How to do the ‘moving green screen’ trend on TikTok

For over a decade, green screens have played an integral role in producing some of the best CGI content for many of our favorite blockbuster films. The method was primarily used by filmmakers to superimpose a photo or video onto the background of another film or video and usually involved a large green sheet that made it easy to digitally remove color in post-production and add whatever image or video needed to be there in its place.

Over the years, this setup has become so common that most social media creators have been able to replicate their own “green screen effect,” albeit on a much smaller scale. It’s become such a normal part of society that the process has even gone digital, allowing you to hide the background in meetings or just use the technology to create a fun video on your very own laptop.

Now TikTok has taken these concepts and added a little spice for a new effect that allows creators to remain on screen while showing the audience an image in the background of the video. Naturally, as it is with most effects on TikTok, creators are in love with the new filter and have already found several ways to turn it into a viral trend.

Currently one of TikTok’s most popular effects, “the green screen” allows users to project an image of themselves over a background that they can select from their camera roll. The app also recently introduced the “moving green screen” effect, which allows users to film a new video over a different video from their camera roll, with the background clip only being revealed as a small square that moves around the screen.

So far, the new filter has prompted many creators using the effect to layer two different images of themselves⏤one that’s happy with one that’s sad⏤for an interesting green screen effect that is almost music-video worthy. Suffice it to say, the new trend has taken off on TikTok and become a viral phenomenon that has helped numerous creators attain millions of views.

How to use the “moving green screen” effect

If you’re an aspiring creator looking to join in on the new trend, the process is pretty easy to follow. According to Dexerto, all you have to do is follow these steps:

1. Go to your camera roll and record the video that you want playing inside the moving square. Many choose to lip-sync to popular TikTok sounds.

2. Trim the video to the exact length you want it to be and add a black and white filter.

3. Launch TikTok, go to the Discover tab, and search “moving green screen.”

4. Click the pink record button next to the filter.

5. When you are prompted to insert a video, select the video you just filmed from your camera roll.

6. Once you’ve inserted your video, click the record button to start filming your second video and the box will move around the screen automatically.

Simple, right? Of course, to get the full effect, you may need to experiment with different timings and make sure that you’re at the same distance from the camera in both videos to give it that X-ray effect. Once you master everything, the end results are usually pretty epic.

This is one of many TikTok trends that have gone viral in 2021, and you should check right back here for more information on any and all future ones.