CorridorKey 2.0
Tied for most recommended of 8 animation software
Free tool that gets green screen keys to usable quality in seconds, cutting hours of manual masking. Main caveat: a non-commercial license that critics say is not truly open source.
Free tool that gets green screen keys to usable quality in seconds, cutting hours of manual masking. Main caveat: a non-commercial license that critics say is not truly open source.
22 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 17
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 77%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 17 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Produces high-quality keys quickly
“CorridorKey can automatically create world-class chroma keys even for some of the most traditionally-challenging scenarios.”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “It Took Me 30 Years to Solve This VFX Problem – Green Screen Problem [video]” “This tool ac get you from zero to 80%-90% for most shots in a handful of seconds.”
Comment from 26 Oct 2026 in “CorridorKey 2.0” “Very great results as well for something free.”
Comment from 26 Oct 2026 in “CorridorKey 2.0” - Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “It Took Me 30 Years to Solve This VFX Problem – Green Screen Problem [video]”
Removes tedious keying work
“This tool ac get you from zero to 80%-90% for most shots in a handful of seconds.”
Comment from 26 Oct 2026 in “CorridorKey 2.0” “really removing all the annoying part of chromakeys”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “CorridorKey: Open-source tool for high-quality green screen keying [video]” “you’re absolutely still saving hours”
Comment from 26 Oct 2026 in “CorridorKey 2.0” Empowers artists without heavy restrictions
“I think it is an amazing example of how labs should take all of their fundamental research and turn into products entirely designed, limited and scoped only to empower artists”
Comment from 26 Oct 2026 in “CorridorKey 2.0” “It's a lot better than just "source available". You can do most things as if it was open source.”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “CorridorKey 2.0” “Yet they're not being overbearing or stifling the community.”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “CorridorKey 2.0” Professional-level results at no cost
“it does seem to be well into the professional level of tools”
Comment from 26 Oct 2026 in “CorridorKey 2.0” “Very great results as well for something free.”
Comment from 26 Oct 2026 in “CorridorKey 2.0”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Non-commercial license, not open source
“modifying a CC-NC license and then calling this "open source" is not it.”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “CorridorKey 2.0” “it is merely source-available. This has been repeatedly brought up along with other very questionable license decisions”
Comment from 26 Oct 2026 in “CorridorKey 2.0” “this still is a bad license, as CC-by-nc-sa with redundant and contradictory terms isn't particularly clear”
Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “CorridorKey 2.0” - Comment from 26 Oct 2026 in “CorridorKey 2.0”
- Comment from 27 Oct 2026 in “CorridorKey 2.0”
Other animation software people recommend
The four most recommended other animation software, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CorridorKey 2.0This page | 17 | 5 | 77% | 2 | — | — |
| Apple Motion | 17 | 1 | 94% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Adobe After Effects | 14 | 12 | 54% | 10 | — | — |
| ntsc-rs | 14 | 1 | 93% | 2 | — | — |
| Adobe Animate | 9 | 23 | 28% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
All 26 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Yet they're not being overbearing or stifling the community.”
“both of which CorridorKey 2.0 is very good at”
“sounds very much source-available to me”
“this still is a bad license, as CC-by-nc-sa with redundant and contradictory terms isn't particularly clear”
“Interesting that the only issue on CorridorKey2.0 repo is about the licensing issue, then they turned off issues.”
“It's a lot better than just "source available". You can do most things as if it was open source.”
“modifying a CC-NC license and then calling this "open source" is not it.”
“This tool ac get you from zero to 80%-90% for most shots in a handful of seconds.”
“it is merely source-available. This has been repeatedly brought up along with other very questionable license decisions”
“Worlds better than version one of CorridorKey and they are using it internally on their own shows/content.”
“the intentions seem noble”
“Clarification required as the project is NOT open source following OSI definition”
“The Corridor Crew model here is fantastic.”
“it does seem to be well into the professional level of tools”
“you’re absolutely still saving hours”
“it was no where near professional level”
“The issues aren't nits, they're really obvious, even after YouTube compression.”
“I think it is an amazing example of how labs should take all of their fundamental research and turn into products entirely designed, limited and scoped only to empower artists”
“If you do ANY sort of video production work, this is an amazing tool.”
“It's been so cool to watch this develop”
“Very great results as well for something free.”
“Corridor Key had done the best job”
“CorridorKey can automatically create world-class chroma keys even for some of the most traditionally-challenging scenarios.”
“Still Python unfortunately.”
“Pretty incredible that a non programmer was able to whip this up in ~8 weeks”
“really removing all the annoying part of chromakeys”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.