If you have been trying to get a good setup for enabling virtual background for Google Meet, read on.Designing advanced visual effects and green screen software for the next generation of creators. Create videos with exciting video effects, titles, audio tracks.If you haven’t notice yet, this is my third post on my WFH (work from home) hacks, specifically on the best web conferencing setup I can get. This technique is also referred to as color keying, color-separation overlay, green screen, and blue screen.OpenShot is an award-winning free and open-source video editor for Linux, Mac, and Windows. Chroma key is a technique for mixing two images or frames together, in which a color from one image is removed (or made transparent), revealing another image behind it. Green Screen Studio is a chroma key application that allows the user to change a monochromatic background into any image they wish.If youve ever used video calling software.A quick background: Google Meet is the corporate standard at my workplace and we have recently been advised not to use Snap Camera for all those fancy virtual background effects. If youve ever owned a MacBook, this is a familiar feature: the green dot appears when your camera is active. Together with our users, our goal is to change the creative. Millions of people worldwide already use our video editing software on Mac and PC to produce incredible visual effects and stunning imagery.However, the result is really good. To make this work, you do need to buy a green screen to make this work as it is not an fully software option.This will be a pretty long article with lots of photos and screenshots. After some Google-fu, I came across a working virtual camera plugin for OBS that works on MacOS!Therefore, I now think I have the best setup for MacOS users to present yourself over a virtual background on Google Meet.□ But a clear white or solid colour wall may work too, depending on your attire.There are two main parts to the green screen setup. Technically, you don’t really need it to be green, though that is usually the best colour unless you like to dress in green. Chroma (colour hue) because the technique involves keying in on a range of colours that it would composite over with another image or video.This is the reason why you will need to a green screen setup. Get a green screen for your virtual background on Google MeetIf you don’t already know, chroma key compositing the technique of removing backgrounds of a subject in the video.
Green Screen Program Software For TheI didn’t really see a point spending too much on this whole setup. I personally went with an entry level, low cost setup as this really is just for web conferences. Which is usually some type of fabric. Back view of green screen standEven a entry level setup like the one I have will suffice The green screen backdropAs for the green screen backdrop, I went with a cheap non-woven fabric version. However, it is still steady enough when used indoors. This version stands on a single pole and will wobble a little. Just go for one that fits best in your room or home. Remember to use very low temperatures (settings for silk at most!) as non-woven materials would melt under high temperature settings meant for fabrics made of cotton.There are better and more complete green screen setups you can find on Amazon. Creases on the green screenI tried using an iron to remove the creases but as you can see, it’s not easy to get it flat. This is because the fabric was folded when delivered. Using a green non-woven fabric as the green screenCreases appears on the green screen backdrop when I hang it off the cross bar stand. Installing OBSNext, you will need the OBS virtual camera plugin for MacOS. Installing it is as simple as opening the dmg file and dragging the app into the Applications folder. Install OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) and its virtual camera pluginHead over to and download OBS Studio for MacOS. Kutools for excel for macRecommended OBS settings for video conferencing useYou would usually use OBS to broadcast live streams to popular video sharing platforms like YouTube or Twitch. OBS default main screen 3. You will see the following default view on your desktop. But hidden in the advanced settings is the option to use the Apple VT H264 hardware encoder. Using the Apple hardware encoderBy default, OBS uses a software x264 encoder. So you will want to save up as much video processing load on OBS as it composites the virtual background for use on Google Meet. This is especially important because Google Meet utilises a whole lot of CPU processing power. Using the Apple VT H264 Hardware Encoder on OBS Disable audio on OBS (optional)I use a Jabra Speak 510 as my mic input. This will take off the load of processing the video output from the CPU. Switching to the OBS output advanced settingsThere, select the Apple VT H264 Hardware Encoder as the Encoder’s option. Lower the video resolution and fpsNext, you will also want to reduce the video resolutions and the frame rates (fps). I’ve posted another article how you can get the OBS audio output on Zoom or Google Meet. Disabling audio on OBSUpdate: I’ve recently considered using OBS to also process the audio to solve the audio/video sync issue. To disable it, go to OBS settings and disable all the audio devices in the audio settings. Therefore, we will not be using OBS to process the audio. ![]() You can also use webcams like the Logitech C920s or the built-in FaceTime HD Camera if that is what you are using as your webcam. Adding a video device layer on OBS Adding a new video source on OBSThe screen shots below shows how I added my iPhone as the video source. Create a new source and give it a name. On the Sources panel, click on the + button and add a new Video Capture Device. Add the webcam on OBSThe first thing to do is to add your webcam as video input source on OBS. Creating the OBS virtual background scene for Google Meet. But I realised now didn’t mention it at all here. I wrote about this my a previous article using Camtwist instead of OBS. I recommend selecting the same resolution as the base canvas resolution to reduce any additional video processing.I’ve had a few readers asked me how I got a nice clean feed from the iPhone. Best of all is the developer has made it a free download to everyone! I will be testing and using Overviewer moving forward and see how it works better than Clean Camera Feed. While its been designed specifically to function as an overhead projector, it functions just like any other clean camera feed apps. But I’ve just come across this app called Overviewer that also provides a clean camera feed. The specific app I’m using is called Clean Camera Feed.Update: I used to use an app called Clean Camera Feed. These apps will provide a clean camera feed on your iPhone without any distractions and will also keep the iPhone it from auto-locking. At this point in time, you can also adjust your green screen backdrop and your camera’s position so that it covers the whole background of the video feed. MacOS would also prompt you to grant OBS access to the cameras if its not already done. □ Setting up the green screen for use with OBSThe video should show up now on OBS. So if you want to go zero cost, try out Overviewer first. This allows me to move things around off the canvas when you need to. What you now need to do is to resize the image to fit the screen.I’ve also found it useful to resize the preview to show the actual canvas size rather than to scale along with the OBS window. Adding an image file on OBS Resize the virtual background to the canvas sizeWhen you add the image, you will likely notice that the image is larger that the video’s resolution. Add an image layer to the scene on OBS Add a new image on OBSThen, select the image you intend to use and add it to the scene. Dragging the layers to rearrange them on OBSWhen your webcam video source is back on top, right click on it at the Sources panel and click on Filters. To do that, click on the up/down arrow buttons or simply drag and drop the sources around. Adding the Chroma Key effect to the webcam videoFirst, we will need to re-arrange the Sources layers so that the webcam video source is on top. Transform the image layer to fit to screen on OBS Fitting the image to the canvas size on OBS 5.
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