Green Screen is a film-making technique that allows film producers to add a variety of visual effects to their video projects.
Those visual effects include replacing video backgrounds, superimposing the subjects onto various backdrops, combining animation with live acting, to name a few.
Chroma Key Live is a free tool to generate a live 'green screen' composite (AKA 'chroma key') during a video shoot. In the days of analog video, the camera's live signal was routed through a keyer in the control room and delivered back to an on-set monitor. Speaking of making a green screen, you need to prepare a green/blue piece of cloth, a camera system, as well as a green screen software to separate the colored background. This article has carefully gathered 10 best green screen software for your reference. If you are interested in, then check our best picks in the following! DaVinci Resolve.
Although it is widely used in the movie and television industry, anyone can use this technology to create their own production, from short films to engaging presentations and clips, since the emergence of the apps discussed below.
In this post we will look at the top 5 best green screen apps everyone can use in 2019.
1. Best Overall Green Screen App for PC: Movavi Video Editor
Free Trial Version Available, Runs on Windows and Mac platforms
Movavi Video Editor is hands down, the best app for using green screen technology. It is available for both Windows and Mac platforms and there is a free trial version available for download. Using this software is fairly simple and it is suited for both beginners and professionals.
Key Features and Tools:
- Drag and drop feature is quick and easy
- It comes with a library of pre-made video effects, allowing you to be more creative and unique when editing your videos
- Special effects include Mosaic, green screen, split screen, face-off and many more
- You can add animated titles to your production, producing unique and stunning results
- Other advanced features include zooming, video stabilizer and pan as well as reverse playback
To use the green screen feature in Movavi Video Editor:
Step1. Import both the green screen footage and the preferred background to the software.
Drag and drop the green screen footage to the video track and then the preferred background to the PIP track located under the green screen footage.
Step2. Select the green screen footage and then click on the chroma key option from the List icon on the left sidebar. When the chroma key control window pops up, the software will automatically detect the green color in the background.
Step3. All you would need to do is click anywhere on the green color, and the software would automatically remove it from the screen, leaving the subject to the forefront.
2. Best Green Screen App for Mac: iMovie
Free software (Mac only platform)
Fortunately, if you have a Mac platform, iMovie is available for free download, which is advantageous because there are not many video editing applications available for this platform.
iMovie is easy to use and can easily detect and remove the green screen from the background of your videos.No need to search out other higher-end products since iMovie chroma key option can also work for blue screen backgrounds as well.
To use the green screen feature in iMovie:
Step1. Upload both the green/blue screen background footage and the preferred background footage to the iMovie software application. Drag and drop both videos to the timeline, placing the green/blue screen over the other footage.
Step2. Ensure that you clicked on the green/blue screen footage on the timeline and then go to the top of the preview window and click the “Video Overlay Settings” button.
Step3. Select “Green/Blue screen” from the drop-down list. Your green/blue background magically disappears!
Step4. You can further fine tune the video by using thecropping tool or by adjusting the softness.
3. Best Green Screen Apps for iPhone/iPad: Do Ink
iPhone, iPad | $2.99
Green Screen by Do Ink is featured in iTunes under “Best New Apps in Education” which was designed to allow anyone with an iPad or iPhone to create amazing green screen videos. There are two options for you when using this app, you can either import a prerecorded video, photos as well as artwork or use the live video camera.
To use the green screen feature in Do Ink:
Step1. Go to your iTunes store and search for the Green Screen by Do InkDownload,installand open the app.
Step2. Once the app is open, go to the upper right corner and click on the Plus icon which would allow you to Create a New Project
Step3. Import your backgroundimage or videoby tapping on theplus icon located on the lower right corner.
Step4. Add the green screen footage to the lowest track by tapping on the plus icon located next to the track. Preview your video for shadows before you save it. If there are shadows, you can erase them using the Mask tool .
Step5. Click the Save button when you are satisfied with the result. Perfect! Your video is complete.
4. Best Green Screen Apps for Android: Kinemaster
Android, iOS | Free/ $4.99/month
KineMaster can be used on both Android and iOS devices but while it is one of the most powerful video apps available, it comes with a cost of $4.99 a month if you have used up the free trial version mode.
Like most video editing software, KineMaster can perform the basics but as a powerful video editor, it includes additional features and tools. It has chroma key, video effects, transitions, multiple video, image and effect layers, audio filter and a lot more. However, it is not as powerful as the desktop versions, but it does come quite close.
If you make a lot of videos, then this app is perfect for you. Try out the free trial mode but I can guarantee you would want to pay the monthly instalment to keep it forever.
To use the green screen feature in Kinemaster:
Step1. Download and install the Install “KineMaster” app from Google Play Store or iTunes. Open the app and proceed to the next step if you are using an image for your background. If not, skip this step and start with step 3.
Step2. You would need to set the cropping tool so go to Project Settings>Editing and then select Fill Screen. This setting prevents the background image from panning and zooming, thus avoiding an unnatural look.
Step3. Import your preferred background image or video to the primary media track by tapping on Media. Then import the green screen footage by tapping Layer>Media
Step4. Once your media has been layered, go to the options panel and tap on Chroma Key and then tap on the switch to Enablethe chroma key tool. Wala! The green color is removed immediately.
Step5. Use the Show Mask tool to further fine tune the video is you are not happe with the result. Once completed, export the final video.
5. Best Green Screen Apps for Chromebook:WeVideo
Web-based | Free with Price Tier
WeVideo is a web-based green screen technology tool which is perfect for Chromebook since there are not many software apps available for video editing and content creation. WeVideo also saves space by not having to download bulky software.
The intuitive user interface of WeVideo, makes it easy for beginners to navigate. It is a full-featured video editor so the best part about WeVideo is the template media library offering royalty-free music and sound effects complete with a pre-packaged set of effects and transitions.
Of course, more advanced features are offered in the paid package such as better text templates for titles and credits, but free users still have a great selection to choose from.
This software can practically do the entire process for you but if you do it yourself manually, you would have a lot to discover in this great web-based application.
To use the green screen feature in Wevideo:
Step1. Navigate to the WeVideo website and import both the green screen clip and a background video to its media library. On Video 2 track, which is the top layer, you want to drag the green screen footage to it. Then drag the background video to Video 1 track located underneath the green screen footage track.
Step2. On Video 2 track (top), select the green screen footage video and then click on the Penciltool at the top.
Step3. Then, click in the eye dropper tool located on the color keying In the preview window, click on any green area part.
Step4. You would notice that the green color has been completely remove. Yosemite download is stored on macbook air 2015 13.3. Preview the final videoand then save it once you are satisfied.
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Hey, My name is Paul – nice to e-meet you ? I’m a freelance video editor who has over 4 years experiences of making all types of videos. I founded this website to provide step-by-step and easy-to-follow instructions to first-time editors or beginners like you who want to start their journey in video editing.
Free Green Screen Photo Software
Anwar Yakkiparamban·Published · UpdatedGreen Screen video editing has become popular among professional video editors. The green screens editing let you make a video which looks more advanced and interesting to the audience. This software detects the green background behind a subject using chroma key effect. It is not necessary to have a Green background, but it preferably while using chroma keying. In this post, we’ve listed 10 best free green screen software you should use for best movie making.
Read Also: 10 Best video editing software you should know
01. LightWorks
Lightworks is an advanced and popular video editing software, which can be used to chroma key green screen videos. This video editing software is very popular among professional video editors. It comes full of many advanced features for green screening or color keying a green screen video footage and putting other awesome effects. Lightworks is a cross-platform across Windows, OS X, and Linux.
Green Screen Editing using LightWorks
- Once you import your green screen video, open VFX tab, and select the V1 track in the timeline and click the tab marked with a plus icon.
- Click the Favorites drop-down menu and select the Key, followed by Green Screen.
- Select Add Effect and you’ll see a new panel of settings under the color correction wheels.
- Select the background you want to remove using the eyedropper tool. If it doesn’t make the green background invisible completely, you can adjust the Hue, Saturation, and Luminance, and Key softness to get desired results.
02. Open Broadcaster
Open Broadcaster Software is a free and open source streaming and recording program. It’s GUI simple and it offers many advanced options to get a more detailed result. OBS allows you to apply chroma key to green screen videos along with various other video effects. this software is that you can chroma key recorded video, as well as live feed from the webcam.
Green Screen Editing using Open Broadcaster
- Import your video to OBS by adding your video source.
- Right click on the video source and select ‘Filter’.
- Click the plus under the ‘Effects Filters’ section, then select ‘Chroma Key’. Enter a name for the effect layer.
- When adding a chroma key OBS will automatically generate some baseline settings. In most cases, you’ll need to fine-tune these settings.
03. VSDC Free Video Editor
VSDC Free Video Editor is a green screen software that offers more than a standard set of tools. It has plenty of functionality like drawing and selection tools. It is one of the very few freeware video editor programs that has green screen editing capability. VSDC Free Video Editor has a modern looking interface, that is very intuitive.
Green Screen Editing using Open Broadcaster
- Double click the layer of green screen video to go to its inner timeline. Select Editor > Video Effects > Transparent > Background remover.
- Then select “Whole parent duration” and click OK. Now, set Chroma key color to the green background using the color picker.
04. XSplit Broadcaster
XSplit is a live streaming and video-mixing application where it is able to switch between various media configurations. It’s also a green screen software using chroma key. It comes with a variety of options for chroma keying green screen videos and various color-related options to add more effects to the video. it allows you to apply chroma key to living feed from a webcam.
Green Screen Editing using Xsplit Broadcaster
- Import the green screen video and other media files that you wish to use as a background.
- Right click on the green screen video and choose the Color option from the popup menu. Now, the green background automatically removed and hidden media sources are now visible.
- You can adjust a lot of color-related options of the visible part.
05. iMovie
iMovie video editor comes with Apple Mac which helps bring your moving images together into one professional looking production. You can download this green screen software for windows. Besides basic functions, it provides a simplistic timeline, built-in sound and animations and various easy-to-use effects including green screen effect. Here is a detailed guide on how to apply green screen effect.
Green Screen Editing using iMovie
- Import green screen video into iMovie.
- Make sure Advanced Tools are turned on.
- Open the project you want to add the green-screen effect to.
- In the Event browser, select Green screen video.
- Drag the selection over a clip in your project and release the mouse button when you see a green Add (+) symbol.
- In the contextual menu that appears, choose Green Screen.
06. VirtualDub
VirtualDub is a free video editing and green screen software designed for fast processing and versatility. It helps you deal with the basic video editing like swap audio tracks, add filters, trim clips and adjust audio. It also includes a basic green screen option, but it is not very powerful compared to other software.
Green Screen Editing using VirtualDub
- Import the green screen video to VirtualDub, then choose the Effects option and select Green Screen.
- Click and drag the replacement video down to the Replacement window. The replacement video is located in the video file bin on the side of the program window.
- Click on the green screen and the green is removed and replaced by the replacement information.
07. Wax
Wax is a simple video editor which provides lots of special effects which enables users to produce dynamic pieces of video. These effects include chroma key compositing and 3d effects. Wax can only take AVI files, as well as exports in AVI. Wax can take most picture files, AVI video files, and as far as I know, mp3 and WAV audio files.
Green Screen Editing using Wax
- Import your green screen video to Wax. open the presets by clicking on the second tab on the media bar. A new interface will appear in place of the media bin.
- Click on the preset and you will get a list. With the chroma key, you will see a color bar, a color picker option, a tolerance level, and an invert option.
- To activate the chroma key, choose an item on the timeline with a background of one color.
08. OpenShot
Openshot is an open source video editor, which allows you to chroma keying of green screen videos. It has a good user interface and many effects. Openshot is available for Windows, Linux, and OS X. It helps you to create videos with exciting video effects, titles, and audio tracks. Openshot includes lots of effects for video editing such as Color Correction, Saturation, Masks, Blur, Negative, etc.
Green Screen Editing using OpenShot
Green Screen Download Free
- To create a chroma key in OpenShot green screen software, import the green screen videos you’re going to use.
- Drag the file to be keyed onto Track 2 in the timeline, and the file to use as the background on Track 1.
- Click the Effects tab, find the Chroma Key effect and drag it onto the top file in the timeline. You will see a star appear on the file in the timeline.
Right-click the top file in the timeline and select Properties. - In the Properties window, click the Effects tab and then click the Chroma Key effect.
- Click the green colored area next to the word Key to bring up the Pick a Color window.
- Click the eyedropper tool and then click on a green part of the video image. Then click Apply in the properties window.
09. Blender
Blender is an integrated application that enables the creation of a broad range of 2D and 3D content. It provides a broad spectrum of modeling, texturing, lighting, animation and video post-processing functionality in one package. Blender is a professional application, and it’s a little complex for chroma keying. It uses a node-based modeling technique to create animation and is really popular among animators.
Green Screen Editing using Blender
- Import your green screen footage to Blender. Once the clip is loaded, select Node Editor.
- Go to the bottom of the view and click the Node Tree Type button, then check the Use Nodes and Backdrop buttons.
- Select the Render Layers node, and because we won’t need it you can delete it. Then move the Compositing node out of the way because we won’t need it yet.
- Click the Add menu in the bar at the bottom of the view and select Input > Movie Clip. Select the green screen clip you added in the Movie Clip Editor.
- Now select Add > Matte > Keying to add a keying node. Also, Add > Output > Viewer to make the output from the key visible.
- Click on the little yellow dot next to Image output on the Input node, and drag it to Image input on the Keying node. Then drag the little dot next to Image output on the keying node, and drag it to the image input on the viewer node.
- Click the Key Colour button on the Keying node, click the eyedropper, and select the green screen.
- Adjust the Black Clip slider to expand the amount of greens which turn to black. Then adjust the White Clip to push the whites to prevent them from becoming transparent.
- Once you have the pure white and pure black, reconnect the image output of the keying node to the image input on the viewer, and you’ll see you have a decent key.
- Now, navigate to your background clip and load it from Add > Input > Movie Clip.
10. VideoPad Editor
VideoPad Video Editor is a green screen software that allows you to edit video from any camcorder, DV camcorder, VHS or webcam. It is also used for chroma keying. VideoPad has a nice and easy to use user interface. It has over 50 visual and transition effects to add a professional touch to your movies.
Green Screen Editing using VideoPad
- The Green Screen effect is in the Video Effects dialog, which you can open by clicking the Effects button on Videopad UI.
- From the Video Effects dialog, click the drop menu at the top and select Green Screen and click Add to add the effect to the Applied Effects list.
- Click the Configure Effect button to open the Green Screen Select dialog.
- Select the color you want to remove by clicking on a color in the clip preview, or by clicking on the color picker control
. Change the Background and Foreground values to adjust how similar a color has to be to the selected color for it to be removed.
Conclusion
The above list does not mean exhaustive, and there are many other great green screen software out there that offer similar functionality to some of the applications that we have looked at today.
If you know any best green screen software other than the above list, share it in the comment section below.