Green Screen Workshop: The Shoot

Light, Shoot, and Composite

In the second course in his two-part series on green-screen (and blue-screen) tools and techniques, author, producer, and VFX Artist Jeff Foster covers the nitty-gritty of production and post-production. On the production side, you’ll learn how to build your own portable lights, create professional lighting setups, and shoot with a green or blue screen outdoors. You’ll also get tips on choosing keying software and working with virtual sets. All this will help you get the best footage possible; however, there will always be things you need to “fix in post,” so this course will also help you fix problem shots.

Trainer: Jeff Foster

Publication date: Dec 15, 2011

$34.99

Duration: 1 hrs 25 min

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Welcome to the Green Screen Workshop: The Shoot

This chapter explores some ideas for making the most of your budget by building your own lights.

Shooting on a Budget: Building Your Own Lights
- In this video you'll see how to build your own 500W low-voltage soft box for under $100. This design can be made either rigid or portable with just a few simple modifications. (Part 1 of 2)
  
  Building the Portable "NanoSoftBox" 500-Watt Light (Part 1)
  
  06:16
- In this video you'll see how to build your own 500W low-voltage soft box for under $100. This design can be made either rigid or portable with just a few simple modifications. (Part 2 of 2)
  
  Building the Portable "NanoSoftBox" 500-Watt Light (Part 2)
  
  07:25
- In this lesson you'll see how to create a smaller low-voltage light design that's portable and really simple but versatile.
  
  Building Variations of Portable Lights
  
  01:19
- In this video you'll see how effective small homemade lights can be when used with a portable green screen.
  
  Using Homemade Lights with a Green Screen
  
  02:30
- This video demonstrates how green low-voltage bulbs can be used to optimize the green color space even if it's not an optimum color background.
  
  Using Homemade Lights with Green Bulbs
  
  01:54
This chapter looks at some higher-end lighting options, both studio and portable.

Professional Lighting Setups: Studio and Portable
- In this video you'll be introduced to some of the great portable lighting options available from Kino Flo - ranging from their Diva 401s to the BarFly series - and see how effective they are in lighting a portable green screen and your subject.
  
  Pro Lighting with Kino Flos
  
  02:46
- This video shot live in the studio demonstrates some simple creative lighting techniques using the Kino Flo portable lights on a model.
  
  Positioning Portable Lights for Creative Lighting Effects
  
  06:16
- This live video will show you how to use tracking markers on your green screen to simulate a handheld shot when you composite your footage.
  
  Adding Tracking Markers to Green Screen
  
  02:39
In this chapter we'll explore some of the software options available to you for keying and matte extraction.

Software Options
- In this video we'll take a tour of the standalone software application VeeScope Live, which lets you composite either on the fly or in post-production.
  
  VeeScopeLive: Affordable Live Keying Software
  
  02:52
- Conduit 2.0 from dvGarage is an amazing standalone software compositor. In this lesson we'll go through the demo video and explore the somewhat complicated process of working with Conduit 2.0.
  
  The Conduit 2.0 Compositing Suite
  
  03:21
- Boris's Continuum Complete AE 8 (BCC AE 8) is the latest collection in their ongoing VFX plug-in series. In this video you'll see how the Chroma Key filter works in After Effects CS5.5.
  
  The Boris Continuum Complete AE 8
  
  03:43
- In this lesson you'll see how the Keylight effect that's included with After Effects works on somewhat difficult footage with motion blur.
  
  The Keylight Effect in After Effects
  
  04:50
Virtual sets offer some extremely powerful capabilities. This chapter looks at the tools and techniques involved.

Working with Virtual Sets
- In this video you'll see how a top-of-the-line hardware compositor like Ultimatte works with virtual environments in real time.
  
  Using Ultimatte Hardware in Real Time
  
  02:16
- The NewTek Tricast with Liveset gives pretty amazing results on a budget. You'll get an overview of its capabilities in this video demonstration.
  
  Using NewTek TriCaster 850 with LiveSet
  
  01:51
- In this video we'll take a tour of VirtualSets.com's preconstructed 3D sets. You'll get a few examples of footage created with these sets and see how they can work in your production.
  
  Working with Preconstructed 3D Sets (VirtualSet.com)
  
  02:20
- PhotonCraft.com is one example of a source for 3D models, sets, and designs that you can find online. In this video you'll see a couple examples of these sets in action.
  
  Building Your Own 3D Sets (PhotonCraft.com)
  
  03:08
- Simulated camera moves can add a lot of pizzazz to a shot. In this lesson you'll learn some techniques for creating camera moves in After Effects.
  
  Creating Simulated Camera Moves in Post
  
  05:00
Compositing footage from different sources can be tricky - you need to make sure the elements match. This chapter will explore some techniques for doing so.

Compositing Footage
- In this video you'll see how to use Keylight in After Effects to not only get a good key, but also use color correction features to match the foreground and background plates.
  
  Using Keylight to Color-Correct the Foreground to Match the Background
  
  02:43
- Making a composite look believable takes more than just color matching. In this lesson you'll learn how to simulate a simple "rack focus" between foreground and background plates.
  
  Matching Foreground to Background Plates with Rack Focus
  
  06:25
- In this project, we'll create a simulated retro film effect on the foreground and background layers using multiple effects and layer styles.
  
  Modifying Layers for Effect
  
  03:45
This chapter looks at some common problems you're likely to encounter when working with green screen footage and suggests solutions.

Fixing Problem Green Screen Shots
- At some point you're probably going to find yourself dealing with green screen footage that has been incorrectly lit. In this video you'll learn a useful technique for dealing with this problem.
  
  Fixing Poorly Lit Green Screen Footage
  
  03:16
- Underexposed green screen is a common issue, and in this video we'll look at the best ways of correcting this.
  
  Compensating for Underexposure
  
  05:21
- Sometimes you get poorly shot green or blue screen footage where the subject is too close to the colored background and a colored light spill is bounced back on them. In this lesson, we'll look at how to approach this and correct the problem even in the worst-case scenarios.
  
  Correcting Difficult Spill
  
  03:21

Welcome to the Green Screen Workshop: The Shoot

This workshop covers techniques for lighting, shooting, compositing, and optimizing green or blue screen footage. The contents of this course include:

Shooting on a Budget: Building Your Own Lights
This chapter explores some ideas for making the most of your budget by building your own lights.

Professional Lighting Setups: Studio and Portable
This chapter looks at some higher-end lighting options, both studio and portable.

Software Options
In this chapter we’ll explore some of the software options available to you for keying and matte extraction.

Working with Virtual Sets
Virtual sets offer some extremely powerful capabilities. This chapter looks at the tools and techniques involved.

Compositing Footage
Compositing footage from different sources can be tricky – you need to make sure the elements match. This chapter will explore some techniques for doing so.

Fixing Problem Green Screen Shots
This chapter looks at some common problems you're likely to encounter when working with green screen footage and suggests solutions.

The lessons are wrapped in a feature-rich interface that lets you jump to any topic and bookmark individual sections for later review. Full-Screen mode provides a hi-def, immersive experience, and Watch-and-Work mode shrinks the video into a small window so you can play the videos alongside your application. Also included are exercise files that give you an easy way to try out the techniques you learn.

System Requirements

Broadband internet connection
Up-to-date browser with Flash plug-in
Screen resolution 1024x768 or higher
Sound card with speakers or headphones attached
Pentium 4 2.6 GHz or higher, or Apple Mac G5
512 MB RAM

HTML5 Player-Ready

This course can be played with an HTML5 Player, which means it can be viewed online with your iPad and iPhone 4.

Powerful, Feature-Rich Interface

This course features video2brain’s interactive interface. As you navigate the course, rolling over a chapter or video brings up text describing that item.

Full-Screen mode provides a hi-def, immersive experience. And Watch-and-Work mode puts the video into a resizable window that you can shrink so you can watch the lessons on one side of your screen while you’re following along and applying what you’ve learned on the other.

HD Video

This course comes in crisp 1280 x 720 high definition video.

Bookmarks (Downloadable Feature)

Available in the downloadable version of our courses, this feature makes it easy to create a custom bookmark in any lesson to mark where you left off or to make note of something you want to refer back to later. You can even add a name or short note to remind yourself what the bookmark is for.

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