Green Screen Adventures

TASK

If you could be anywhere......

Where is your place of happiness?

Your challenge is to create an image of you in your place of happiness. This can be a real place or fictional. It could be a physical space or an emotional space.

How realistic and professional can you make it?

Green Screen Adventures

STEP 1 - Work out what your place of happiness is......

Step 2 - Select your images

Find your background image on Google or any creative commons websites like https://pixabay.com/.

In Google search you should be using the Tools feature to select the creative commons usage rights. You can also select a size.

Make sure you save the image you find in your H drive / Google Drive (rather than only copying).

Once you have your image you will know what sort of pose you want to do.

Step 3 - Photograph yourself

You need to photograph yourself in a position that suits the environment you are going to be placed in.

Use the green screen to capture this either using your phone or a camera.

Think about whether you are going to stand on the green screen or whether you need to use a table / chairs etc underneath the green screen.

You might like to take multiple photos so you have options.

Transfer your photos so you can access them on your computer.

Step 4 - Remove your background

Open your image in Gimp (file > open)
Get in the habit of 'Save As' straightaway so you keep the original in case you lose your work, make a huge mistake or want to use the original at a different stage. yourname_transparent would be a helpful file name.
You may wish to crop your image first so you just have what you need:

Select the crop button. To crop the whole canvas make sure 'Current Layer Only' is deselected (have this selected if you are only cropping a specific layer).
Click and drag what you are going to keep. You can adjust by dragging corners or sides. Then Enter.
CTRL + SHIFT + J will zoom the image to fill the window

Follow the video on how you remove the background (should be easy with the green screen)
Once completed make sure under layer the Mode is Normal
SAVING
- Make sure you save this version first - a gimp file is .xcf this keeps all your layers and effects so you can change later.
- Now File > Export
- Down the bottom click '+ Select File Type'
- Find PNG Image and click
- You will then see your file name has the .png extension
- Export

Helpful tips for #4

Deselect is CTRL + SHIFT + A
You may need to toggle the selection Threshold.
If it does not remove all the green once you have deselected you can zoom in (Z) and use the eraser to remove extra bits - change brush by clicking on it and select the hardness one. Change the size depending on the space.

Step 5 - Set up your new file

So you know what size your final image is we are going to create a new file.

In Gimp - File > New
In Template select A4
Under Height you will see a small portrait / landscape button - select the one that suits.
Click the '+ Advanced Options'
Change 'Fill With' to 'Transparency'
OK
You will now see your blank canvas
At this point make sure you save i.e. yourname_happyplace

Step 6 - Add Your New background

File > Open as Layer
If you get a Convert Profile you want to select Convert.
SHIFT + S to scale the image (keep aspect should be selected automatically to scale image proportionally)

If the image doesn't fill your canvas that is ok because you have a transparent background and that part won't show if you save as a png. It will be white if you save as a jpg.

Enter to make changes

* if your image looks pixelated the original size is most likely too small compared to the A4.

Step 7 - Add You

File > Open as Layer
If you get a Convert Profile, select Convert.
SHIFT + S to scale the image (keep aspect should be selected automatically to scale image proportionally)

Your aim is to make it look like you should be in this picture

Enter to make changes

* adjust the scale of both images if need be to get the right look

Step 8 - Additional Effects

This could be more layers that include other props
Duplicating the background and only using part to layer on top
Using Filters on your layer
- Filters > Enhance > Sharpen was a good one, click preview on/off to see what effect it will have (you might need to zoom in to see)

Step 9 - Finished product

Once you are happy you need to save the files in the appropriate format.

Firstly save the gimp file (should have been doing this along the way)

Then you need to Export and this time use JPG unless you need a transparent part and then you use PNG (See step 4 if need be)

EXTRA - Have some more fun

Get creative...... What else can you do with your image?

You can see how you can edit and manipulate the original photo in a variety of ways without have to re do everything.

By keeping your original image and having the edited photo with the transparent background as separate files you can re use as many times as you like.

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