Christmas Cards the Green Screen Way

Hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone yet again, so the timeliness of this post may seem out of sorts, but the idea behind these cards will be a great tool to add to your green screen bag of tricks.

It all started on a cold, snowy Wisconsin morning with a Twitter message from my friend Bobbi Hopkins in NewYork wondering how to add multiple students to an image using DoInk's green screen app. Bobbi and I began to message back and forth with how it could be done as neither of us had previously tackled this endeavor. The magic that happened from this collaborative effort was amazing!

From this...

to THIS! 

Ms. K's 1st grade

Here's how to create the magic yourself-


1. Select a background image that you want to use and add it to the bottom tray in the DoInk app.

2. Touch the + sign on the middle tray and choose the camera option to add a picture of student on the image.

• When you touch the middle tray, you will notice it is bordered in red. When it is red, you can move the student wherever you would like on the image and also increase or decrease their size by pinching or zooming their image on the screen.

3. Switch from Video to Image (see below) and take a picture. Add this picture to your camera roll.

 4. Touch the + button on the bottom tray and choose image. Bring in the picture you just took as your new background image.

5.  Touch the cameras on the middle tray which will activate your camera again. 

6. Have your next student stand in front of the green screen and position them on your picture. Take a picture and add it to your camera roll. 

7. Repeat steps 4 through 6 until you have all students in the picture.

** To have a student be a tree topper or pop out of the chimney~ wrap them in green fabric from the neck down.

** Want a student to appear as though they are flying? Lay green fabric over a chair or table and have the student lay on their belly with their arms out.

Mrs. McMahon's 1st grade

We had a blast creating these cards and the kids had some great ideas like:

licking the lollipop, pretending to build the snowman, and 

welcoming others to the gingerbread house.