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When it comes to some of the more advanced green screen lighting effects, one of the most common is the full body effect and this is generally used to create a spokesperson for a website or have a character walk onto a big set in a major motion picture. The first step to achieving this task is known as cutting the corners of your screen. After that, we’re gonna build a base for our screen and following that, we’re gonna set the lighting. After that, we’re gonna check for any errors, and the last thing we’re gonna do is look over some generalized tips when it comes to having a full body in front of the green screen. I’m Tom Skowronski and this is the website video spokesperson effect.
The first step in this process is to make sure that you have a green screen or a cloth of some sort that you can get at any big box retailer that are generally very bendable. Now, it’s not gonna be as stiff as your standard green screen, but as long as it’s green and bendable, that’s step number one. Now, the next part of this process in terms of step number one is to make sure that you attach your green screen either to a wall if you have cloth and you use thumbtacks, or what we did is, with the help of some C stands, hung our green screen very, very high and this is gonna help us when it comes to actually curving the corner. Now, the last part to pulling off this step is to make sure that this corner, which lies at the bottom of our screen, has a curved nature to it. And what that’s gonna do is eliminate the shadows that are on the left side, as well as the side that’s further away from me, since we’re creating an even transition from the top of our screen down to the bottom.
Now, step number two of this process is, as you can see, is to build a base by weighing down your screen. And what we used are two sand bags here, but you could use any type of counterweight you see fit, whether it’s a dumbbell or a rock, anything you have access to, because anything you use is gonna add support to the bottom of the screen since you have the top either tacked up or you have it hanging on C stands, such as we do. Now, the reason we put our counterweights as far away from each other as possible is to stretch out the screen even more and to make sure that we’re keeping them out of the shot since we’re filming the entire body.
Now, step number three to this process is to set our lighting and how we did that is by, again, lighting the green screen independently from the subject, but what we generally did is made sure that we had a spare light in back to keep me even more separated from the green screen.
Now that we have our lighting set, the next step in this process is to make sure that we have even more light centered towards the feet or lower half of the subject and this is how we’re gonna actually pull off the effect of being able to walk onto the screen of a website by creating a full body lighting scenario. The next part of this process, as you can see, is to create about one to two feet of space in between the subject’s lower half and the actual light. What we did was shine the light down on his feet using a soft box. Now, remember, whatever we do to one side, we have to do to the other side. This is why we’re bringing in the other light, as you can see in this shot here, which his gonna create an even lighting on the feet, just like we would in the background.
Now, one of the last steps to this process is to check for errors. Your big emphasis here is on the curve of the screen and also your feet or the lower half of your body as you walk on top of the screen. We need to make sure that your lighting is correct for both the full body and for that curve in the background.
Now, the final step to this process is just some simple tips to make sure you’re avoiding a lot of the hot spots that might show up in this area, especially due to all the different types of lighting you’re using. The number one thing you can do to alleviate this is to use the zebra on your camera to your advantage. Now, these zebra lines are gonna help us to create an even more accurate exposure level and make sure that none of our shots end up overexposed, so that we don’t have anything washed out and that our background stays even.
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Well, if you pull off this effect correctly, you too can end up as a website video spokesperson in 3D space.
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