Digital News - After Effects Workshop

We learnt the basics of Adobe After Effects on how to change a green screen background into a studio for a news room or any other background we could. We chose to do a news room as the footage we shot in the green screen workshop was a piece to camera for a news article. 

This is a really professional piece of software that many editors and feature film makers use so it's amazing that we are given the chance to work with it and understand how to use some of the tools. 

Take a look at the video below, it gives a fantastic overview of the things that after effects and visual effects can do to a film. It allows us to also understand the ways in which green screens are used and what their purpose is.

So as you can see from the above clip, green screens are used many ways. It is important not to get transfixed by the thought that green screens are only for back drops. This is something that I originally thought. However, this is not true. Green screens can be used as makeshift props, costume and many other things. Then in the edit, they can be replaced by visual effects. 

They way that After Effects works is as follows: 

- You need to import a video file which will appear in the left hand box in the software. You then can double click on the file and it will open up into the viewing window in the centre of the screen. 
- You can use the button 3 tool on your keyboard mouse to zoom in and out of the image and by pressing the space bar it will give you a hand tool that you can use to navigate around the zoomed in image.
- You will need to create a composition before starting your green screen effects. To do this, you need to drag the clip from the left hand box down into the composition icon at the bottom of that box. It looks like this: 

-In the 'comp' settings it will show you the frame size, rate and duration of your composition. You can edit these to your liking.

- On the right hand side, go into "effects & Presets". This will come up with a search bar that you can choose what kind of effects you would like. 

- For green screening, you need to type in "key". It will give you some options of effects and you need to select "Keylight". Drag this onto the picture in the viewing screen. A triangle will appear as you drag the key light onto the picture. 

- Click the eye drop button and click the green of the green screen. 

- On the right hand side under key light effect change the drop down selection box that will say "final result" and then change it to "Screen Matte". 

- Under this option, adjust "clip black" to darken the depth of the black. You can also do this with "clip white" to brighten how white the clip is. 

- The black will be the part of the clip that is changed and the white will be what is to remain unedited.

- Import the background image drag it underneath the already created composition timeline. 

- Don't get confused with your layers. At the top of the page there are different tabs. It will display all of your layers including the original footage.

- Going back to the drop down selection box under Keylight, if you change it back to "final result" it will show your layers together. - By highlighting your background image in your composition you are able to adjust the size of the image and its colouring also using the tools bar at the top of the page. 

- You can also do this with the unedited layer that was originally the one you turned white. 

- Then, once you are satisfied, transform down on the composition tab and scale it.

- Using the preview bar, you are able to play your clip using the all of the effects you have added. 

- Once you are happy, you need to render the clip. To do this, go into the composition tab at the very top of the page and select reader, cue. This will then change your composition at the bottom to a coded line of information. 

- Before you render, you need to change the coding from "lossless" by clicking on it and then clicking format when the new window opens. 

- Once you have clicked format, you need to change the video codec to Apple Pro Res 422 or depending on the size of the composition, Apple Pro Res 422 HQ. 

- Then, choose "output to" and save the name and location of your composition to something memorable and save. 

- You are now ready to render your composition which is located on the right hand side of the composition. Once it has rendered, your clip will have saved and you can save and quit the programme. 

Overall I found this workshop very insightful and in places a little confusing. However with the help of Ferg and my notes I was able to work out how to successfully change a green screen to a different background.

Here is what I made in the workshop.

I had some difficulty in making my subject look like they were really there in that location at first. I decided to use a zebra crossing background and the reporter was very clearly green screened. After seeking advice from Ferg we worked out that she was too close to the green screen which is why she had waves on her shoulders and hair. Once I added more key light and changed the colouring slightly it looked a lot better. However, it still didn't look quite right. I decided to change the background to try and make it slightly more inconspicuous. I chose a blue news background and the waves were much better and made it a lot less obvious that it was green screened. I really enjoyed this workshop and feel that I can now confidently edit a green screen into something different.