In this lesson, Animation Mentor mentor Zachary Rahman shows how to use a green screen to shoot clear acting reference and then bring that reference into Maya in a way that supports staging, clarity, and efficient blocking. He walks through why green screen helps, how to process the footage in DaVinci Resolve, and how to drive an image sequence across cuts inside a Maya scene
Meet Zachary Rahman
Zachary Rahman has been a professional animator since 2005. He is currently an animator at DreamWorks Animation and previously worked at Sony Imageworks, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Reel FX Cinesite, and LAIKA. Zachary’s credits include Encanto, Rumble, Scoob!, and Kubo and the Two Strings. He is a mentor in the Animation Mentor 3D Character Animation program.
Why Use a Green Screen for Reference
Zachary starts by showing a shot from K‑Pop animated by Eric Stinson at Sony Imageworks, where live‑action reference has been composited over the 3D layout. The characters are already placed correctly in screen space, and the acting is staged to camera so key poses read clearly and the interaction feels intimate.
He explains that if Eric had simply filmed himself in a room and dropped several full‑frame image planes into Maya, the background and unused parts of the frame would clutter the viewport. With four to six full rectangles in shot, it becomes hard to see where characters are relative to each other, and the reference can actually hurt staging.
A green screen lets you isolate just the performer and remove the rest of the room. This makes your intent clear for directors, supervisors, or mentors and gives you a strong foundation for blocking that matches the final camera and composition.
Clarity and Early Feedback
Zachary emphasizes that clarity is the main goal. When you present a composite reference that already matches your intended shot, you are effectively saying, “This is my plan for the performance and staging.”
If something about that plan is off, it is much easier to change it at the reference stage than after you have spent a week blocking. Catching issues this early saves time and frustration, and helps ensure that your final animation builds on an agreed‑upon foundation rather than guesswork.
Tools for the Workflow
For this process, Zachary uses:
- Any phone or camera that can record video.
- Editing software, such as DaVinci Resolve, which is free and well documented.
- A simple green screen that can be bought online, which is often cheaper and cleaner than relying on AI background removal.
- Maya for layout and animation.
He notes that AI tools that auto‑remove backgrounds can be convenient, but may introduce artifacts or even remove parts of your body if the separation is not clean. A real green screen gives more reliable control.
Acting Considerations When Shooting
Although this tutorial focuses on tech, Zachary briefly covers acting prep for reference:
- Understand your character’s subtext, including what happened before the shot and what will happen after.
- Define who you are animating, including age, size, gender, quirks, and any life events that affect behavior.
- Be clear on the character’s immediate goal and what obstacles stand in the way.
- Think about phrasing and inner monologue so the performance has shifts in thought and does not feel flat.
For his demo, he picks an audio clip, imagines two characters in a police interrogation room talking about Batman, and shoots multiple takes before choosing a strong, continuous performance to use.
Removing the Green Screen in DaVinci Resolve
Zachary then shows how he processes the footage in DaVinci:
- Load the recorded clip into the timeline and trim to the section you want.
- Use the cropping controls to cut away parts of the frame you do not need, such as edges of the room.
- Add the “3D Keyer” effect from the OpenFX panel.
- Enable the OpenFX overlay so you can see keying controls on screen.
- Use the eyedropper to sample the green background and remove it, adding or subtracting samples as needed.
- Clean up any leftover color patches and restore any parts of your body that were accidentally removed.
He notes that a little loss at the edges is acceptable, since the goal is a readable performance rather than a perfect composite. Getting 60 to 70 percent of the feel across clearly is more important than preserving every pixel.
Exporting a Transparent Image Sequence
Once the key looks good, Zachary exports a PNG sequence with alpha so the background is transparent in Maya:
- In the Deliver tab, set the format to PNG rather than a video format.
- Turn on “Export alpha” so the keyed‑out green becomes actual transparency instead of black.
- Make sure the timeline start timecode is set to 0 so frame numbers start from zero.
- Adjust file name padding, for example four digits, to match the expected frame range.
He uses a naming convention such as “ref.0000.png” because Maya likes sequences with a base name, a period, and zero‑padded numbers.
Bringing the Reference into Maya
Inside Maya, Zachary loads the PNG sequence as an image plane:
- Open the scene that contains your set and characters.
- Go to Create, then Image Plane, then Free Image Plane.
- Scale the plane so the performance is clearly visible.
- In the Attribute Editor, click the folder icon and select the first image in the sequence.
- Because the sequence has an alpha channel, you see your keyed performance with no background.
He notes that you can rotate the image plane to correct screen direction if needed, which is a useful safety net if you realize later that you shot reference facing the wrong way.
Driving Cuts with Frame Extension
Instead of turning on “Use Image Sequence” and letting Maya play every frame automatically, Zachary prefers to control the sequence with the frameExtension attribute. This makes it easier to jump between different parts of the same reference clip across cuts.
His process is:
- Key frameExtension on the frames where each “edit” of the performance should appear.
- Use middle‑mouse dragging in the viewport to scrub frameExtension to the correct reference frames for each cut.
- Key both the frameExtension and the image plane’s position or rotation as needed when switching from one character performance to another.
After placing keys for all cuts, he opens the Graph Editor, finds the frameExtension curve, and sets it to linear so the sequence advances one frame per Maya frame without easing. If he later wants to slow down or speed up a section of reference inside Maya, he can adjust that curve locally.
Lining Up Reference with Layout
Zachary demonstrates how he positions the image plane within a 3D interrogation room set from Sketchfab and how he would eventually add the Animation Mentor Jules rigs.
He places the keyed footage near where the character would sit or stand, adjusts rotation to match screen direction, and then uses the reference to match poses either directly in front of the camera or with the image plane scooted to one side.
He also notes a limitation he spotted in hindsight. His reference framing is a bit too close, so you do not see leg motion even though one character is meant to be standing. Seeing that in context lets him decide whether to re‑shoot the reference or accept the compromise and infer leg poses.
Benefits of This Workflow
By the end of the demo, Zachary has:
- A single keyed reference sequence that covers multiple characters and cuts.
- Clean staging inside the actual 3D set, with reference that does not fight for screen space.
- A frameExtension curve that allows fine‑tuned control of timing and transitions.
This setup makes intent clear to supervisors and mentors and reduces the risk of having to reblock an entire shot due to staging or acting issues discovered too late.
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