One of the many new features in Camtasia Studio version 8.1 is the Remove a Color effect.
This is sometimes referred to as the green screen effect or chroma key.
It’s useful when you want to superimpose yourself onto a different background or even interact with a project or presentation.
In this tutorial, we’ll cover shooting in front of a green screen, adding and tweaking the effect in the editor,
and also share a few tips to keep in mind when removing a color.
For now, I'll turn you over to Conan. He’ll cover some of the best practices for setting up your shot.
When he’s done, I’ll walk you through how to remove the color in Camtasia Studio.
Thanks, Josh.
When shooting your video, you can use a green screen cloth… … or even just a solid-colored wall.
It’s important, though, to choose a background that’s non-reflective and has a smooth surface.
Also, make sure your subject wears clothing that’s a different color than your background.
Let’s talk about lighting next.
Best case scenario, you should have multiple light sources, but you might be able to get along fine with just one.
Just remember: strong shadows on you or the background will be hard to correct later.
Position your set so that light hits both you and your background evenly.
When positioning your subject—for example, let’s assume it’s you— keep as close as possible to the camera.
As a word of caution, ditch the shiny jewely and bejewelled t-shirts - anything reflective or glossy.
For glasses, you may need to tilt them down a bit or adjust the angle of the light.
My last piece of advice on shooting is to make sure that your camera is stabilized on a tripod or even just a table.
Now onto editing!
Thanks, Conan! Once you’ve imported your video, and added it to the timeline,
use crop mode to remove unwanted portions of the video clip…
…and resize as necessary.
Next, click the Visual Properties tab, and check the Remove a Color box. This will open up some additional options.
You’ll probably not see any immediate changes until you edit the effect’s properties.
Start by opening the Color dropdown and then choose Select Color.
Notice that your cursor turns into an eyedropper.
From there, click on the color in the background that you’d like to remove.
You should now see partly through your clip to the canvas, or whatever is behind it.
Most likely, you’ll still see traces of the original background color. This is where the sliders come into play.
Use the tolerance slider first.
It adjusts how selective the effect is—the further right you move it, the wider range of tints and shades
Next, the softness slider smooths out any pixilation and rough edges of color that remain around your subject.
You’ll want to play around with these two sliders to remove as much color as possible without affecting your subject.
If you’re finding it difficult to achieve this, try resetting the effect and picking the color again,
this time from a different area of the background.
Moving on, we’ll skip the hue slider for a minute and go right to defringe.
Sometimes, no matter how much you adjust the tolerance and softness, there still might be a slight halo around your subject.
Move the defringe slider slightly left or right to make any remaining color less noticeable.
Invert will hide everything except the color you removed— but I’ll let you decide how you might use that.
Now you can add your new background to the timeline.
Make sure it’s on a track below your edited clip,
and preview the effect to make sure everything looks fine.
You can always readjust the sliders as needed.
If the coloring of your subject looks out of place in your new background -
- you’ve probably seen this in movies that were “obviously green-screened -
you can move the hue slider to adjust your original clip to match the new background.
And there you have it! I hope you have fun using this effect.
Before we end, here are a few tips to keep in mind when working with Remove a Color:
First, look out for shadows, especially when shooting your clip, and especially when subjects are in motion.
Shadows can change the hue of a background or a subject in the foreground,
and they can make your job of removing a color a lot more difficult than it needs to be.
Second, when editing the effect on a video clip, check different points in the clip.
It’s a good quality check and can help you gauge your progress.
Adding your new background to the timeline before tweaking the sliders too much can also be helpful,
as it allows you to preview how your final result will look.
Well, that’s it for now. Let us know your feedback on this tutorial by following this survey link. Thanks for watching!