Webcam backgrounds and invisibility

[dumbwebcamguy]

Hi all,

Registered here because I couldn't find anything useful from Google searches - maybe I wasn't articulating the problem in the correct words?

I have a screenshot of the problem I'm having and trying to fix.

I'm using Streamlabs OBS to live stream myself playing guitar for friends and family, and to liven things up a bit I've added an animated background to my webcam feed, which I really like, but whenever I apply the background, parts of myself/my guitar vanish completely, or fade in and out of view.

I've tried messing with my webcam settings, moving lighting around and bought a pop-up green screen which hasn't improved the issue at all.

Am I trying to do something that can't be done? Pretty sure I've watched videos of people who have superimposed themselves over backgrounds with no visible issues though.

Eagerly awaiting any advice!

Thank you

[smrpix]

Show us a comparative screengrab of the same moment with and without the effect applied. That will help folks diagnose what's going wrong.

Best guess -- you're using a luma key rather than chroma key or color key and your blacks are disappearing. But without more info that's only a guess.

[Bwaak]

Option 1: use chroma key to isolate yourself from the background. Better software allows to use color picker to select background color, simpler software just wants good old green. The key for a good key is to ensure that the background is evenly lit and is as clean as possible, like true (0,255,0) green, so it could be easily removed. Make a photo of your background, load it into a photo editing app and check waveform or even better, RGB parade - ideally you should see a thin straight line corresponding for green, and no lines for red and blue. Obviously, you should not be wearing anything remotely close to green. Move the green screen farther from you to avoid spill.



Option 2: ask the software to remove background, in which case it will try to figure out which parts are not needed. These tools are designed mostly for talking heads, and sometimes they can be confused by a hat or glasses. These tools usually don't isolate well what is below the face.

[dumbwebcamguy]

Show us a comparative screengrab of the same moment with and without the effect applied. That will help folks diagnose what's going wrong.

Best guess -- you're using a luma key rather than chroma key or color key and your blacks are disappearing. But without more info that's only a guess.

Hi mate - I've uploaded a short clip with and without the animated background to show the problem.

For the clip I removed the Chroma key filter I'd been using which looked exactly the same as having no filter applied.

[dumbwebcamguy]

Option 1: use chroma key to isolate yourself from the background. Better software allows to use color picker to select background color, simpler software just wants good old green. The key for a good key is to ensure that the background is evenly lit and is as clean as possible, like true (0,255,0) green, so it could be easily removed. Make a photo of your background, load it into a photo editing app and check waveform or even better, RGB parade - ideally you should see a thin straight line corresponding for green, and no lines for red and blue. Obviously, you should not be wearing anything remotely close to green. Move the green screen farther from you to avoid spill.



Option 2: ask the software to remove background, in which case it will try to figure out which parts are not needed. These tools are designed mostly for talking heads, and sometimes they can be confused by a hat or glasses. These tools usually don't isolate well what is below the face.

Thank you very much for the detailed info, Bwaak. I'll look further into this since I haven't had much experience at all with green screens.

[smrpix]

Thank you for uploading the clip. Looks like one of those "smart" AI filters like Zoom uses to separate people from background. Things like your arm disappearing and the reflection in the guitar in the same spot are confusing it. It may be part of your webcam's software, it may be an OBS filter. Wherever it is, disable it and use an old fashioned "dumb" chroma key.

[jagabo]

Bwaak's guidelines are good. Go to youtube and search for green screen or chromakey tutorials. Here's a pretty good one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OH8TWTt51W8