Indepth Advanced Keying Process for Keylight in After Effects 2024 (Beginner Friendly)

The key to keying is using multiple keys. Chroma or green screen keying in After Effects 2024 is actually a rather easy and straight forward process and if the footage is somewhat decent, meaning it's evenly lit but MOST importantly was shot with a high shutter speed, getting a clean mask to composite your keyed footage into a new background or CGI environment in Blender is just a matter of following a few simple steps.

Start by masking out the unnecessary elements with a garbage mask to remove C-stands and whatnot. Then split the keying into several keys, minimum two, but preferably three or more keys using the Keylight effect. Then trim the mask using a simple choker and clean it using the Key Cleaner effect. This will result in a actually somewhat good key. You can then improve the mask even more by using the amazing Refine Soft Matte or Refine Hard Matte effects which removes the dark edges around the actor. Then remove the green spill using the Advanced Spill Suppressor.

This method works with both well lit footage and more tricky and complex keys and hair. And using the new and improved multi-frame rendering in After Effects 2024, playback and rendering works a lot better. Hope this help! 😊

See how I combined the footage with CG elements in Blender 3.0:

Timestamps:
💡 00:00 Intro to video
💡 00:15 tiedtke.
💡 00:21 Overview
💡 00:55 Garbage Matte
💡 01:31 Remove Green Tint
💡 03:27 Keylight - Light Green / Highlights
💡 05:19 Keylight - Dark Green / Shadows
💡 06:39 Simple Choker / Key Cleaner
💡 08:38 Refine Hard Matte
💡 10:00 Advanced Spill Suppressor
💡 11:00 Adding CG Shadows
💡 12:30 Extra Tips
💡 13:17 Rendering
💡 13:50 Outro

Thanks for watching, if you like the video feel free to like and subscribe for more tutorials on #aftereffects #editing and #3d

Follow my journey to become a Layout, Modeler and Lighting 3D artist working in the industry.

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗺𝗲! 🖐️

𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼 𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗿? 😍 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸.

💻 𝗦𝗼𝗳𝘁𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗲:
🔸 Adobe Premiere Pro
🔸 Autodesk Maya 2022
🔸 Blender 3.0
🔸 Adobe After Effects
🔸 Adobe Photoshop
🔸 Foundry Nuke
🔸 DaVinci Resolve

🎥 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘀:
🔸 Sony Alpha A7S III
🔸 Insta360 One R

📷 𝗟𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲𝘀:
🔸 XEEN 16mm T2,6 Cinema Prime
🔸 Sigma 24-70mm 2.8 ART
🔸 Takumar 135mm F3,5 M42 mount
🔸 Helios 44-2 58mm F2 w/ M42 to EF adapter

💡 𝗟𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀:
🔸 Aputure LS 300D
🔸 Aputure LS 120D II

💻 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴:
🔸 AMD Ryzen Threadripper 5800X
🔸 NVidia Geforce GTX 3090
🔸 NVidia Geforce GTX 1080 TI
🔸 Logitech MX Master
🔸 Microsoft Designer Keyboard

💾 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲:
🔸 LaCie 4TB Rugged Portable HDD
🔸 Sandisk 128GB 170mb/s SD card
🔸 Prograde 128GB V90 300mb/s SD card

I've worked 8+ years as a Director of Photography in Sweden, working on projects ranging from feature films to commercials and music videos. Currently studying at Visual Magic in Skellefteå, Sweden. Years active in the 3D industry is about 1 year. Focusing on 3D modeling, layout and lighting which is my passion.

[tiedtkeio]

Hope this is helpful for someone! Please let me know if you want a tutorial on something else regarding After Effects, Blender, Maya, DaVinci or Premiere. 😊🙏

[HansvanPutten]

Thank you!! Multiple keys makes so much sense, it should solve my problem of bit of green in the jacket I'm trying to mask. I'm confident it will....

[kazid]

Dude this up until now must be the best tutorial for green screen I have come across. U da 👨. Keep the Tuts coming and thnx for this. Best regards.

[ornelavaldez]

BEST VIDEO ON THE INTERNET EVER, my chroma keys have never been so good and sooo easy, thanks a lot

[robertcrozier]

That was excellent, one of the best tutorials I've seen on keying with lots of great info that I hadn't heard before.

[aaronglass]

Excellent tutorial man, keeping it simple without all the fluff. When learning, we don't want to know every hot key, every formula, etc., we just want to see how someone DOES what we're looking to do. This is spot on.

[patricialina]

I want to be a calm editor like you haahahah, What peace this tutorial brought me !It doesn't even look like you work with audiovisual to be so peaceful hahaha
I loved this tutorial!

[AFuller]

That was the best tutorial on keying I have ever scene, thank you!

[OffWorldFilms_UK]

The best tutorial for keying in After Effects, very well thought-out and implemented, well done.

[vince]

The best and most relaxing keying tutorial I have found on YT. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You saved my a**!

[azoique]

Inspirerande och lättöverskådligt. Kudos.

[boogerjones]

I really enjoyed the calming vibe of your tutorials

[General]

The best explanation in youtube academy! thank you!

[NLENinjaEffects]

I've never thought of using multiple adjustment layers to key out green screen clips. Definitely gonna try this out

[FlowingCamera]

Thank-you so much ! I echo what Robert Crozier said, one of the best tutorials I've seen. I happen to work at a studio that records TV and radio. I take care of studio 4 which is greenscreen, a big space with curved cyc wall. Even though it's more optimal for recording, there's some keys that are a real pain to key. One I was working on this morning actually ... arrrg, the hair ! Am going to re-visit that problem child using what you showed us and let you know how it worked. Again thanks !!!

[moonsdonut]

WOW you made this so easy and relaxing looking at this video is a joy to watch

[petersolomon]

tiedtke, a very useful tutorial, thank you. And how refreshing to view a YouTube tutorial that is devoid of tub thumping, "look at me" antics of young channel operators in search of a "brand".

[TheResse]

You sir, are a god sent. Thank you very much for your help. This video was very informative.

[RTnoone]

Please make a tutorial on how to do compositing by nodes and rendering in the same video😅

[Robertmillsjr]

Best after effects keying tutorial I've seen. :) Nice work. I'm using Runway ML on a chroma key shot and it couldn't key it to my standards.