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A. Green Screen

A green screen is a method of removing the background of an image and replacing it with a digital background. It allows for a natural integration of the digital background and physical foreground.  

Brief History

The green screen was first used in 1898 for the film ‘Four heads are better than one’ by George Melies. The film used the technique of multiple exposures, with small strips not being exposed to the light. This would be done by painting over a piece of glass over the lens. Then, the glass is removed and reversed to only allow light to the previously blacked out area, creating the small area as the main focus point. The original strip is then run back through the camera creating the illusion the man has several heads.

Chromakey has advanced since its first introduction. The first film to win an oscar with the use of a bluescreen was ‘The Thief Of Bagdad’ in 1940. The man seemed to be on the carpet flying through the air due to the combination of a travelling matte technique alongside the bluescreen.

In the modern day the possibilities for greenscreening are endless, making whole sequences in studios of green screen.

The greenscreen in the modern day is used in most films, with there being backgrounds to insert or an object in the foreground which isn’t there on filming location. In this example from the Avengers the green screen is used to insert the explosion into the shot, something which would be impossible to create in real time because of the cost of destruction and harm to all people on set.

B. Mattes and Matte painting

Matte painting is now digitally produced using photoshop, it allows for an image to be adapted into an environment when the setting wanted is not present on location. It allows for unwanted parts of the setting to be cut out and replaced with the new image.

The easiest digital matte painting to produce is called a lock off shot, it is when the camera stays still for a prolonged period of time and you are able to produce your setting in photoshop and insert it into the shot.

Before photoshop, matte painting was not digital and had to be produced by physically painting the image wanted. The process was a lot longer and harder (for most) than the now digital way of producing a matte painting.

In 1907 for the film ‘Missions of California, Norman Dawn would use matte paintings to make destroyed buildings look whole again, by painting missing parts of buildings and also disguising telephone poles as trees.

Due to technological advancements and the matte painting process becoming more detailed and easier, more films are beginning to use the matte painting technique.

C. Rotoscoping

Rotoscoping is where an animation is drawn on top of live action to add backgrounds, characters and props which aren’t in the live action scene.

In 1915, Fleischer studios first used rotoscoping in a short film called ‘Out of the Inkwell’, using rotoscoping to create ink patterns on paper, which are drawings on top of the film.

Disney used rotoscoping in the film Snow White, and it was one of the first time that an actor was used to be drawn around for the rotoscoping.

The art of rotoscoping then became important for visual effects and animation as a whole, with ‘The Birds’ by Alfred Hitchcock using rotoscoping to create explosions in the scene.

Rotoscoping in the modern day is produced digitally using software on computers such as silhouette.

The film, ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ used traditional rotoscoping techniques in order to bring Rocket Racoon to life by using footage of a real racoon called Oreo