Green screen

Green screen is a great part of multimedia design. Personally I this is really worthwhile if you can put in the extra effort. You can use these short video clips in your reusable media library...

I've done it and think it's great. One prototype we worked on had a talking head that appeared when the user clicked on a "Tell me more" icon on the screen. We just had the guy in the video walk on to the screen from offscreen, do his little talk and walk offscreen when he was done. It was actually quite fun and sure got a lot of attention.

thats great it does get their attention!

Yes, If you have the time and resources to greenscreen & make transparent video - a living avatar concept sure adds to your course impact.!

It is a lot simpler than it used to be!  The materials can be just about anything from green, blue, or red bed sheets to paper.  But the little extra time is worth the impact (if done right)

It takes me just a little more time to film and cut the background than trying to read and edit lines.

I feel most people can make an impression in person compared to making one over a microphone.

You get the body language with expressions and sometimes it’s just down right entertaining.  

I use green screens often and find them especially useful for software training.  If you want to have an avatar or host character look as if they are in the software then green screens definitely come in handy.  We have a couple of different "low budget" green screens we use that work well.  We have one about the size of a large sheet that is good for full body shots and a smaller one that folds up like a car sun shade if you don't need the full body shot.  Something I've found that makes a big difference is lighting.  We also have some "low budget" lighting that makes a big difference.

Agreed, lighting is key. Green screening does require some extra effort and planning but the end result can be very impactful.

good info: a friends wife is into taking pictures and they found a set that includes a frame about 8' X 12' and a light set (3) for arpount 200 not bad for what you can do with it

The program I use is Hitfilm 2 Ultimate which is very good editing green screen when lighting is poor. I do agree to make it easy to edit lighting is key and does not have to be expensive. The use of tinfoil and work lights create ambient lighting by facing the lights away and reflecting it back with the tinfoil.  Umbrellas (light color like white) work well to defuse the light. The key is to keep the subject from casting shadows onto the green screen by having the subject a few feet (3) from the screen works well.

I don't suppose Storyline has a chroma key editing option built in does it?

I have not seen one but i am new to Articulate

No specific editing options for chroma key that I'm aware of. It simply has the option of inserting FLV files with an alpha channel. We created and edited the alpha channel in Final Cut Pro. I believe you could also do that in Premiere or aother video editing applications but there isn't any option directly in SL to do so.

That is what I thought. Thank you all for the input.

htlm5 i guess is not compatible with chroma. so ipad and tablets are out of chroma idea. any suggest? thank

Hi Cristian,

You can view HTML5 in Google Chrome, and you may want to review the system requirements detailed here for support browsers. 

sorry, I mean "chroma key" not chrome. 

I'm not familiar with Chroma key, but the article I linked to indicated all the supported browsers for testing Flash and HTML5 content. 

I'm new to the concept "green screen"; would someone be able to share an example? I do a lot of software training and am interested on how I could incorporate this!

Can anyone recommend a specific green screen and lighting kit combination on Amazon.com? I need to get this ASAP. Question: is there any reason why one could not create the green screen video or image using other software (such as Camtasia Studio for video, or Photoshop for images) and then just import those into your Storyline file? That's what I would do, unless there's some reason why it wouldn't work. I'm just getting started with Storyline 360. I did notice that some short video clips I inserted into one of my lessons, do not always play (it seems to depend on what else is using up bandwidth). So I am not sure how reliable video will be from within Storyline, but it's worth a try.

Hi Rebecca, 

This discussion is a bit older, so I'm not certain folks are subscribed here. I'd also suggest reaching out in the Building Better Courses side of ELH and see if there is anyone who can help! That side tends to focus more on design and how to...and perhaps have more ideas surrounding this.

You could use videos created in Camtasia or Photoshop for use in Storyline, as long as they're one of the support file formats here.  

If you're using FLV videos with alpha channel transparency they are supported in Articulate Storyline's Flash and Articulate Mobile Player (AMP) output. (So not HTML5 - something to keep in mind.)

Thanks, Ashley! I went over there to the other site and asked. Appreciate your help!

Rebecca