The magenta light trick and the AI ​​that Netflix uses to improve special effects

Artificial intelligence is also helping to perfect the special effects of Netflix movies.

Netflix has presented a new green screen technologywhat do you use magenta light and artificial intelligence to achieve a more realistic and, above all, faster result.

The technique of green screen consists in film the actors on a green backgroundwhich makes it easy for editing software remove that background, and place a digital stage. It is a standard technology in practically all movies and series with digital effects.

The problem with the green screen is that the “trick” is noticeable in areas that require a lot of detailas the hair of the actorsor in transparent objects like a glass bottle, or a window. So special effects experts have to edit these scenes manually to hide the flaws in the mix of the actors with the digital backgrounds, a process that It consumes much time.

For streaming platforms, time is more valuable than money. They need to finish the movies and the series as soon as possible, because they have to do continuous releases. That’s why they don’t stop looking new ways to speed up the process.

The purple light on Netflix’s green screen

Netflix has managed to improve and accelerate this technology, with the help of the magenta lightand the artificial intelligence.

As you can see in this video New Scientistst, the green screen scene is shot with a magenta light that fully illuminates the actors:

The reason for doing this is that digital cameras capture colors with a combination of different values ​​of red, green and blue, for each pixel.

Thanks to this combination, the green channel of the camera only records the backgroundand the red and green channels, the foreground, that is, the actors.

This system gets the perfect separation of both elementsallowing you to add the digital background, which automatically blends seamlessly with the actors, including hair and transparent elements, such as glass. This saves time and work.

But, as you’ve probably noticed, there’s still one thing missing: the actors are seen in magenta color. This is where artificial intelligence comes into play.

Netflix uses an AI that it has been trained with the original colors of the scene, and color the actors to remove that fuchsia effect.

He magenta light trick with green screenIt allows Netflix create special effects more quickly and realistically. Something vital when it comes to finishing the production of series and movies, as soon as possible.