This article is a copy of this user guide page and applies to Movavi Video Editor 11 for Windows or later, Movavi Video Suite 15 or later.
If you have an earlier version of the product, please refer to this howto.
The Chroma key effect allows you to remove a color from the image or video, leaving the background transparent.
Please note that Movavi Video Editor does not export the images with transparent background.
1) Add the foreground and background clips
Add the video or image clips that you want to use as the foreground and the background. For the foreground (the clip that you want to remove the background from), use a clip with a bright, solid background that contrasts with the foreground objects.
Chroma key effect works best with the blue, green or red background. The tool might not pick up gray, black or white shades.
2) Create an overlay
1. Select the foreground video and move it up, onto the Overlay track.
2. Double-click the foreground video on the Overlay track. The overlay options will appear above the player.
3. To make the foreground video completely cover the background video, select the Cover overlay mode from the list above the player.
4. Click Apply.
3) Open the Chroma Key tool
1. Select the foreground video on the Overlay track.
2. On the left sidebar, click the More button and select Chroma Key from the pop-up list. The Chroma Key options will appear.
Tip: If you use the program in the full screen mode, the Chroma Key button should be visible on the left toolbar.
4)Set up Chroma Key
1. Once you open the Chroma Key tool, move your mouse cursor over the player and click on the color that you want to remove. The color picked will be made transparent, and the underlying video will now be visible.
2. Use the Tolerance slider to set how many similar shades of the selected color should also be removed. Higher values will remove similar colors to the one you've selected.
It is noticed that the green or blue background and an object of the contrasting color works best.
The background must be solid and have no patterns, otherwise the background might be distorted.
3. Use the Noise slider to determine how sharp the object's edges should be.
4. Use the Edges slider to determine how thick the object's edges should be.
5. Use the Opacity slider to set the transparency of the background.
6. Finally, click Apply to accept the changes.
Cropping the videos
If the videos used for the foreground and background have different aspect ratios, you may end up with black bars along the edges after applying Chroma key. To fix this, crop the videos to the project's aspect ratio.