How to Key Green Screen in DaVinci Resolve: A Comprehensive Guide

A green screen lets creators bring to life any scene they can possibly imagine. The best part is how easy green screen removal has become in recent years. There are so many incredible NLEs (non-linear editors) that make keying green screen footage a breeze. Programs such as Adobe’s Premiere Pro allow for green-screen video to be taken care of with a simple click of a button. However, one of the best programs to remove green screens is completely free. Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve is such a powerful video editing software and green screen in the platform is a video editor’s dream, especially considering how amazing Resolve already is with its slew of color grading features. Plus, when combined with robust captioning and transcription software like Simon Says, you have everything you need for an optimal workflow.

In this post, we’ll go over how to work with a green screen in DaVinci Resolve for both macOS and Windows devices as well as tips and tricks to speed up your post-production workflow.

How to edit green screen footage in DaVinci Resolve

Utilizing green screens can be an amazing tool, but it’s important that you use the effect in moderation. Ever hear the anecdote “too much of a good thing”? Well, this definitely applies to green screen. Too much of the effect can start to become something of a crutch and even take viewers out of your work, especially if it’s done poorly. You never want a distracting green screen.

This is especially important if you’re a filmmaker. For a filmmaker, selling the audience on their work is crucial. Using green screens sparingly is usually the best outcome for selling your story.

Importing green screen footage in Resolve is as easy as going to File > import > Media. This can also be done by clicking COMMAND+I on Mac or CTRL+I on Windows. You’ll then need to drag your footage into a new or existing timeline in the edit tab. From here, there are three main ways to remove your green screen.

How to remove DaVinci Resolve green screen

There are a few methods for removing green screen in DaVinci Resolve. Something to note is how you’ll want your timeline to be set up. You’ll want your backdrop placed underneath your green-screened footage. It’ll be hidden initially under the timeline, but once you chroma key the green out, your backdrop will finally appear. These methods will work in DaVinci Resolve 17 and DaVinci Resolve 18, but they may not work in DaVinci Resolve 16. In Resolve 16, the only method for green screening was in Fusion. These methods will also work for blue screens or really any type of solid-colored background.

Green screen vs. blue screen Green and blue screens are the most common backdrops in VFX (visual effects) because they’re the farthest colors away from human skin tones. This means that they’re the two easiest colors to key out. Blue is technically the farthest away from our skin tones but is more common in everyday objects, which can make keying a nightmare. The green color used for green screens, however, is far less prevalent in most objects. Blue screens are best used for dimly lit environments since the vibrance from the green reflects light and bounces onto subjects more. Like most things in media, there are a variety of different use cases for both backdrops. You just need to know which one works best for the environment that you’re in. It’s a huge time-saver when you move on to post-production.

Removing green screen with 3D Keyer tool The first method of removing the green screen in Resolve is by using a simple Open FX effect called 3D Keyer. To get there, you’ll need to click on the Effects button in the top left-hand corner of the screen. You’ll then want to go to the Open FX drop-down menu on the lower half of the screen and find Resolve FX Key. Under here should be an effect called 3D Keyer. Drag this effect onto your clip in the timeline. If you right-click on this effect, you can also add it to your favorites.

Clicking on the magic wand icon (effects) will bring you to the 3D Keyer effect that’s been applied to your clip. Before doing anything else, you’ll need to go to the drop-down menu on the left-hand side of your playhead and select Open FX Overlay. NOTHING will happen if you don’t do this first. You’ll then want to click on the eye-dropper tool in your effects panel and select the portions of green that you want to key out. You can remove colors by selecting the negative eye-dropper tool and add colors by adding the positive eye-dropper tool. Dragging and clicking over the area of green will turn it white with a blue line indicating where your mouse is. Once you let go, your background will appear behind your green.

You’ll often need to make adjustments to the compositing and behaviors of the key. The 3D keyer gives you a few different options to play with. Turning the Despill slider up will get rid of the ugly green found around the edges of your video. Below the Despill are a few more options that you can play with that help improve the overall key. What you need will be entirely dependent on how the footage was lit. Changing settings such as black clip and white clip under matte finesse is a great way to dial in your key.

Removing green screen inside the Color tab Another method of removing the green screen is by going inside the Color tab found at the bottom of the screen. Using the color page will bring you to a node-based workspace. You’ll want to go to the Qualifier tab, turning your cursor into an eye-dropper tool. Click on the green you want to key out. Nothing will happen at first. Click on the Invert button at the top of the Color tab. Then, right-click in the node tab and select add alpha output. Connecting the blue dot of your clip to the blue dot of the alpha output tab will remove the green from your image. You can edit your key by clicking the add or subtract eye-dropper and using the Hue, Saturation, and Luminance slider. Using Pre-Filter, Clean Black, Clean White, Black Clip, and White Clip will remove the spill from your footage and help you further get a better key.

Removing the green screen with the Delta tool The last way to remove the green area on your footage is by using Fusion. This is the one option that works for those still using DaVinci Resolve 16. Think of Fusion as being akin to Adobe After Effects. This program is built into DaVinci Resolve though and can be accessed by clicking on the Fusion tab at the bottom of the screen. Clicking Shift + Space Bar will bring up your Fusion toolbar. Typing in “delta keyer” will bring up your keying tool. Connect the delta keyer to the media in and the media out. You’ll then want to click on the greyed-out square next to Background-color. Doing this will bring up a color wheel. Click on the green you want to key out. This will give you a keyed-out image that can be adjusted using the sliders on the right-hand side. Your background image will not be visible until you return back to the edit page. Once the settings are to your liking, go back to the Edit tab. The image below your footage will now be visible.

Summary DaVinci Resolve is not just one of the best free tools for green screen footage but one of the best tools overall. Using Fusion, the Color Tab, and the 3D Keyer Tool are quick and easy ways to key out your green footage. Resolve provides you with so many options for working with your video clips. Creating films, social media videos, and commercials has never been easier. Using green screens can add so much production value to your content, but just remember to use it sparingly. The use of VFX can add a lot of time during the post-production process, so it’s best to know when to utilize it. In the world of post-production, every second saved is an absolute gift.

There’s never such a thing as too fast in the world of post-production. Anything that can be done to speed up the process is essential. The small tips and tricks that we covered are essential when editing content for the sake of efficiency. The more time saved as a video editor the better. That’s why third-party extensions and plugins that help boost efficiency are so important in DaVinci Resolve and other NLEs.

With Simon Says you can transcribe footage natively within Resolve in 100 languages. With its versatile capabilities, DaVinci Resolve eliminates the need to move out of the program when keying green screens. You can remove a green screen in DaVinci Resolve in four ways, each offering different difficulty levels. All four methods will do the same job of keying out a singular color. But each tool has different parameters, which means the results will also be slightly different for each one. Before we dive into the chroma keying process, your green screen media needs to be on the timeline. It’s important to layer the video clips in a specific order so the composite is presented correctly. 1. First, open the Effects Control Panel > OpenFX and search for 3D Keyer. You can find it under the ResolveFX Key grouping. 2. Now that you’ve applied the 3D Keyer effect, you’ll be able to go into the highlighted Effects tab. In the lower left of the Timeline Viewer click the Effect icon and change the setting from Transform to OpenFX Overlay. 3. With the OpenFX overlay active, revert to the Inspector, and within the FX parameter, ensure that the eyedropper tool has the pick function active. 4. Even if you’ve evenly illuminated your green screen and there’s enough distance between your subject and the green screen backdrop, the key won’t always be seamless in one click. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as telling you exactly what sliders to adjust. There’s no universal setting since everyone’s footage, luminance values, color depth, and data information will vary. The second method for how you can chroma key in DaVinci Resolve is on the Fusion page. The Delta Keyer offers advanced functionality compared to the Chroma Keyer, which is covered in the next section. It has additional integration with a clean plate for improved accuracy and extensive options for refining the key, such as pre-matte adjustments, spill settings, and edge handling. 1. Select the green screen clip, then click over to the Fusion tab. In the node structure, select Add Tool, then go down to Matte and choose Delta Keyer. 2. Next, select the Delta Keyer node and the settings for the selected node will appear in the Inspector. Then, choose your eyedropper tool, hover it over the green on the preview monitor, and click to select your color. The third method is the Chroma Keyer, a tool similar to the Delta Keyer but works differently. The Chroma Keyer is a simple tool for quickly removing a specific color, making it efficient for straightforward keying tasks (with limited control over fine details). To access the Chroma Keyer, right-click within the node structure, select Tool > Matte, and choose Chroma Keyer. Like the Delta Keyer, you must use the eyedropper tool in the Inspector to select the green screen. Although we have covered both tools, I recommend using them only if you’re already working within the Fusion page. Final method of green screening, the Qualifier tool, is on the Color page. Before you get started with the steps below, be sure that your timeline has been correctly set up so the green screen footage is on top of the background layer. 1. First, make sure that the Qualifier tool is selected in the preview window settings on the lower left, then click the eyedropper tool from the central tool area on the Color page. 2. At first, it might not look like anything has changed. However, we want the background to be keyed, not the object. 3. Now, we need to un-invert our mask. Go to the key window within the control parameters and select Invert on the key output. 4. Back in the Qualifier window, you’ll see a Matte Finesse parameter with settings that will help you adjust the matte so no green is left around the object. Like with the 3D Keyer tool on the edit page, there are no set guidelines to give you. 5. Now, we need to tell Resolve to render our work as an Alpha Output. You’ll see that if you turn off the highlight icon, you’ll see the green backdrop again. To do this, right-click anywhere within a blank area of the node tree, and select Add Alpha Output. Within your Resolve node structure, click the blue square at the end of the node and drag it to the blue circle. The concept of chroma keying is one of the oldest visual effects still in use today. In film and television, green screens are primarily used to composite actors into entirely new locations or to make a visual effects artist’s job easier if rotoscoping is required. However, green screens serve more purposes beyond that. Green screens are essential when filming computer or mobile phone screens, since the glare from a screen can prevent filmmakers from accurately showing its content or crew reflections might appear. So, there we have it-the four primary methods of keying a green screen within DaVinci Resolve demystified. Whether you choose to use the 3D Keyer effect, the two keyer options in Fusion, or the Qualifier tool, you should be able to quickly and easily remove green screen backgrounds and open up a world of possibilities for your videos.

Practical tips and workflows

If you want to start compositing within DaVinci Resolve but don’t have a green screen or access to film with one, Storyblocks’ library has thousands of green screen videos to help you practice. With a Storyblocks subscription, you’ll get unlimited downloads of green screen footage, royalty free music, pre-made templates for DaVinci Resolve, and more. Are you bored of always shooting your video content in the same spot? Incorporating a green screen into your filming practices can help you bring to life any setting you desire for your visual project.

Luckily, almost all video editing software offer a Chroma Key feature that allows you to edit green screen footage. In this tutorial, you’ll discover how to eliminate a green screen video in DaVinci Resolve by using three built-in features and identifying which one best suits your project. Let’s dive in!

What is a Green Screen, Keying, and Chroma Key?

Green screens are widely used in movies and television production to film the actors in front and replace the background with a different one in post-production. Green screens can be made of fabric such as polyester, use a wall painted green, LED screens displaying a green background, or even just green paper for budget productions. When filmmakers and editors talk about keying, they refer to a post-production process where they choose a part of the video, like a green screen, and make it transparent and replace it with another video in the composition. When you base the keying process on a color like green or blue, the technique is called chroma keying. Chroma key lets you choose a color from your video and make it transparent. Applying the chroma key to video footage with a green screen allows you to remove the green screen and replace it with new and, often, imaginary settings: space, underwater, or other places like a different city or buildings.

There are three ways to replace a green screen in DaVinci Resolve: With the 3D Keyer effect. On the Fusion page with Delta Keyer and Chroma Keyer. With the Qualifier tool on the Color page. These three methods offer different ways to replace a green screen with DaVinci Resolve chroma key tools, but they all provide similar results. The main strength of 3D Keyer is how quick and straightforward it is when used for green screen removal, making it the perfect method to use if this is your first time removing a green screen. However, it has limitations: you cannot tweak it as much as the other methods.

Step-by-step setup and practical workflows are covered in detail above, including organizing your timeline, applying 3D Keyer, using OpenFX Overlay, Delta Keyer in Fusion, Chroma Keyer, and the Qualifier tool with Alpha Output to achieve a clean key and realistic composite. Final refinements may include masking with Power Windows, spill suppression, and color matching to blend foreground and background seamlessly.

Examples of usage and extra notes

What is the Delta Keyer compared to the Chroma Keyer? The Delta Keyer offers more advanced functionality and cleaner edges, especially with spill suppression and pre-matte adjustments. The Chroma Keyer is a simpler option for quick removals where fine control isn’t necessary. The Qualifier on the Color page provides a robust all-in-one approach with options for invert, matte finesse, and alpha output. Green screens are essential when filming computer or mobile phone screens since glare can hinder accurate content display, and reflections can appear on subjects.

Finally, remember that the four methods of keying in Resolve-3D Keyer, Delta Keyer, Chroma Keyer, and Qualifier-allow you to tailor your workflow to the footage you have. Practice, experiment with Despill, Matte Finesse, and edge handling, and you’ll build a reliable chroma keying workflow that fits varying lighting conditions and shot setups.

1. Set up your project and import media.
2. Place green screen clip above the background in the timeline.
3. Choose a method: 3D Keyer, Delta Keyer (Fusion), Chroma Keyer (Fusion), or Qualifier (Color).
4. Fine-tune key parameters: Despill, Matte Finesse, and spill suppression.
5. Render alpha and replace with background; adjust color to blend.

tags: #how #to #key #green #screen #in