About keying

Keying is defining transparency by a particular color value (with a color key or chroma key) or brightness value (with a luminance key) in an image. When you key out a value, all pixels that have similar colors or luminance values become transparent.

Keying makes it easy to replace a background of a consistent color or brightness with another image, an especially useful technique when you work with objects too complex to mask easily. The technique of keying out a background of a consistent color is often called bluescreening or greenscreening, although you don’t have to use blue or green; you can use any solid color for a background.

Difference keying defines transparency with respect to a particular baseline background image. Instead of keying out a single‑color screen, you can key out an arbitrary background.