Since Jul 2023
VFX and compositing
Mattes, clean plates, relighting and edits made inside the shot.
AI entered the VFX pipeline before it could make a shot: Runway's Green Screen pulled mattes in a browser, and Wonder Studio (July 2023) swapped a filmed actor for a CG character. Generative tools then erased and replaced objects, and since 2025 edit models change footage from a prompt (Runway Aleph, Luma Modify) while relighting tools turn a live plate into something you can light after the shoot.
Tutorials3
Clean plate, green screen and layered animation in Runway
Timmy · On X · Apr 2024
How it works
- Pull the matte without a green screen when you can, or key cleanly when you shot one (CorridorKey).
- Separate the plates: erase the character for a clean background, animate character and environment separately, and layer them.
- Edit the shot from a prompt: swap objects, change the weather, relight or reframe with Aleph or Luma Modify, and let Aleph 2.0 carry one change across the sequence.
- Relight after the shoot: Beeble SwitchLight turns footage into normals, albedo and roughness so an actor can be lit like a CG asset.
- Finish in your compositor; the generated layers are plates, not the final frame.
Behind the scenes2
How films were actually made, from the people who made them.