One of the cheapest and easiest ways to make an incredible-looking environment for your video production is to use a virtual set.
A virtual set relies on chroma-key, or green screen effect. You actually videotape your host in front of a green background and then replace the green background with the virtual set. The virtual set can be anything…a still picture of the North Pole or a digital image specially designed to look like a large television studio.
You can buy fantastic-looking virtual sets that will give viewers the impression that your studio is huge, expensive, and high-tech when in reality you are videotaping yourself in a tiny spare bedroom.
Lots of virtual sets can even make it look like your host is sitting behind the digital desk if you position everything correctly. This helps makes it look very real. A well-lit green screen composited properly with a virtual set can indeed look real. (Lighting should be very diffused and even. You combine the two video elements either with a video switcher or with video editing software.)
If you don’t use a virtual set, you need a real one. This means real furniture, real backgrounds and real props. All well and good, but real objects take up space and are heavy to move. 
Using virtual sets can greatly increase the variety of your programs and the ease with which you switch from one look to another.
If you want to read more about how green screen technique works, you can check out this article with a green screen video tutorial. For even greater detail on green screen and an actual (goofy) video I made using it, read this article.
Have fun with green screen and virtual sets!
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Lorraine Grula
Internet Video Gal
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