Video background removal with AI and chroma key

A chroma key separates the background by colour, so it only applies when you shot against a flat backdrop — green, blue, black or white. On that material it beats the model: it resolves individual hairs and motion blur, it cannot flicker between frames because each pixel is decided on its own, and it runs instantly with no model to download. The AI is for footage with no key colour at all — a person in a room, outdoors, against a busy background.

Transparency lives in an alpha channel — the same one a transparent PNG has, kept for every frame. Not every format can store it: WebM with VP8/VP9, ProRes 4444, animated WebP and APNG can. Choose the Overlay, Editing, As an image or Compatibility destination and all four keep transparency. MP4 has no alpha channel, so there the background is painted into the picture.

Switch to the chroma key — green is usually detected from the frame by itself. If a green rim clings to the edge, raise Spill: it removes the backdrop’s cast on the subject. If the background shows through in patches, raise Range; if the subject starts disappearing, lower it. The same mode removes the black background from spark and smoke footage and the white background from product shots.

That is the usual fringe at the mask border. Output settings include Choke, which pulls the border a fraction of a pixel inside the subject and takes the rim with it. Next to it is Feather, which softens the border so the cutout does not read as a sticker on its new background. Both apply instantly, with no second pass.

Yes — it has its own destination. Telegram accepts video stickers in exactly one shape: WebM with the VP9 codec and an alpha channel, 512 pixels on the long side, no longer than 3 seconds, 30 frames per second and with no audio track. The tool fits the clip to those rules itself and states in advance what it is going to change.

Processing runs on your own device and costs seconds per frame, so a single export is length-limited — the exact figure is shown beside the timeline and depends on your plan. Select the part you need on the timeline: there is no reason to process a whole clip for five seconds of it.