Applying the Green Screen Key

The elf.avi clip is a special clip in that it is a clip of an actor who was filmed against a greenscreen background. Now that the clip has been brought into Premiere Elements 3, we can apply one of Premiere Elements 3's standard Keying effects, the Green Screen Effect, to remove the green background.

Find and Apply the Key

Click on the Effects and Transitions button on the Media panel to switch to the Effects and Transitions view, if it's not already the current view.

Type green in the text field.

Select the Green Screen Key effect from the Keying effects in the Video Effects list and drag and drop it onto the elf.avi clip on the Video 2 track.

In the Properties panel, click the triangle next to Green Screen Key to view the effect's controls.

Adjust the effect as follows:

• Threshold: 38.0%

• Cutoff: 38.0%

• Smoothing: High

The clip before the Green Screen Key has been applied.

The clip after the Green Screen Key has been applied (but before the effect has been adjusted).

Tip

To see a black and white version of your key (which can show you some details in the key that you might otherwise miss), with the subject as a cookie-cutter cutout in white, click the Mask Only check box. The clip in the Monitor panel will look something like this: