how to do live green screen backdrop effects like at the fair

May 23, 2008 2:31 PM

How do you create a green screen / backdrop effect like at the fair or Disneyland?

You know the booths, where you step into a scene, they position your head and body so that you line up with an athlete's torso, swimming with sharks, walking on the moon, etc. What kind of camera, computer, and software is needed to re-create this effect. It looks to me like the viewfinder is being output to a computer monitor that is simultaneously displaying a foreground area and background area and your picture is being sandwiched in between. The foreground stuff is cool but unnecessary, I would just like the live picture with the ability to swap in and out multiple backdrops. They are doing this at JC Penny now!

posted by samuel1613 to Technology (5 answers total)

On a mac - Photobooth on OSX (leopard) can do this - even without a green screen, using the built-in isight . When you start it up - it tells you to step out of the frame, so it can see the static background in order to remove it.
posted by nightwood at 2:42 PM on May 23, 2008

You can just get a green screen and use photoshop or the gimp to make the green part transparent. Then you can paste the person into a picture.. Sorry for my lack of detail, but this is basically how they do it. Except more automated.
posted by majikstreet at 2:43 PM on May 23, 2008

FX Home is really good consumer greenscreen option. As far as toys or whatever is concerned, Rip Roar Creation Station does a not-bad job but the software is awful. There is also a little program out there called Wax that does a good job but it's all post production (as I recall). Wax is free and would be great to mess around w/ if you dont have a mac or photoshop.
posted by Medieval Maven at 2:45 PM on May 23, 2008

Make had a few recommendations.
posted by djb at 4:25 PM on May 23, 2008

You want to do it professionally? Express Digital.
posted by Lukenlogs at 11:25 PM on June 10, 2008