For those who don’t know the tool: Beeble Background Remover is a Cloud roto and matte extractor for comps, now offering CorridorKey or MatAnyone before upload, so your key tests can happen before your pipeline meeting turns into a sequel.

What changed in Background Remover

Beeble‘s Background Remover now lets you choose between MatAnyone and CorridorKey before you upload footage. MatAnyone stays positioned as the general-purpose option. CorridorKey is positioned as the green screen option, aimed at cleaner edges and more accurate keying on chroma key shots. Background Remover runs only in the Cloud app and does not run in the desktop product.

The fastest way to try it without committing

CorridorKey has the kind of momentum that makes people want to try it immediately, and also the kind of setup that can make them postpone it indefinitely. If you do not want to download code, install dependencies, and explain to your producer why your machine is now compiling something called a model, running CorridorKey inside the Background Remover toolkit gives you a low-friction way to test it on your own footage first. That includes testing it against your current keys, and checking whether your exports land cleanly in your comp toolchain, without rebuilding that toolchain just to run an experiment.

How CorridorKey was invented

CorridorKey started as a response to a workload problem. A greenscreen-heavy show needed a lot of shots, and the team wanted an automated way to cut subjects out so they could spend time on the creative side of VFX instead of hand-cleaning keys frame after frame.

The design focus landed on a specific compositing headache: a greenscreen edge pixel often contains a mix of foreground and background light. A matte can be good and the color can still be wrong, because the plate already baked the screen contribution into semi-transparent detail. The CorridorKey approach targets a straight color foreground output paired with an alpha output, so semi-transparent materials, motion blur, and hair can keep behaving like actual transparency instead of looking like tinted cutouts.

Training data was coming from CG so the model could learn from mathematically clean answers. The workflow renders greenscreen plates, then renders the same foreground without the background and with a perfect alpha, giving the model ground truth for both color and transparency. Scale was coming from procedural variation, including procedural scene generation work in tools like Houdini and Blender to produce many variations in lighting, materials, objects, and motion without rebuilding each shot by hand.

Early results were treated as tests and iterated on through retraining. One tactic for pushing quality was to composite results over random backgrounds and neutral gray during testing, so leftover contamination becomes obvious and gets punished during training. The tool is being used as a first step in a broader pipeline, with outputs intended to drop into comp and realtime contexts in apps like Adobe After Effects and Unreal Engine.

What you get out of Beeble after a run

If you are testing CorridorKey for greenscreen work, this matters because the outputs determine how painful your handoff is. A quick trial that ends in a format conversion detour still counts as pain. It just wears a different hat.

Background Remover is built around alpha extraction for compositing and VFX workflows. You can upload a video, an image sequence, or a single image, then download results intended to slot into a comp.

On the Cloud pricing page, export options are listed as RGBA exports in MOV or PNG sequence and alpha exports in MP4 or PNG sequence. MOV here refers to the QuickTime container, PNG refers to the PNG format, and MP4 refers to the MPEG family container.

Pricing, credits, and practical limits

Background Remover usage is credit-based. The Cloud pricing is around image uploads as consuming one credit per image and video uploads as consuming one credit per second of video.

The plans listed include a free Starter tier that includes ninety credits per month and is labeled non-commercial. Two paid tiers have Background Remover included. “Creator” is listed at nineteen US dollars per month or sixteen US dollars per month when billed annually, with five hundred forty credits per month. “Professional” is listed at seventy-five US dollars per month or sixty US dollars per month when billed annually, with two thousand four hundred credits per month.

Per-upload maximums for video length are thirty seconds on the five hundred forty credit tier and one minute on the two thousand four hundred credit tier. There is also a batch upload up to twenty files at once on the paid tiers.

A production reality check

CorridorKey is a model option, not a replacement for judgement. Every keying tool behaves differently across compression, sensor noise, spill, lens artifacts, and the very special chaos of talent wardrobe choices. Test CorridorKey on your own porudction plates before you trust it with a deadline, and keep your existing approach ready for the shots that refuse to behave.

If the results look good, treat the first integration step as a controlled experiment: run a small batch, validate edge stability, validate color behavior in the semi-transparent areas, validate the exports in your comp, then scale up. That is less romantic than a revolution, but it is how tools earn their place in compositnig pipelines.

https://docs.beeble.ai/beeble/background-remover

https://github.com/nikopueringer/CorridorKey

https://beeble.ai

The post Beeble adds CorridorKey green screen model first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Beeble runs AI relighting and pass generation in the browser via the Cloud app and locally via Beeble Studio, using SwitchLight for video-to-PBR work and SwitchX for background swaps, with exports that slot into comps in Nuke and motion work in After Effects.

Background Remover does not add a brand new trick. It pulls the same AI masking model used in VFX Pass Generator into a standalone, faster workflow meant for the quick matte job, with the provided materials calling it more credit-efficient than a full pass as a marketing claim. Exports lean hard into practical comp handoffs, including RGBA video with alpha, RGBA PNG sequences, and alpha-only sequences, which fits motion graphics work where you want clean holdouts so titles and design layers can live behind moving subjects.

For more background, see Digital Production coverage of SwitchX background swaps, Studio local 4K relighting, and SwitchLight 3.0.

The real news is the shortcut

Background Remover lives inside the Cloud app as a standalone alpha extraction workflow. The core promise is not mystery science. It is a packaging change that targets one task, foreground mattes, with fewer steps and fewer credit demands than running a broader multi-pass job.

That matters because a lot of shots do not need a full buffet of passes. Plenty of days you just want a clean subject cutout so you can comp a replacement plate, push a quick relight downstream, or build motion graphics behind a moving performer. Background Remover aims at that moment when you would normally sigh, open your roto tool of choice, and start paying for coffee by the hour.

It also draws a bright line between where it runs and where it does not. Background Remover is available exclusively in the Cloud app and it is not available in the desktop product yet.

Inputs that match real-world chaos

The tool accepts three kinds of input: a single image, a video, or an image sequence. Single images support common formats, including PNG and JPEG. Image sequences support up to 2,000 frames. For video, the supported container and codec combinations include MP4 using H.264 and MOV using ProRes 422, ProRes 4444, or H.265. The maximum file size is 2 GB. The tool supports up to 2K resolution at 2048 pixels, and it will downscale larger video. It supports clips up to 60 seconds and up to 30 fps, with higher frame rates reduced.

Color handling has a practical bias. Rec. 709 for video and sRGB for images are called out as the best quality settings, while other color spaces such as Log can degrade quality. That is less of a moral stance and more of a reminder that alpha extraction likes predictable input, not surprise curves.

Preview first, then commit, unless you like living dangerously

Background Remover runs a two-phase workflow for video. First comes a preview stage that extracts a preview frame and generates rough alpha previews. This stage exists for sanity checking. The preview alpha is explicitly rough, not pixel-perfect, and fine details like hair edges and semi-transparent areas are refined during full extraction.

If you want to steer the result, there is an interactive refinement step. The workflow uses an Edit Alpha action inside the preview dialog. That opens a rotoscoping UI designed around quick subject selection. The demo workflow shows clearing the existing mask and selecting only the subjects you want to keep by clicking them, then applying the alpha.

There is also a Skip Review mode. It bypasses preview and refinement and runs full extraction immediately. In that mode, the first frame becomes the reference and the pipeline runs without manual review. It is intended for simpler shots with clear subjects and consistent backgrounds. None of this replaces judgment. It simply gives you the option to front-load a small amount of control before you burn the full render.

Exports that behave in comps

Background Remover produces two output types: RGBA results with transparency applied, and grayscale alpha mattes. For RGBA, it can output a MOV file with an embedded alpha channel, plus RGBA PNG output as a sequence or a single image. The MOV output is 10-bit RGBA in sRGB. The PNG RGBA output is 8-bit in sRGB.

For alpha-only delivery, it can output an MP4 grayscale matte as well as grayscale PNG output as a sequence or a single image. Grayscale alpha outputs are 8-bit and represent the matte range from 0.0 to 1.0.

The point here is pipeline friction. An embedded-alpha MOV can drop straight into After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, or Final Cut Pro without juggling a separate matte file. When you do want a separate matte, the alpha-only options cover both video-centric and frame-centric workflows.

If you build motion graphics, this is the part that keeps paying rent. A clean matte lets typography, UI, and graphic elements sit behind a moving subject while staying readable. That trick stays stubbornly useful, even when the rest of the shot changes.

Credits, pricing, and the part everyone asks first

Pricing is expressed in credits and it is published on the official pricing page for the Cloud plans. Background Remover is listed at 1 credit per second of video, and 1 credit per image. VFX Pass Generator is listed at 3 credits per second of video, and 3 credits per image. That is the math behind the one-third claim.

Plan details and credit bundles live on the Cloud pricing page, including per-plan limits. Note that Background remover is not included in the free tier.

Limits that matter when you are on a deadline

Image and image-sequence uploads have a maximum of 100 MB per file. Resolution supports up to 2K at 2048 pixels, and larger files are rejected. Video uploads support up to 2K, with larger video downscaled. Video duration supports up to 60 seconds and frame rates up to 30 fps, with higher rates reduced.

Bulk handling exists too. The tool supports bulk downloading multiple completed results at once. For anybody juggling variants, alt takes, or multiple elements, that avoids the classic cloud workflow of clicking download until your wrist files a complaint.

Where it fits in the larger toolset

Background Remover sits as a focused subset next to the broader pass workflows. If you only need a matte, it keeps you out of the heavier multi-pass path. If you need more, the pass generator remains the place for depth, normals, and other map outputs that support relighting and downstream work in 2.5D and 3D contexts.

https://app.beeble.ai/

The post Beeble Background Remover hits Cloud app first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.