History Main / ChromaKey

* The video for Snow Patrol's song Called Out In The Dark has this exploited. A disgruntled band member wears a green shirt at one point, and, to mess up the [[ShowWithinaShow video clip being filmed]], replaces an actress who is to jump in front of the camera. {{Hilarity ensues}}, until the producer sees. Then, {{reality ensues}}.

* News folk use this technique when presenting the weather, often using a special pointing device which the computer can track to appear to interact with the weatherboard by drawing lines and arrows. One particular segment has a host who enjoys taking further advantage of the technique: he wears a blue suit skeleton costume on Halloween. The potential problems associated with this technique can be averted (as with Creator/TheBBC since its news department moved to Broadcasting House) by using rear-projection on a plasma screen instead of ChromaKey.

* The original ''Series/{{TheTomorrowPeople}}'' used chroma key for a lot of special effects. There were - a lot of failures.

* The original ''Series/{{TomorrowPeople}}'' used chroma key for a lot of special effects. There were - a lot of failures.

* In one episode of ''Series/ChewinTheFat'' Ronald Villiers, "the second-worst actor in the world", auditions to play an army officer in an insurance commercial (a parody of the real-life "Admiral" commercials.) He thinks he's in a serious war movie, and assumes that the green-screen is there because his footage is going to be used in a gory battle scene.

* ''The Amazing Bulk'' is filmed entirely in Chroma Key.

* Queen Elizabeth II once wore a greenscreen-green dress with a matchinb brooch. [[https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1818337-queen-elizabeth-ii The Internet did what the Internet does.]]

* The 1933 version of H.G. Wells's ''Film/TheInvisibleMan'' used the black velvet effect in close-ups where Griffin removed his bandages.

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daler_Mehndi Daler Mehndi]]'s SurrealMusicVideo for "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTIIMJ9tUc8 Tunak Tunak Tun]]" makes copious use of this trope along with ConspicuousCG.

More commonly known as ''green screen'' or ''blue screen'' (though that one also [[UsefulNotes/BlueScreenOfDeath has a different meaning]]), the process by which a subject filmed on a camera can be seamlessly inserted into a scene generated by other means. It relies on filming the subject in front of a solid-color background -- any color will do, so long as it's not used in the foreground -- and adjusting the editing system to replace that color with the background signal.

The main methods of controlling the background for live-action shots are, in increasing order of technological sophistication:
* Finding one that already exists, and film on location.
* Build a set.
* Film the background separately, and project it onto a screen behind the actors while filming, typically via [[DrivingADesk rear projection]].
* Double-exposing the film, which results in a slightly transparent foreground but is cheap.
* The old analog MatteShot, done with precise blocking of the camera frame.
* Chroma Key.

The background inserted via Chroma Key can be any visual image. CGI is the most common today, but it can be other live action footage, models, stop motion or cel animation just as easily.

Almost all productions use Chroma Key at some point, but there are some standout examples. Also notable for causing occasional [[{{Narm}} unintentional hilarity]] - when background and foreground are poorly matched, or the SFX budget is low, [[SpecialEffectFailure the effect is anything but seamless]].

More commonly known as ''green screen'' or ''blue screen'' (though that one also [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Screen_of_Death has a different meaning]]), the process by which a subject filmed on a camera can be seamlessly inserted into a scene generated by other means. It relies on filming the subject in front of a solid-color background -- any color will do, so long as it's not used in the foreground -- and adjusting the editing system to replace that color with the background signal.

* Becomes a SpecialEffectFailure in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5aZJBLAu1E It's Raining Men]]" by The Weather Girls. They used a blue screen for the effects even though Izora Armstead's dress had large blue sections that would disappear into the background. Hard to tell if that was intentional or not.

* Notably averted in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHGyipqYFr8 Stop to Love]]" by Music/LutherVandross. Logic may suggest that he and his backup singers are in front of a blue screen, but they are ''actually performing on a flatbed truck driving through the streets of Los Angeles''. You occasionally see their police escort in the background.

* Becomes a SpecialEffectFailure in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5aZJBLAu1E It's Raining Men]]" by The Weather Girls. They used a ''blue'' screen for the effects, even though Izora Armstead's dress had large blue sections that would disappear into the background.

* Becomes a SpecialEffectFailure in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5aZJBLAu1E It's Raining Men]]" by The Weather Girls. They used a blue screen for the backgrounds, and Izora Armstead's dress had large blue sections that would disappear into the background. To be fair, it was 1983 and you could tell the technology was still being perfected.

* Notably averted in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHGyipqYFr8 Stop to Love]]" by Music/LutherVandross. Logic may suggest that he and his backup singers are in front of a cheap blue screen, but they are ''actually performing on a flatbed truck driving through the streets of Los Angeles''.

* The final episode of ''Series/HowdyDoody'' (aired September 24, 1960) featured a scene where Buffalo Bill would stand in front of the empty "Peanut Gallery" and ask Sandra the Witch to make the kids appear in the gallery. This was a relatively early example of chroma key on television; there is a lot of blue noise on screen during that scene.

* Before transparent [=PNGs=] became standard, Windows programs used bitmap instead because of their smaller file size. However, bitmap images had no transparency layers. To get around this, a technique called "magic pink" was used. This works similarly to Chroma key, but is less prone to mistakes. Images that were to be transparent had their backgrounds filled with one solid color (usually #ff00ff, hence the name), and the software would remove that exact color. Modern Windows has transparency built in as part of the architecture, so magic pink is rarely ever used anymore. This is why trying a lot of older programs using magic pink do not display correctly, as it conflicts with the system's own transparency rules (though disabling visual themes all together usually fixes this).

-->'''Eric Idle''': That's clever, how did they do that?
-->'''Creator/JohnCleese''': Colour Separation, you cottonhead.

* The exit of ''Ride/SpaceMountain'' at [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Magic Kingdom]] has a green screen wall on one side, and when in front of the green screens, guests can see themselves on TV monitors looking as if they're in space.

* E!'s ''Series/TheSoup'' (and its predecessor ''Talk Soup'') is videotaped entirely in front of a green screen. This led to a particularly memorable incident when a guest wore a pair of Italian flag briefs, which made it appear as if a portion of his pelvis was missing.

* Both ''Ride/EarthquakeTheBigOne'' and ''Ride/{{Disaster}}'' at [[Ride/UniversalStudios Universal Studios Florida]] have entire segments dedicated to showing how blue screen effects are utilized in movies, with guest participants being used for the demonstration.