Capturing Footage

• After you've shot your actor against an evenly-lit, solid colored background (usually blue or green) for the source video footage, open the Pinnacle Studio program on your computer. There are three work areas: "Capture," "Edit" and "Make Movie." Select "Capture" to load your source footage from the camera connected to the computer for editing.
  
  

Edit Workspace

• Enter the "Edit" area by clicking that tab. Familiarize yourself with the timeline at the bottom, broken into tracks. The first track is for the main source video footage and the third is for titles and video overlays, including chroma key clips. Select and retrieve your source footage by clicking on the folder icon. Drag the chosen footage into the video footage timeline.
  
  

Chroma Key Image

• Select the chroma key image (that is taking the space of your solid colored background) from your previously captured still images or footage. You can also use stock footage backdrop from the stock footage folder. Drag this image to the third timeline track. You might have to adjust the chroma key image to match up with your video footage space in the first timeline. You can resize manually by dragging the handles bordering your image until it is the desired size. You could also select the "Picture-in-Picture" tab and then the "Add New Effect" button. Then set your size parameters by entering in different height, width, horizontal and vertical values.
  
  

Enabling Chroma Keying

• Go to the Toolbox menu and select "Add Video Overlay Effects." Select the "Chroma" key tab again. On that menu there is a box at the bottom you should select to "Enable Chroma Keying." Select the eye-dropper icon that is just above the colorful percentage circle. Move the cursor to the right video screen and click on it with the eye-dropper, which will conjure up your selected image and replace the solid color with the new background.
  
  

Fine-tuning

• Examine the settings to the right. Tolerance controls how much of the background color will be allowed to shine through. If you find that your final image is less than perfect, decrease the tolerance. Other settings that can further fine-tune your chroma key job are Minimum saturation, Softness and Spill suppression. Mastering these settings requires practice and experimentation. Press "Play" on the top right monitor screen to review the footage. You should now see your actors transported to a new location through the help of Pinnacle Studio chroma key.