off all the auto-stuff. Turning off auto white-balance, auto-gain, auto-brightness, etc is VERY important to getting a consistent chromakey, as the camera won't be messing around with the color settings then (as they're all set to manual).
I do turn off auto-focus, mostly as I don't generally move enough to require it to re-focus, and don't want it deciding at-random to change focus and go all blurry (as the c920 has a tendency to do).
 

buttery

New Member
Should have added I use a Microsoft Lifecam Studio webcam. But thanks for everybody giving these replies! Definitely helping.
 

buttery

New Member
FerretBomb said:
1. Add a camera to Global Sources.
2. Add that camera (from the new 'global sources' option in the right-click menu on the Sources list) to a scene.
3. Preview the scene. You should see your camera's video.
4. Right-click on the global source in the list, select 'properties'.
5. Check the 'Use Chroma Key' box. Click the 'Select' button. Move your mouse to your preview window, and use the now-eyedropper to select an example color (you want to hit the middle of your color-range, so not a shadow and not a highlight).
6. Fiddle with the Similarity values, and the Blend until you get a good, clean chromakey. Add spill reduction only if part of the edges of you are being chroma'd out (spill).

I use a Similarity of 80 and a Blend of 60 on my own screen; it's really a question of how good a greenscreen you have, and if you've lit it properly.

I'm pretty sure I have a good green screen, or at least I think. I bought a professional one from Amazon with a stand and everything. I think my major problem would be the lighting. Might have to go get some new lamps or something.
 

Krazy

Town drunk
Lighting is waaaaaay more important than buying fancy screens. Consistent, bright lighting is the #1 key to chromakey behaving properly for the usage you intend.
 

FerretBomb

Active Member
I'd strongly recommend a diffuser setup for lighting your greenscreen if you have the space available; the soft light will help reduce any shadows/highlights and produce a consistent tone. Be aware that most good diffuser heads are... pretty large though. By necessity. You should only need one though to get the whole screen, if placed properly. Shouldn't use it to light yourself unless you know what you're doing; soft light makes it harder to discern your facial expressions at low resolution, due to the lack of shadows meaning next to no contrast.
 

buttery

New Member
Yeah I definitely don't have anymore space for anything unfortunately. Guess I'll invest in some good lamps or something to try and make it as good as I can get it.
 
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