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Removing an object from a scene!
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  • @Gardner Interesting tutorial - thanks for posting. I have a tricky scene I need to do an object removal on but it's tough so thought I'd ask what you would recommend. Imagine it's like the scene you did with a person walking and a car in the background that needs to be removed. But imagine the car is in the middle of the background, with the person walking in front of and then past it. Oh yeah, the scene was shot handheld with panning done left to right. Lol. Any techniques you'd recommend?

  • That sounds like a tricky one, but it sounds like you would need to use Mocha for your object removal. Mocha does a pretty good job with difficult tracking and roto work that needs to be done, and if I'm not mistaken they used it extensively with the film "black swan".

  • Thanks for the tip - I'll look into it.

  • No problem, and if you go to imagineersystems.com they have a ton of tutorials there!

  • @matt_gh2 You'll need to do some matte of your actor (I know... rotoscopy is awkward). Mocha offers good result but if there's some advanced camera movement I strongly advise you to dig PFTrack and NukeX to make clean plate. After effects & mocha are baby tools when it comes to complexe object removal. It doesn't mean you can't do it with after and mocha, just that it may be much more difficult and time consuming to get decent results while pftrack and nukex will perfectly do the job but they probably needs more training. Simple advise but, try avoiding to have work in post production. If there's a car and you have enough hands, just move it, shoot, then put it back. It'll give less headache and you'll never come to the point where some FX are very heavy to achieve. Thinking "We can do it later in post" is a very bad start and can only brings you problem later unless you have a very precise idea of how you gonna do the composite.

  • @Gardner Thanks will check out tutorials.

    @GeoffreyKenner Will take a look at PFTrack and NukeX. Thanks for recommendation. Most def agree re never banking on fixing in post. ( My example shot was just something similar to one done in tutorial here. Actual shot was a water bottle left in a center armrest cupholder as actor gets into car. We missed it when shooting, but kinda stands out a bit when we watched later.)

  • Mocha is great for making masks, though... I highly recommend it.

  • I would use something like boujou or PFTrack if I had something like a panning shot and I wanted to do a set extension or integrate 3d elements, but with Mocha it's great for changing signs or doing something like demon eyes! Every software has its strengths but it also depends on the person using it, because why waste a lot of money on software if you can somehow do it inside after effects.