With the rise of game streaming on Twitch and similar platforms, the use of “green
screens” - or chroma keying - to cut out a host from their apartment backdrop and more
seamlessly fit with the gameplay has taken off.
Personally, I feel that this is overused - and given that the vast majority of streamers
aren’t able to set up proper, professional chroma keying setup - bad green screening
tends to be more distracting than helpful to a stream experience.
But my personal feelings shouldn’t prevent me from walking you through the setup process,
right?
Right.
Here we go.
Any high-tier live production needs a variety of scenes to show and quick, precise switching
between them.
The Elgato Stream Deck gives you 15 keys with customizable LCD screens behind each, that
can execute macros, application launchers, scene switching and source muting for OBS
- and you can nest folders for more actions and UNLIMITED POWAHHHH.
Grab yours today via the link in the video description.
I’m EposVox, here to make tech easier and more fun, and welcome back to my OBS Studio
tutorial course.
I have many, many more videos on the software in the playlist linked in the description.
Check that before asking questions, and check the introduction video to learn how this course
works, if you get confused.
There’s actually a wide variety of methods you can use to set up a chroma key workspace,
but I’m going to focus on the main method here.
I’ll mention possible variations where I see fit along the way.
For a green screen setup, you will need a camera or webcam to capture video in front
of the green screen.
For OBS we’ll be using a webcam, of course.
You’ll need a green screen material.
This can typically be a specific lime “chroma” green, or a “chroma” blue.
No, you can’t use black, white, or anything else without major issues.
You can get backdrop material for cheap enough on Amazon or eBay - or if you want to get
creative and give yourself headaches, you can use green paper taped to a wall, or paint
your own walls chroma green.
You’ll also need a backdrop stand or other way of hanging or mounting your green… screen.
Again, you can get cheap backdrop stands on Amazon like this one - or even get combo kits
of both a green screen and a stand in one kit for a good deal.
There’s also a chroma background from “Impact” on Amazon that is collapsible and much easier
to hang than normal cloth material.
Funny enough, Elgato - the company known for their gaming capture cards - has recently
released their own green screen that makes a lot of this process a lot easier.
It stays wrinkle-free and works much like how projector screens at schools work, but
instead of hanging it, the screen stands on the floor.
Raise it up to your desired height and lock it in place, and you quickly have a green
screen ready to go.
Then it can pack away for easy storage.
You do pay a premium for this, however.
You can also install hooks on your ceiling or wall and use a wood dowel to hang the screen.
You have some options here, but the material MUST be flat.
Big creases or spidering wrinkles will create shadows or a change in light and RUIN the
chroma key effect, or at least make setting it up on the software side a complete nightmare.
So that means if you’ve kept green screens folded up and stored in your closet for years
- since there’s no other realistic way to store them - it’s time to break out the
iron or steamer.
Yeah… not fun.
The same applies if you order them online too, since they’re almost always going to
arrive folded up.
The collapsible models typically need time to smooth out, too.
So you’ve got your screen and stand and hung it up, smoothing out folds and wrinkles.
Time to put it in front of your webcam and you’re good to go, right?
Sure….
Try it… good luck.
Nope, successful chroma keying requires some serious lighting.
Your backdrop needs to be evenly lit so that your camera sees the green color evenly and
can easily cut it out.
But you also need to be well-lit, too.
Even lighting needs to be used so that you’re not casting crazy shadows on the backdrop,
and so you stand out from it.
Avoid green clothes, of course.
Or blue, if you’re using a blue screen.
You can get cheap clamp lights from your local hardware store, and then get some true white
lightbulbs.
The Philips Daylight LED bulbs are a good option if they don’t show up as a flickery
mess on your camera, or you can order dedicated video bulbs from Amazon.
Links in the video description.
If you want to set up stands, tripods, or some sort of mounting equipment, you can also
use cheap LED panels from Amazon or B&H, too - just make sure you check reviews for issues
with flickering, and that you get really big batteries or dedicated power supplies for
them, too!
Hardware-side, that’s it.
Set up a flat green screen, light it well, and go.
Sadly, this doesn’t bode well for those of you in small spaces.
You need a decent amount of space between you and the backdrop, and room for lighting
on both you and the backdrop.
This lighting can get hot, too.
Green screen setups CAN be done in small spaces, it just takes a lot of patience, a little
creativity, and lots of tinkering with the software settings.
Speaking of which, let’s jump into OBS.
You know, what this series is actually about.
In OBS Studio, add your facecam to your scene as you normally would.
Once it’s set up, right-click its Source Listing, and click “Filters.”
Here, you can add lots of effects and edits to your audio and video from this source.
Under “Effect Filters” click the Plus sign.
You can use either “Color Key” or “Chroma Key” - one may work better, depending on
your setup, but the intended purpose is basically the same.
Pick one and choose your “Key Color Type”.
For most, this should be Green, but you can do Chroma Blue or a weird Magenta, too.
This should automatically start to cut out some of the green.
You can now use the controls for “Similarity”, “Smoothness” and “Key Color Spill Reduction”
to clean up your image.
“Similarity” controls how much color similar to Chroma Green it cuts out.
If there’s lighting differences along your screen, you will want to adjust this - being
careful not to go too far and cut out other colors.
“Smoothness” smooths out edges and the overall keying of the color.
Too much can start to dissolve the rest of your image, though.
“Key Color Spill Reduction” aims to help you reduce keying of other colors - but again,
messing with this too much can affect your image on the whole.
For most uses, “Opacity” should be left alone.
This affects the opacity of the entire video source, so you want that at 100% unless you
have a reason for doing something else.
This filter also gives you controls for Contrast, Brightness, and Gamma - but these should be
left alone in most cases.
This is something you need to adjust in your webcam’s settings instead of here.
Especially if the webcam has been left on default automatic modes, you may notice your
skin has now started to turn red on-camera due to it trying to compensate for the green
backdrop.
Once you’re mostly happy with the keying effect - remembering to mess with lighting
as much as the software settings - it’s time to hit “close” so we can tinker with
the webcam.
Again, right-click your video source, this time hitting “Properties.”
Then click “Configure Video.”
In most cases, this should pop up a fairly spartan-looking “Properties” menu for
your webcam with a lot of sliders and a couple tabs.
You’ll want to use this to tweak your webcam’s image to look better with the green screen.
Brightness, gain, contrast, and so on.
There are a couple key points you’ll want to tackle first, though.
First, uncheck the box for Auto White Balance.
This is what makes your skin look red.
You want to manually adjust the slider until your skin tone looks natural and colors look
right.
On the second tab, uncheck “Low Light Compensation” and the Auto box for “Exposure.”
You want your lighting and webcam’s interpretation of the lighting to remain consistent for keying
to work and your image to look good.
Then balance the Exposure slider and Gain slider on the previous tab, along with contrast
and brightness to get a desirable image.
If there’s some flicker or refreshing of your LED lighting, try messing with the “Powerline
Frequnecy (Anti Flicker)” drop-down selection to see if that helps.
Once you’re done here, go back to your Filter settings and finish cleaning up your chroma
keying settings.
They should be much easier to manage with these webcam settings fixed now.
And viola!
You have a chroma key setup for your facecam.
Just keep in mind that moving things, variation in lighting and so on can affect this, so
you may find yourself tinkering with it frequently.
If all this sounds like too much of a headache, certain webcams come with the capabilities
to perform “virtual chroma keying” or software-based background removal to achieve
similar effects.
We’ll cover these in the next video in the course.
I hope this episode of my OBS Studio tutorial course has been helpful for you.
If it was, drop-kick that like button and subscribe for awesome tech videos.
If you like game streaming, come follow me on Twitch and drop a message in chat.
Until next time, I’m EposVox, Happy Streaming!
Thanks for watching this episode of my OBS Studio tutorial course.
More videos like this and a full master class are linked in the playlist in the video description.
Click to learn more.
Also consider joining us on Patreon to help keep tech education free.
Go to Patreon.com/eposvox to sign up.