A roundup of tutorials on how to green screen without green screen.

Techniques that have traditionally been time-consuming, painstaking, hand-done work are now becoming increasingly fast and easy to do, thanks to new tools which utilise machine learning and AI – some of them even for free.

After Effects

Olufemii compares the performance of Rotobrush 3 to its previous versions. The videos which follow feature Rotobrush 2, but the principles are the same:

Premiere Gal gives introduces rotoscoping, ways the technique is used today, and how to use the Rotobrush 2 tool in Adobe After Effects:

Among the rotoscoping applications Premiere Gal mentions are background replacement, background text, selective colour adjustment, and crowd replication:

Cinecom‘s quick test outside of their studio, shooting in ordinary daylight conditions, show how little technical setup is needed for Rotobrush 2’s powerful machine learning to generate dynamic results:

School Of Motion explores further refinement techniques, comparing the use of garbage masking (modern-day rotoscoping) versus Rotobrush 2, as the best results often require a combination of techniques:

Runway ML

Boone Loves Video tests AI-driven rotoscoping with browser-based app Runway ML, and then shows that the results can be used in After Effects or Premiere Pro:

Further viewing

To put into context just how powerful the current machine learning tools are, here’s a look back at how painstaking and laborious rotoscoping – tracing frame by frame – has long been (via Vox):