To change the green screen in Adobe Premiere Pro, you primarily use the Ultra Key effect. This effect allows you to isolate and remove the green (or blue) background, replacing it with another image or video.
Here's a breakdown of the process:
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Import and Place Footage: Import your green screen footage and the background footage (or image) you want to use as a replacement into your Adobe Premiere Pro project. Drag both clips onto your timeline, ensuring the green screen footage is placed above the background footage.
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Apply the Ultra Key Effect:
- Navigate to the "Effects" panel (Window > Effects).
- Search for "Ultra Key."
- Drag the "Ultra Key" effect onto your green screen footage in the timeline.
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Configure the Ultra Key Effect:
- Go to the "Effect Controls" panel (Window > Effect Controls). With the green screen footage selected on the timeline, you should see the Ultra Key controls.
- Key Color: Use the "Eyedropper" tool within the Ultra Key settings to select a representative green color from your green screen footage in the Program Monitor. Click on an area of the green screen that represents the most common shade of green.
- Setting: Adjust the "Setting" dropdown. Start with "Default," and then experiment with "Aggressive" or "Relaxed" if necessary. These settings can drastically affect how the keying process works.
- Matte Generation: Fine-tune the "Matte Generation" settings, specifically:
- Transparency: Controls the overall transparency of the keyed-out area.
- Highlight: Affects the highlights in the keyed footage.
- Shadow: Affects the shadows in the keyed footage.
- Tolerance: Adjusts the range of colors that will be keyed out, preventing unwanted artifacts from appearing.
- Pedestal: Adjusts the black levels and helps remove remaining green spill.
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Matte Cleanup (Optional but Recommended): Further refine the key using the "Matte Cleanup" settings:
- Choke: Contracts the matte, removing any fringing or green spill around the edges of your subject. Use small values.
- Soften: Blurs the matte edges, which can help to blend the subject with the background.
- Contrast: Increases the contrast between the opaque and transparent areas of the matte.
- Midpoint: Shifts the midpoint of the grayscale values in the matte.
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Spill Suppression (If Necessary): If you notice a green "spill" (a green tint) on your subject, use the "Spill Suppression" settings to remove it. Adjust the "Suppress" amount.
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Adjust Lighting and Color: To seamlessly integrate your subject into the new background, you may need to adjust the color grading and lighting of your foreground footage to match the background. Use Lumetri Color panel to achieve this.
Example:
Imagine you have footage of a person standing in front of a green screen and a background image of a beach. After applying Ultra Key and selecting the green color, the green screen will disappear, revealing the beach background behind the person. You may need to adjust the Matte Cleanup and Spill Suppression settings to ensure the person blends seamlessly with the beach. Finally adjust color of the person layer to match the beach to make the combined scene more realistic.
