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Capability

Remove background from video on your Mac

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Rooster removes the background from video on your Mac, with no physical green screen: its Green Screen effect finds the person in your recording with Apple Vision and takes the room away. Put a colour, a picture or another layer behind you, or blur the room instead. Your original recording is never changed, and nothing is uploaded.

A person cut out on your Mac, not on a server

Separating a person from a room is exactly the kind of AI job that does not need a data centre. Apple ships the segmentation model in macOS, and Rooster runs it on every frame of your recording on your own Mac. It costs time on your machine rather than credits, so there is nothing to ration and no upload to wait for.

With nothing selected, open Adjust and press the + beside Visual effects, then Green Screen. It is applied with the Natural edge while you keep editing: its row shows how far along the render is, with a stop button, and when it finishes the row gets a switch that turns it off and on without rendering again. The render is a new clip Rooster keeps in its own folder; the file you recorded is never modified.

Rooster keeps the person Apple Vision finds and whatever it lifts as part of them, such as a mug in your hand, and treats the rest as room. If the edge needs to be tighter or more forgiving, Improve > Green Screen… in the menu bar offers three edge finishes - Crisp, Natural and Soft - before it renders.

With the room gone, the canvas shows through. Click an empty part of the canvas and the scene's background band takes a colour or a picture, or put another layer under yourself in the Layers list. On a portrait or square canvas, the Media layout stands you cut out over the scene's picture.

If you would rather keep the room but take attention off it, Blur Background softens it instead, from the same + or from the Improve menu. Its Strength slider starts at 50% and changes the blur on the canvas when you let go, with nothing rendered again. Both effects can be on at once: while Green Screen is on it removes the room, and switching it off shows the blurred room straight away.

What is on screen

  • The + beside Visual effects

    On the main recording's panel in Adjust, or the scene's when nothing is selected. Choosing Green Screen or Blur Background applies it straight away with the Natural edge. The canvas's Effects menu does the same.

  • Edge finish

    Crisp for clear outlines, Natural for a balanced edge at hair and shoulders, and Soft for movement or difficult lighting. Improve > Green Screen… and Improve > Blur Background… open the sheet to choose one first, and Generate Green Screen or Generate Blur Background renders it.

  • Progress and stop on its row

    The sheet closes as soon as you generate, and the effect's row in Visual effects shows how far along the render is with a stop button, while you go on editing. Stopping it changes nothing.

  • The switch, the adjust button and the bin

    Each applied effect's row has all three. The switch turns it off and on straight away, the adjust button opens Green Screen's edge finishes to render it again from your original - or Blur Background's Strength slider, with Edge finish… under it - and the bin removes it. Right-clicking the row offers the same.

  • Strength

    Blur Background's slider, opened by the adjust button on its row, from 0%, where the room stays sharp, to 100%, twice the blur of the 50% it starts at. Each drag is one step you can undo, and it needs no new render.

  • The scene's background band

    With nothing selected, the plus button adds a colour behind you and the picture button adds an image, where the room used to be.

Every capability Rooster ships is listed on the features page, and how the work is split between your Mac and everything else is on how it works.

How to use it

  • Remove the background from a video

    Remove the room behind you without a green screen, using Rooster's on-device Green Screen effect, then put a colour or a picture behind you instead.

What it does not do

  • It is a person cut-out, not a general one. Rooster keeps the person Apple Vision finds and what it counts as part of them; a product on the desk, a pet, or anything else standing apart from you is treated as room and removed.
  • The reverse can happen too. Something Vision lifts with you - a chair back, or a plant touching your shoulder - can be kept as part of you rather than cut away.
  • Backlight is its weak spot. With a bright window behind you, parts of a face can turn partly see-through on some frames, and Blur Background can wash a face in profile into the window's light. Light yourself from the front, and avoid a background close in colour to your clothes.
  • Fine hair and fast movement are harder. The sheet suggests Soft for them, and on frames where Rooster falls back to a coarser mask to keep you in the picture, a hairline can carry a faint halo of the room.
  • It covers the whole main recording. You cannot remove the background from one scene and keep it in another, or apply it to a B-roll clip or a still on another layer. In a Screen + Camera recording the main recording is the screen, so the camera picture cannot have its room removed or blurred.
  • It renders every frame before it is applied, so a long recording takes a while, and changing the edge finish renders it again. Only Blur Background's strength changes without a new render.

This list is here because the alternative is a reader installing Rooster and finding out. If one of these is the job you need done, the alternatives page ranks tools that do it.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a green screen?

No. The effect is called Green Screen because it does that job, but it works on an ordinary room: Apple Vision finds the person in each frame and Rooster removes everything else. Even, front-on lighting gives the cleanest edge.

Does my video go to a server?

No. The segmentation runs in Apple's Vision framework on your Mac, and the render is written to Rooster's own folder there. There is no upload, no account and no credit balance involved.

Can I blur the background instead of removing it?

Yes. Blur Background keeps the room but softens it, from the same + beside Visual effects or Improve > Blur Background…. Its Strength slider runs from 0% to 100% and changes the blur without rendering again.

What can I put behind me?

A colour or a picture from the scene's background band, or another layer placed under you in the Layers list. On a portrait or square canvas, the Media layout puts you at the foot of the scene's picture.

Does it change my original recording?

No. Rooster renders a separate clip from your original and points the project at it. The switch on the effect's row goes back to the room straight away, and removing the effect brings it back for good.

What happens to something I am holding?

Something Apple Vision lifts as part of you, such as a mug in your hand, is kept with you. Objects standing apart from you, such as a product on the desk, are treated as room and removed.

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