# Remove a green screen in DaVinci Resolve Free

Use Delta Keyer in DaVinci Resolve Free, clean the matte, remove studio gear with an animated mask, and inspect green spill on real footage.

Author: Anvisha Pai

Canonical: https://voyageragent.ai/blog/davinci-resolve-free-green-screen

Published: 2026-09-18
Updated: 2026-09-18

[Watch: Remove a green screen in DaVinci Resolve Free](https://cdn.moda.app/voyager/blog/davinci-resolve-free-green-screen/comparison-fb765b124f.mp4)

![Video poster](https://cdn.moda.app/voyager/blog/davinci-resolve-free-green-screen/comparison-poster-fb916be152.webp)

To remove a green screen in **DaVinci Resolve Free**, add a **Delta Keyer** in Fusion and sample the screen color. That creates transparency where the green was. Getting a usable cutout usually also means cleaning the matte, removing objects outside the subject, and checking reflected green on clothing or skin.

The comparison above shows those jobs on a real production plate, rendered in **Resolve Free 21.1 on macOS**:

* **Original:** the actor, uneven green backing, lights, stands, and floor.
* **Initial key:** the green disappears, but non-green equipment remains.
* **Refined:** threshold adjustments and an animated mask isolate the actor.
* **Final alpha:** white shows what stays; black shows what becomes transparent.

The actor points and shifts slightly during this three-second excerpt. That movement matters: our first static mask looked acceptable on one frame but clipped the shoes later. The finished example uses an animated shape.

[Download the source clip, native renders, and editable Resolve project](https://cdn.moda.app/voyager/blog/davinci-resolve-free-green-screen/green-screen-files-6c26438cdb.zip) to inspect the same result. This tutorial uses footage shot against green. For ordinary footage without a screen, see [background removal in Resolve Free with AI](/blog/davinci-resolve-free-remove-background).

## 1. Add Delta Keyer to the foreground clip

Import the green-screen clip and put it on an Edit-page timeline. Select it, place the playhead inside it, and open **Fusion**.

A simple clip begins with two connected nodes:

* **MediaIn1** supplies the footage.
* **MediaOut1** sends the result back to the timeline.

Select **MediaIn1**, press **Shift+Space**, search for **Delta Keyer**, and click **Add**. It should appear between the source and output. A node is a processing step; here, the picture passes through the keyer before reaching the timeline.

With DeltaKeyer selected, drag the **Background Color eyedropper** from its Inspector onto a representative area of green in the viewer. Avoid a tracking marker, bright light, or the subject itself. The sampled color becomes the keyer's reference.

![Resolve Free's Fusion page with MediaIn1 connected through DeltaKeyer1 to MediaOut1, and the sampled green replaced by checkerboard transparency.](https://cdn.moda.app/voyager/blog/davinci-resolve-free-green-screen/initial-key-0f82130949.webp)

The sampled key removes the green. The lights and stands remain because they are not the screen color.

This is the basic workflow described in Blackmagic's [reference manual, Pulling a Green-Screen Key Using the Delta Keyer](https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/DaVinci_Resolve_21.1_Reference_Manual.pdf). Do not copy our sampled RGB numbers onto different footage; sample your own screen.

## 2. Put a background underneath the keyed image

For the test, we use a solid navy background so unwanted fragments are easy to spot. You can replace it with another image or video later.

Click empty space in the node graph, then use **Shift+Space** to add a **Background** node. Choose its color in the Inspector. Add a **Merge** node and connect:

1. **Background1 → Merge1's yellow Background input.**
2. **DeltaKeyer1 → Merge1's green Foreground input.**
3. **Merge1 → MediaOut1.**

The Merge combines the keyed foreground with the replacement background. Keep its normal Over operation for this basic composite.

The initial result in our comparison already uses Delta Keyer's default **Soft Color** spill treatment. Its remaining equipment is not a spill problem. Changing the color controls cannot make a black light stand disappear while reliably preserving other black objects in the shot.

## 3. Inspect the alpha before tightening the edges

The **alpha channel** stores transparency. In an alpha view, black is transparent, white is opaque, and gray is partially transparent. Fine hair and motion-blurred edges may legitimately contain gray; the core of an opaque coat should not become see-through.

Select **DeltaKeyer1** and press **1** to load it into the left viewer. Keep the keyer's **View Mode** on **Final Result**. Click that viewer and press **C** to switch between color and alpha. This lets you inspect the keyed output, including the connected mask, before it is merged onto an opaque background.

![Fusion showing DeltaKeyer1's final alpha in the left viewer, the navy-background composite in the right viewer, and the keyer's matte controls.](https://cdn.moda.app/voyager/blog/davinci-resolve-free-green-screen/final-alpha-view-b6ed59ef1f.webp)

Inspect the keyer's alpha before Merge. Once the subject is over an opaque background, the composite's alpha can be solid white even if the key needs work.

On Delta Keyer's **Matte** tab, the low and high **Threshold** controls help push background residue toward black and foreground areas toward white. Adjust them gradually while watching both the matte and the color image.

Our tested settings were:

| Control        | Initial key | Refined key                |
| -------------- | ----------- | -------------------------- |
| Threshold Low  | 0.00        | 0.25                       |
| Threshold High | 1.00        | 0.75                       |
| Replace Mode   | Soft Color  | Soft Color                 |
| Garbage mask   | None        | Animated, inverted polygon |

![Delta Keyer's Matte tab showing Threshold Low 0.25, High 0.75, and Replace Mode Soft Color in the tested refined setup.](https://cdn.moda.app/voyager/blog/davinci-resolve-free-green-screen/refined-settings-50b1722d37.webp)

These values belong to this prepared plate. Recheck the moving hand, hair, and coat before using similarly strong thresholds on another shot.

Increasing contrast in the matte can also erase translucent detail. If hair breaks up or the moving hand gets a hard cutout edge, back off. In this example, **Erode/Dilate, Blur, Clean Foreground, and Clean Background remain at zero**. We did not solve the remaining objects by repeatedly shrinking the subject's outline.

## 4. Remove the studio gear with a garbage mask

A **garbage mask** removes regions that are definitely outside the wanted foreground. It handles the lights, stands, and unwanted floor in this plate, leaving the keyer to work on the screen around the actor.

Add a **Polygon** node and draw a closed shape around the actor and the board he holds. Leave room around moving fingers and hair. Connect the polygon's output to Delta Keyer's **gray Garbage Matte input**.

Garbage Matte makes the mask's white regions transparent. Because our polygon encloses the actor, enable **Invert** on the Polygon node: the area outside the shape becomes the region to remove. The blue Effect Mask input has a different job; it limits where the keying operation runs.

![The inverted Polygon1 mask surrounds the actor and follows the gap between his legs, with its output connected to DeltaKeyer1's Garbage Matte input.](https://cdn.moda.app/voyager/blog/davinci-resolve-free-green-screen/garbage-mask-3f79190698.webp)

The shape stays loose around the upper body but is fitted more closely near the non-green floor. It is animated to follow the small shift during the clip.

The floor requires extra care because it is not uniformly green. We fitted the shape around the shoes and through the gap between the legs. A broad rectangle left a visible floor patch there, even after the green background had disappeared.

Scrub the whole shot before calling the mask finished. If the subject or camera moves, animate the shape or use a suitable tracking workflow. For manual shape animation, establish the polygon on a clear frame, move to a later frame, and adjust its points; verify the resulting shape keyframes in Fusion's Keyframes or Spline panel. Check the frames between your adjustments too.

In the supplied project, the mask follows roughly **43 pixels of horizontal drift** across the excerpt. The animation was prepared from source-frame motion and checked in Resolve. It is specific to this shot, not a mask preset to apply to unrelated footage.

## 5. Treat green spill as a color problem

**Spill** is reflected screen color on the subject. It can remain on an otherwise correct cutout, especially around light clothing, hair, and reflective surfaces.

In Delta Keyer's Matte tab, **Replace Mode → Soft Color** provides the built-in color replacement used in this test. The **Source** option retains the original source color and disables that spill correction, which can be useful when comparing or planning a separate color-correction pass. Blackmagic discusses this distinction in the manual's Dealing with Spill section.

![Matching crops of the original green-screen plate and the keyed result, showing reduced green contamination on the light coat while warm orange lighting remains around the hair.](https://cdn.moda.app/voyager/blog/davinci-resolve-free-green-screen/edge-detail-7ee0376484.webp)

Look at the coat and forearm for green contamination. The orange light around the hair is present in the original and is not a green fringe to erase.

Both keyed versions in the opening comparison use Soft Color. The improvement from initial to refined comes from the **matte thresholds and mask**, not a change of spill mode.

If the edge is the wrong shape, inspect the alpha and mask. If the shape is right but its color is green, inspect spill treatment. Pushing matte thresholds to fix reflected color can remove real hair or clothing without producing a better composite.

The actor remains warmly lit after keying. Removing the screen does not relight him to match a new environment. Our navy plate is a diagnostic background, not a photorealistic scene replacement.

## 6. Check the moving result and export it

Review the first frame, last frame, and the moments where hands or clothing approach the mask. Play the clip at normal speed, then inspect suspect edges more closely. A mask can cut off a finger for a few frames while looking fine in a screenshot.

Check on a contrasting light background as well as your intended background when finishing your own shot. A dark plate can hide dark contamination, so use the alpha view too. Minor edge residue around the lower legs and shoes may still need finer shot-specific work for a demanding composite; the test is not a claim of perfect production roto.

On **Deliver**, confirm the intended dimensions and frame rate and render a short section. Watch the exported file, not just the viewer. Our four native sections are each **three seconds / 72 frames at 24 fps**, for **12 seconds / 288 frames** total at **1920×1012**.

The finished composite can use an ordinary delivery format such as H.264. Keep the Resolve project and source if you want to change the background later. A flattened export no longer contains separately editable foreground and background layers.

This workflow ran in the Free edition. For the broader upgrade decision, see [DaVinci Resolve Free vs Studio](/blog/davinci-resolve-free-vs-studio).

Source preparation, project files, and test method

Tested September 18, 2026, in Resolve Free 21.1 on macOS. We used frames 24–95 of the *Tears of Steel* `04_3b` plate from the [original footage archive](https://media.xiph.org/tearsofsteel/tearsofsteel-footage-exr/04_3b/linear_hd/), interpreted at 24 fps.

Blender's [release notes for the footage](https://mango.blender.org/production/4-tb-original-4k-footage-available-as-cc-by/) specify Rec.709 scene-linear EXRs after conversion from ACES. The downloadable ProRes 4444 source is a display-ready version prepared using Blender 5.2's OpenColorIO configuration, Linear Rec.709 to Rec.1886 / Standard. No key was baked into that source, and no audio is included. Ordinary display-ready camera footage does not require this EXR preparation step.

An assistant prepared the media and editable Fusion composition files. Delta Keyer and Merge ran natively in Resolve. The polygon animation was derived from local source-frame matching, then reviewed in the native renders; this is not a demonstration of Resolve's automatic Tracker. A diagnostic composition copies the final keyer's alpha into RGB for the fourth rendered section.

[Download the bundle](https://cdn.moda.app/voyager/blog/davinci-resolve-free-green-screen/green-screen-files-6c26438cdb.zip), extract it, and import `Voyager-green-screen.drp` through Resolve's Project Manager. Relink `greenscreen-source.mov` in the Media Pool if it appears offline. The timeline contains Original at 0–3 seconds, Initial Key at 3–6, Refined at 6–9, and Final Alpha at 9–12. The native H.264 export was remuxed to MP4 without re-encoding the video; labeled comparison panels and the viewing copy have additional web encoding.

Footage: **(CC) Blender Foundation | [mango.blender.org](https://mango.blender.org/)**, *Tears of Steel*. Licensed under [Creative Commons Attribution 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/); see the project's [sharing terms](https://mango.blender.org/sharing/). Modifications include color conversion, excerpting, keying, animated masking, compositing, and comparison labels. This is a technical tutorial; no endorsement by the performers is implied.


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