Hi, there. My name is Sola Qin, currently taking Communication Studies as my major in University of Windsor. I’m a huge fan of filmmaking and everything that is relevant to it. Today I’ll be talking about how to broadcast or do live-stream shows by using a green screen. The reason I choose this topic is because internet is becoming so popular and everyone have access to it. People use internet as a powerful tool to exchange information and share news. For example, Youtube, the number one video website, has millions of viewers everyday, so a lot people use it to share interesting video they’ve shot. There are many people upload their own episodical shows on Youtube, some of them are very professional, but some of them are not. A lot people choose to record their show in their bedroom while they talking to the camera. This is understandable, but come to think of it, is it relevant to what you say in the show? Sometimes it’s really funny to see people hosting their show in their bedroom-clothes on the bed, bikini girl poster on the wall. Those kind of background is really disturbing, and cheesy. The background plays a huge part in contributing in a video, having a good background will definitely make a show look much better. I bought my green screen last year, and it works perfectly for video effects especially to make people appear in any place you want. A professional green screen is not very expensive, I bought two on ebay which costed me about 30 bucks only. Then I realized make a professional level show is not super difficult, basically it just need three things: green screen,light, and recording softwares. I did a lot research on the recording softwares for broadcasting. I’ve tried at least fifteen different ones. Most of them are not free, some of them are incompatible with Mac. At last, I found a really good free software called XSplit. Just like its slogan said, “Going Live is Simple.”
Here’s the website link:
Before we start, we need to find a empty area as our work space, so we have a place to hang up the green screen. There are several things to pay attention:
- Pull the green screen tight, so there are no wrinkles on it
- Try not to touch the green screen while recording, because it will mess up the chroma key feature
- Use strong lights, at least two, pointing on the green screen
- Use one extra monitor. It will give you more space to work on.
Here's the main interface of XSplit:
Once we get the green screen ready, we can get start with the software. XSplit is a software used by many gamers, because it allows us to record from multiple places and display them together at the same time. What I figured out is that I can record what’s happening on the screen, and show myself commenting on it. The key function in XSplit is the Chroma Key function. It removes the green color and only leave the person blend in with the background perfectly.
With the combination of green screen and XSplit, we can do whatever we can think of. The first idea I got comes from weather report. We all watch weather report before, I’m wondered how they did that when I was little. And then I know the power of green screen, so with the help of it, we can make our own weather report shows. Due to my skill and time limitation, I didn't choose to make a weather report animation. There are a lot of free footages on Youtube, so we can just use them.
Then I realized I can use any background I like. A lot of the shows simply use pure white color as a background, it is pretty cool too. Also, there are a lot of free footages of virtual studio on Youtube that are super cool to use.
The coolest thing for me is that I can play game while see myself commenting on it. However, this only works for games that can be window sized. Fullscreen game will cover the XSplit interface, and the video sometimes keeps blinking.
Well, I'll stop talking here. The video I made pretty much give you a better idea how everything works.
Well, I'll stop talking here. The video I made pretty much give you a better idea how everything works.
