Many streamers choose to use a webcam to connect more with their audience. While this is a great idea, it can be difficult to manage a busy background. This is where a Twitch green screen can come in. After spending hours testing different green screens, and talking shop with dozens of streamers, we measured the pros and cons to decide that the Fancier Studio Collapsible green screen is the best for most streamers.
Our Pick
Portable, Easy Storage
It’s large enough to cover most backgrounds and at an affordable price. The ability to fold it down and store it, or take it with you makes it suitable for most streamers who don’t have a dedicated studio and use their stream rooms for other purposes or daily living.
Fancier Studio’s collapsible green screen features a green and blue swatch and folds down into a storage bag when not in use. It covers a 5ft x 6.5ft area, which is usually enough of a background for streamers who have desk cameras.
The smaller size makes it easier to light evenly for a better green screen effect. Having the ability to store it away when not in use is great for streamers who don’t have a full studio set up. This is great for mid-range budgets if you want to stay away from do-it-yourself options.
Upgrade Pick
Premium quality, quick set up, break down and stow away features
A large green screen that comes with it’s own auto-locking frame so that you can pull it up, use it, and break it down for easy storage when not in use. No messing around with fabric hangers, or awkward sized stands. It all comes in one sleek package that can fit behind most streaming set ups.
This green screen operates on a pull up and retract mechanism. It’s the most hassle-free options for multi-purpose rooms that you use for streaming. The screen itself when extended is 5.9ft x 4.8ft (Roughly 6×5).
The base and screen together when collapsed is heavy. Making it difficult to lug around if mobility is your goal. However moving it out of the way in your room when you’re done streaming is as simple as retracting the screen, or sliding it away.
Also Great
Hooks directly to the back of your chair
One of the most minimal set-ups available as if you have a gaming chair. The screen attaches directly to the back of your chair. You don’t have to worry about stands, or spacing behind your chair. Just attach it and go.
The Webaround takes up minimal space so you can use it even in rooms where you don’t have space for large stand. It’s made to work with common gaming chairs, meaning it may not fit onto other chairs as easily. It comes in at a 56” diameter (about 4.6ft). It should cover most of your camera’s viewing angle, but it may require you to zoom in a little bit.
Budget Option
Big screen, comes with clamps, low price
A thick muslin backdrop with a nicely reflective surface and easy to keep clean/wrinkle free for on-going use. It comes with 3 handy clamps that you can attach to a stand or surface of your choice to hang the backdrop.
The budget choice brings a ton of value for the price tag. You get a screen on the larger side that is a great color and quality combination. Making it a breeze for you light evenly to delete the background of your stream studio. The thick texture makes it less prone to wrinkles.
It doesn’t come with a stand, but it does come with 3 clips. This gives you the option to attach it to something you already own (like a curtain rod or a DIY stand).
The DIY Option
Quality fabric and size for the price
Prism is our choice for the streamer who is looking to build their own green screen. If you have your own stand or if you want to make a custom background, the 100% cotton background with chroma key coloring is the best option. It’s not a cheap fabric and also has larger size options if you want to scale up.
It’s relatively easy to build your own green screen set up. And it can often be much cheaper if you put in a little effort to constructing your set up on your own.
To make your life easier, you should to choose a solid fabric that has a reflective surface, even coloring, and large enough to encompass your background. Our choice for that is the Prism 6×10 Backdrop Green Screen.
You will also need to find a way to hang it. You can hang it on a wall, get clips from a hardware store, or even build your own stand.
Why Use A Green Screen?
Many streamers chose to use a webcam, to connect more with their audience. While this is a great idea, it can be difficult to manage a busy background. This is where a twitch green screen can come in.
In this article you’ll find out how a green screen can benefit you. We’ll also take a look at several different green screens, and rank them based on their advantages.
For most people the choice of whether to use a green screen comes down to personal preference. It often depends on the type of content you stream.
Here are some thoughts to help you decide:
Advantages
Using a green screen will:
- Remove a cluttered, plain or windowed background
- Reduce the size of your camera overlay, allowing more of your game to be visible
- Remove the need to worry about what’s behind you
- Give more privacy for what viewers can see
Disadvantages
A green screen will also:
- Remove personal items such as posters, media or ornaments which may spark conversation
- Remove an insight into your surroundings
- Give your background a less unique feel
Flexibility
The beauty of a green screen is that it’s flexible. There’s no rule which says you must always use it, just because you have it. You can choose to add or remove the green screen for each stream.
IRL style streams like “just chatting” or “ASMR”, can often benefit from having a real background. Other gaming focused streams with a lot going on may need a more reduced camera overlay.
Also, don’t worry about a green screen being to difficult to use. Most streaming software have presets for it, making it a quick and easy process to set up.
The controversy of green screen
One thing to be aware of is that there is a long running debate on if green screen is even a good idea in the first place. For every viewer that loves a green screen, you can that you can find someone who hates it.
Green Screen Advocates
Advocates are often gamers who play titles with lots going on on-screen.
They want a clean setup which allows them to use a face-cam but eliminates any distractions. They will also want to show as much of the game as possible. Having a full background can hide important information.
Some people also feel that it looks more professional. Inserting your own background design can give a feeling of higher production quality.
Green Screen Critics
Many critics like the personality a background gives to a streamer.
Some streamers feel that interesting things in their background can help spark conversations. Having a poster or display items can spark conversations to help chat flow.
It can also feel more like you are in the room with a streamer when you can see more of the room behind them.
Making A Decision
Your stream should be a reflection of your unique personality. Using a green screen can help highlight your personality. Or use it to better showcase the content you’re sharing.
So don’t worry about making everyone happy.
Don’t be afraid to mix it up. You may want to use it for some games and not for others. You can always swap it in and out.
What To Look For
Products vary in size and cost and have differing features. Here are a few things to ask yourself to help guide your choice:
- How much space do you have to place a green screen?
- How tall and wide does it need to be to cover enough background?
- What is your budget?
- Will you leave it assembled or take it down?
- Do you need to be able to easily move or store it?
The answers will help you figure out what you need, and our guide here will match you with the right green screen. Price, ease of use, and portability are the main areas to explore when comparing options.
How To Use A Green Screen
Using a green screen is not as daunting as it sounds. Common streaming software, like Streamlabs and OBS, make it easy to use. They come with settings to help select a basic overlay and tweak it to match your lighting.
In the video below you can see how easy it is to set up your green screen with OBS.
As you can see the process is easy enough to get your green screen up and running in no time.
conclusion
Each green screen we reviewed is suitable to work with ease in most situations.
After comparing all the products the Fancier collapsible is the best green screen available. It’s a solid balance of quality vs price. You get versatility by having both green and blue swatches. We also like the storage bag to stow it away when not in use.
It might be tricky to open up at first, but once it’s setup is much easier and quicker than with a fabric screen. It is also large enough to cover a reasonable space behind you. This gives you flexibility for how you use it on stream.