Compositing: editing Frame by Frame?

[Mylenium]

Hi People,

I'm new to VFX and I have a question. I've been gathering a lot of info from the web and i just want to confirm this concept:

Say you have a panning footage of a bedroom with a painting on a flowery wall, and you want to get rid of the painting, is it true you'll have to remove the painting FRAME BY FRAME? So you'll have to render out a sequence and edit the STILL FRAMES one by one say in Photoshop?

I read about this FRAME BY FRAME method all the time.. but i'm quite skeptical as too whether it's the common method behind compositing. It seems tedious... and i guess VFX is tedious work!

Thanks!
cgbub

You can paint and rotoscope in AE and include all the other tools in your plan (moion tracking, effects), but yes, if you're extremly unlucky and the shot is quite complex (fine patterns, lots of hair), you'll spend a lot of time doing every frame.

Mylenium

[beenyweenies]

I agree with what Mylenium said, but there is another potential solution for your specific situation.

In AE, duplicate your video layer. On the top-most video, draw a mask just to the side of the painting, and make it a little bit larger than the size of the painting. You can then move the entire video layer (not the mask but the entire video layer) to cover the painting. You are essentially replacing the painting with a copy of the chunk of wall next to the painting. It's like using the clone stamp in Photoshop, but with a video clip so the grain and movement match up better.

You will have to copy a chunk of wall carefully to make the pattern match up, and you will need to feather the edge of the mask to match it in properly, but this technique is commonly used. I've even used it on feature film compositing with great results.

[mackdadd]

i made a video tutorial to show some REALLY basic compositing techniques in AE, and that's the first part of it, removing something on a wall. Check it out. :thumbsup:

http://www.simplycg.net/viewtopic.php?t=1746

[cgbub]

Beenweeny, thanks for the duplicate/mask technique. I've actually tried that but failed to make it seamless. Now that you've confirmed that it's a common technique, i feel more comfortable spending more time and tweaking it. Cuz before that, i'm always skeptical about some tedious techniques that i've come up with, never really willing to spend the time on tweakin fearing that it's the wrong way and im wasting time. Thanks for the confirmation!

Mackdadd, I'll look at your tutorial right now! and yeah, I write your post, I'm interesting in more tutorials from u about label replacement and any removal of things in a MOVING footage.
In fact, I'm trying to learn Boujou so I can motion track and place CG elements from Maya into my footage.

thanks everyone, i luv the internet.

cgbub

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