I need to remove the Gaffers tape rolls in a video clip. I have a reference frame of what the image would look like without the unwanted gaffers tape. What is the best way to do this? The actor is moving in the frame and the video is hand held. So there is a slight camera movement but even more movement by the actor as he moves back and forth. Can I cut the top off the furniture piece and place it over the video clip where the gaffers tape is located? Should this be done as a video layer or a still photo layer? I would prefer to possibly use a video clip of possible because the video monitor in the shot flickers and adds some nice depth. If not, creating a still photo and tracking a portion of it over the top of the furniture is okay too.
Hi
Are you familiar with Mocha Pro? Specifically with the Remove module. We have a lot of tutorials that demonstrates a variety of cleanup techniques. For example here’s the one you can have a look
Elizabeth is 100% correct - you really should use Mocha Pro for this type of shot.
Hi Elizabeth & Peter,
I’ve downloaded Mocha and watched the first 20 tutorial videos and Mary’s above and am giving this a shot. Which Mocha technique do you suggest. I was thinking of using the video clip to show the monitor on top of the area with the gaffers tape as sort of a split screen and then rotoscoping one side or the other. Or just creating a tiff image of the top of the piece of furniture that has the gaffers tape that is clean from another shot. I saw Mary’s video, but don’t see how that will work in my situation. In Mary’s video, she uses the Removal tool. However, the object she removes is in front of the shot. She then brings it into Photoshop and uses the heal tool to recreate the missing information. In my shot, I have to remove an object behind and actor. I don’t see how the removal tool we fix this. The only information I have is the reference clip below. Any suggestions? Please see the below clips.
This Clip is video reference that can possibly be used to rebuild the area that the gaffers tape is covering.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hkDQfJ8xVNN07pFsI3VkySgjBfp2eJfv/view?usp=sharing
Here is a link to one of the three video clips that I must remove the gaffers tape from:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iamq2k1_mTdgarbvrsKRF8DU8eHXWJ5j/view?usp=sharing
Could you or anyone else please guide me in the right direction and the best approach to use.
Many Thanks, Nunzio
It will work the same. You should create a cleanplate, the tiff image as you say, in photoshop. Then feed it back to Mocha’s remove module and turn on checkbox “Use cleanplate exclusively”. And then you also need to roto part of the actors body, so it wont be affected by cleanplate.
Is this clips that you’ve provided allowed to use in a tutorial?
Yes, you can use the clips. I can export a full res frame as a .tiff in AVID. Am I going to use the whole frame as a clean plate or try to cut out just the top of the furniture piece and try to lock it in place. Also, there is slight camera movement, do I need to create a tracking mat that duplicates the original image and lock the clean plate to the original video? Many Thanks
Hi Peter, I saw in Mary Poplin’s video above, that she only brought in I believe as a clean plate a small section of the trailer that she had repaired in Photoshop.
I was thinking of exporting the clean frame show in the video above and then going into PhotoShop and cutting it down to include the top of the furniture piece starting a little above it to include a little bit of the wall and then go a little below the top front corner so I could blend it together. Then try to make a clean plate like Mary did and blend them together. I am thinking if I make my plate as small as possible, I will then only need to rotoscope a much smaller section of the actor and his hair which has a lot of fly aways. None the less, I really don’t know what is the best approach here. Is my above idea the right approach? If you would be so kind as to give me a step by step approach as you did in my BCC Beauty Studio Fix the Eyes question, I would be eternally grateful. Many Thanks, Nunzio
Hi Nunzio,
Yep, the effect should work exactly as you have described. I don’t have time to list out the steps for you at the moment but I’ll try to get to that later today or tomorrow. If you become stuck while working on the shot let me know and I can put you in touch with someone who can assist you with that.
Thanks,
Peter.
Hi Peter, I’m stuck. Mary’s above video would have been incredible is she had actually showed the 2 guys as they ran in front of the trailer that she had to remove the writing from instead of starting the shot as they exit. This would show me how to remove the tape rolls that have an actor in front of them. Is there anyone that can help me with this? I don’t see any videos that explain it on the Boris Website.
UPDATE:
Here is my frustration:
- I created a BG Tracking plate. Used the surface tool and got a perfect track. Then enlarged it to cover the area I wanted to replace
- Created a Replace Layer of only the area I wanted to replace
- Exported a similar clean frame with no Tape Rolls in AVID. Exported to PhotoShop and cut it out to be similar to my Remove Layer.
- Tried to import it into Mocha. Mocha said the image was too small and asked if I wanted to create a Mega Plate. Created a Mega Plate.
- Clicked use clean plates exclusively.
- Saved Mocha project and closed it.
- Went back into AVID and in the effects module clicked in Module Renders. On the drop down menu, wanted to insert the clean plate, but instead the AVID quit.
- Restarted my computer, Relaunched AVID and Mocha. My Mocha project is GONE. Normally in BCC, it remembers the saved project. Here even though I saved it 10 times while working, it disappeared. I now must start again and redraw all my shapes
If I even knew that this was the correct approach this wouldn’t be so frustrating. But I have no idea how I am supposed to put this plate behind the actor. How do I create another shape that allows me to rotoscope the shape away from the actor?
If the reason my saved project disappeared, is because I didn’t save AVID before it crashed, then we need Boris to allow us to save AVID while working in Mocha. But currently, when Mocha is open, AVID is disabled until we close Mocha.
ANOTHER UPDATE
I was able to export clean plate frame into photoshop where I removed the tape rolls. How do I remove the small plate from the actors hair?
I tried making the Remove Plate as small as possible, but still have to rotoscope the actors hair. Currently the Removal Plate is covers the actors hair.
Do I go into the Removal plate and use that plate to rotoscope? That plate is tied to the BG Tracking plate. If I rotoscope one frame and then tell Mocha to track, the clean plate goes out of sink with the camera movement. So do I have to Rotoscope every frame by hand without asking Mocha to track? Please see the below image:
Here is a frame after insertion of the clean plate that removes the Tape Rolls. Notice that the plate is in front of the actor.
What are you thoughts?
Many Thanks, Nunzio
Hi Nunzio,
I think you’re making good progress on learning how to use Mocha to remove elements from a shot. I really think you might benefit from spending an hour or two learning some deeper Mocha tricks. I’d suggest sifting through these tutorial videos (Boris FX | Videos) to increase your Mocha knowledge and I’m sure after that you’ll be well equipped to complete the remove in this shot. If you’re still having trouble after that please let us know and we’ll walk you through the process.
Cheers,
Peter.
Hi Peter,
The videos have been quite helpful. This one in particular.
An issue that I am having is that I fixed the clean plate on another computer. So it doesn’t automatically import and update. So I manually imported it and went to edit and told Mocha which frame number to set it on. Being I was having an artifact issue with hair from the original clean plate spilling into the shot, I recreated a clean plate on a different frame. Now when I import it, I see that there are 2 other clean plates in the drop down menu. Unfortunately, none of my clean plates kept their name (which is the frame number) in the drop down menu. I just figured out that the clean plates are listed in the drop down in descending order with the latest one on the bottom of the list. However, Is there a way to RENAME the clean plates that are in the Drop Down Menu?
One other question. Being there is motion blur on the hair and being that I have to get really close to the hair and sometimes cut out a few strands to make it look real, there is a hard edge in my rotoscope. Is it recommended putting an edge blur on the Hair layer (which is the layer above the background layer and above the remove layer. So to clarify: The Hair layer is on top of the Remove Layer which is on top of the Background layer). Unfortunately, when I change the edge width on this layer, it has no effect.
Update:
I completed the Tape Removal. It looks really good. I will upload them when I have a moment and show you.
Many Thanks!
Nunzio
Hey @nmfazio
I recorded a step-by-step guide for you
Please watch it carefully and follow along
Cheers
Elizabeth
Hi Elizabeth,
Thank you so much for the video! Just a couple of questions. At the end when you said the edge width was eight and four, is that set to 8.4 on your screen?
Regarding rotoscoping the actors hair, did you use the mesh tool to track it or was that just a standard track including perspective?
Many Thanks!
Nunzio
Yeah, the value is set to 8.4 in a window cause I was experimenting in a process, but the actual edge width is probably like 3. It will jump to 8.4 only if i click “set”, which I don’t show here. Just start with using + and - instead, that’s a bit more straightforward.
As for the roto, I started with using Power Mesh, but at the end of the shot actor moves rapidly, and the mesh gets very distorted, so I actually ended up doing that ending part manually. So that’s a mix of Power Mesh + manual minor tweaks. Overall that shouldn’t take more that 5 minutes
Hope that helps