How to Remove a Green Screen in DaVinci Resolve
Remove a green screen in DaVinci Resolve with Fusion's Delta Keyer, refine the matte and spill, then composite a background or export transparency.
To remove a green screen in DaVinci Resolve, open your clip on the Fusion page, add a Delta Keyer, and sample the green with its eyedropper. Once the background is clear, check the edges and choose your next step: put another scene behind the subject, or save the subject with transparency for later editing.
Before you start
Have your green-screen clip ready. If you want to replace the background, also choose an image or video to place behind it. Start with a short section so you can check the result quickly.
This guide follows one method: Fusion's Delta Keyer. You do not need to switch to the Color page or use Studio-only AI masking.
Screenshots use DaVinci Resolve 21.0.4 on macOS.
1. Put your clip on the timeline and open Fusion
- Open the Edit page and import your clip into the Media Pool.
- Drag the clip onto the timeline. Move the playhead inside the clip so you can see a frame of your footage.
- Select that timeline clip, then click Fusion at the bottom of the window.
You should see two connected boxes, called nodes:
MediaIn1 → MediaOut1MediaIn1 is the source clip. MediaOut1 sends the Fusion result back to the timeline.
If the node area is empty or the tools are unavailable: return to Edit and check that the clip is on the timeline, selected, and beneath the playhead. Opening it only in the source viewer is not enough.
2. Add a Delta Keyer
Select the MediaIn1 node, press Shift-Space, search for Delta Keyer, and click Add. Resolve inserts the keyer between the selected source node and MediaOut1:
MediaIn1 → DeltaKeyer1 → MediaOut1Check the connection before continuing: the picture must pass through DeltaKeyer1 on its way to MediaOut1. If the new node is sitting by itself, undo the addition, select MediaIn1, and add it again.
3. Pick the green you want to remove
Select DeltaKeyer1. In the Inspector, open the Key controls and drag the Background Color eyedropper onto a representative green area in the viewer. Avoid the subject, a deep shadow, or the brightest hotspot for the first sample.
1: select DeltaKeyer1. 2: drag the Background Color eyedropper onto a representative green area.
What you should see: the subject remains, while much of the green turns into a checkerboard. The checkerboard represents transparency; it is not a new background added to the file. A few leftover patches are a reason to check the matte in the next step.
4. Check what stays and what becomes transparent
The alpha matte is a black-and-white view of transparency. It makes leftover background pixels and holes in the subject easier to spot:
- White should be the opaque subject.
- Black should be the transparent background.
- Gray means partial transparency, which is useful at soft hair and motion-blurred edges but usually unwanted in the middle of a shirt or in an empty part of the screen.
Click the result viewer to activate it, then press A to show its alpha channel. Keep MediaOut1 displayed so you are inspecting the processed result.
1: Low Threshold. 2: Clean Background. Use the table below to choose which control to adjust.
Open the Matte tab on DeltaKeyer1. Adjust only the control that matches the problem you can see:
| In the matte view | Try this | Stop or undo when |
|---|---|---|
| Gray patches remain in the empty background | Raise Low Threshold a little | Hair or another soft edge starts disappearing |
| The solid center of the subject looks gray | Lower High Threshold a little | The edge becomes thick or unwanted background returns |
| Small specks remain outside the subject | Increase Clean Background gently | Useful edge detail is removed |
| Tiny holes remain inside an otherwise solid subject | Try Clean Foreground gently | Soft, partially transparent detail becomes solid |
You do not need to adjust every slider. Leave Erode/Dilate alone initially; it changes the edge boundary and can cut away detail. Adjust by the matte preview rather than copying the screenshot values.
Before continuing, click the result viewer and press C to return to the normal RGB color display, then play the clip. Check a moving hand or another difficult edge, not just the frame used for setup.
5. Reduce a green rim, if one remains
Green spill is color reflected from the screen onto skin, hair, clothing, or a reflective object. It is different from a bad matte: the subject can be fully opaque and still have a green rim.
Skip this step if the edge already looks clean. If the subject is intact but still has a green tint, select DeltaKeyer1, press Shift-Space, and add a Color Corrector. Select the new node and choose Suppress from its Inspector menu. Reduce the green range gently, comparing the subject before and after the change.
MediaIn1 → DeltaKeyer1 → ColorCorrector1 → MediaOut1
1: choose Suppress mode. 2: reduce green gently.
To compare before and after, right-click ColorCorrector1 and toggle Modes → Pass Through. Turn Pass Through off again to restore the correction. Check that skin and clothing still look natural.
Do not keep shrinking the matte to hide a colored fringe. That can trade a green edge for a dark, unnaturally thin edge. Check the result over the actual destination background and during motion.
6. Place your replacement background underneath
If you only need a transparent cutout, skip to step 7 and leave your subject on its current track. To make a finished scene, return to the Edit page:
- Move the keyed clip to V2, keeping its start time unchanged.
- Import your replacement image or video into the Media Pool.
- Put the replacement on V1, directly beneath the keyed clip. Align their starts and make sure the background covers the section you want to export.
What you should see: the subject on V2 appears over the scene on V1. If the background disappears partway through, check whether the V1 clip ends too early. If it covers the subject entirely, check the track order.
If the framing or scale does not match, select the relevant clip and adjust its Transform controls in the Edit-page Inspector. Check the edges over the new background—a fringe hidden against black may show up against a brighter scene. Once the edges look clean, adjust the subject's brightness and color to match the background.
7. Export the result you need
Choose a finished video if the new background should stay in the picture. Choose a transparent video if another editor will add the background later.
Export a normal video with the new background
Keep the V1 background enabled beneath the keyed V2 clip. Open Deliver, select Single Clip, and set the range to Entire Timeline unless you intentionally want a shorter section.
For a normal sharing file, choose MP4 / H.264, set a filename and output folder, then add the job to the render queue and start rendering. Play the saved file to check that the new background stays visible through the end. This file has the background baked in.
Export the subject with transparency
Only disable a replacement background you actually added. If you skipped step 6, keep your subject's track enabled, even if it is V1.
If you followed step 6, use the video-enable button in the V1 track header, to the left of the timeline clips, to turn off the replacement background. Keep the subject on V2 enabled. Check the viewer: the subject must still be visible. If it disappears, re-enable that track—you turned off the subject instead of the background.
Then open the Deliver page:
- Choose Single Clip rendering.
- Set the range to Entire Timeline, or confirm that your In and Out marks cover exactly the section you want.
- Select a format and codec that can store alpha. On macOS, QuickTime → Apple ProRes 4444 is a common editing handoff.
- Enable Export Alpha. The option appears only when the selected codec supports alpha.
- Set a filename and output folder, add the job to the render queue, and render a short test.
- Import that file back into Resolve and place it above a different background. The new background should show through the removed area. A black rectangle means the transparency still needs checking.
Change the settings shown before exporting: 1: keep Single Clip. 2: switch H.264 to an alpha-capable codec. 3: select Entire Timeline.
Blackmagic's Resolve 20 supported-codec list identifies which formats support alpha on each operating system. A .mov extension alone does not guarantee transparency; the codec and Export Alpha setting matter.
Alpha-export instructions follow Blackmagic's documentation; the exported result was not tested in this walkthrough.
Troubleshooting common green-screen problems
| What you see | Likely cause | What to check first |
|---|---|---|
| Green patches remain in the background | The screen contains shadows, wrinkles, or colors far from the sampled green | Inspect the matte, try a more representative sample, then adjust Low Threshold conservatively |
| Holes appear in clothing or props | The subject contains a color close to the screen, or the matte was pushed too far | Reduce threshold and cleanup changes; use a holdout mask for a protected area |
| Hair looks clipped or crunchy | Threshold, Clean Foreground, or erosion is too aggressive | Restore the soft gray edge and judge it over the real background while the clip moves |
| A green outline remains around an opaque subject | Screen light spilled onto the subject | Use spill suppression or a Color Corrector; do not solve color only by shrinking the matte |
| The edge becomes dark after spill cleanup | The color correction may be too strong | Temporarily bypass the Color Corrector; if the rim recovers, reduce the correction |
| The replacement background stays invisible | The track order is wrong, V1 is disabled, or the clips do not overlap | Put the keyed clip on V2 above an enabled V1 background and check both clips under the playhead |
| Export Alpha is missing | The selected codec cannot store alpha | Choose an alpha-capable codec such as ProRes 4444 on macOS |
| The exported file looks black in a player | The player displays transparent pixels against black | Re-import above another clip before assuming alpha was lost |
If the shot includes lights or stands outside the green screen, an additional mask can exclude those areas; this is often called a garbage matte. A holdout matte protects an area that must stay visible, such as a green prop. These are more advanced fixes—do not keep widening the key's color range if that starts deleting the subject.
Does this work in DaVinci Resolve 20?
Yes. Blackmagic's Resolve 20 Visual Effects Guide documents the same Delta Keyer method. The screenshots here show 21.0.4, so panel positions may differ. In Resolve 20, use Shift-Space to find Delta Keyer by name, then follow the same source → keyer → output connection.
When the footage was not shot on green
Delta Keyer is designed around a separable screen color. It is less useful when the background is a normal room, landscape, crowd, or other multicolor scene.
If your footage was not shot against a green screen, try VideoBGRemover to remove the background with AI. Check the edges before using the result in your edit.
If you need an editing asset instead of a finished background, see how to create a transparent video. If you are still planning the shoot, compare blue screen vs green screen before choosing the backdrop.
Start with a short clip and finish one test export. Once that file looks right in the place you will use it, repeat the process on the longer footage.
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