Green Screen Scan

About

Green Screen Scan is a Creative Effect on TikTok that gradually imposes a subject into any photo they choose, creating a new image.

Origin

On November 16th, 2020, @kaylawayyla uploaded a video to TikTok^[1] where she makes it appear as if she's a renaissance painting using a similar scanning effect, garnering over 1.9 million view in 2 months (shown below, left). She uploaded a similar video on November 17th, garnering over 25 million views.

Although the videos pre-date the Green Screen Scan effect the results are similar, and the Renaissance painting videos inspired a trend (example shown below)^[2] showing demand for an effect that did the same thing.

On November 18th, @kaylawayyla uploaded a 3-part tutorial on how to achieve the effect (shown below).

In December of 2020, developers added the Green Screen Scan effect to TikTok. With the effect enabled, users can pick any photo from their camera roll and impose themselves (or another subject) into it via a gradual scan, similar to the scan used in the Time Warp Scan effect. It's unknown who posted the first video using the effect.

Spread

Taking Photos With Deceased Loved Ones

On January 5th, 2021, @lexscameraroll uploaded a video to TikTok^[3] using the Green Screen Scan effect to impose herself into a photograph with her deceased father (shown below). The video garnered over 7.5 million views in a week, inspiring others to do the same thing.

On January 6th, @maddieeliza performed the trend on TikTok^[4] gaining over 11.3 million views in a week (shown below, left). On the same day, @saramargs performed the trend^[5] with a photograph of her mother, garnering over 4.9 million views in the same span of time (shown below, right).

On January 12th, BuzzFeed News^[9] published an article detailing the trend.

Appearing Elsewhere

On January 4th, 2021, @itsnotheatherkoach uploaded a video to TikTok^[6] depicting a fictional text conversation between her and her mother where her mother asks if she's at a friend's house (shown below). She then uses the Green Screen Scan effect to impose herself into a photo with her friend. The video gained over 6.8 million views in 9 days.

On the same day, @lilbabynae uploaded a similar video,^[7] garnering over 3.9 million views in 9 days (shown below, left,) followed by @edgyaria^[8] (shown below, right) garnering over 133,000 views in the same span of time.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References