Blackmagic Forum

Hello. Casual fusion user here. I have to do some wire removal. I found the wire removal function of the paint tool to be a little lackluster :-/ Was hoping for somehing akin to healing tool in photoshop, but alas. Also was hoping using optical flow for this purpose would be somewhat intuitive, but my limited experience as a compositor did not produce any immediate bright ideas.

The shot is a slow push in, slight telephoto lens, and there are patterns, objects and bokeh-balls in the background. The wire is not in tension throughout the shot, so it hangs/curves during beginning and end. Oh and the lighting is changing slightly. So not quite straight forward. Is camera projection and 3d tracking the way to go (in spite of light changing), or are there simpler methods?

Anyone know of a good tutorial or write-up on this topic?

Bonus question: Any chance the are there any modern magic or creative methods to track the actual wire (ie auto generate a spline?)? Has anyone invented such a tool yet?

Projection is helpful for removes, but without seeing the footage, it's hard to tell. Basically, you create geometry of the scene, then clean up one frame (remove the wire) and project that one frame onto the geo. Then you just mask the wire out

Thanks Chris.

Aware of projection, but as I said the shot had some changing light and bokeh balls at different depths, so in this case that route was a bit messy. I got lucky though: The shot had to be redone because of continuity issues, and this time the wire was far less tricky

regardless of the application, wire removal tools 'automate' the process and therefore will have limited success- or instant success- based on the shot it is being used in.
i have used fusion's wire removal tool to get fantastic results easily, and i have had shots where it wasn't going to work no matter what i did. traditionally, painting them out the hard way is the solution.

that said, don't use it with just a single polyline, use multiple ones and you may find it starts getting you places you want it to go.

but from your description and not seeing the plate, a wire removal tool may not work and it may require brute force, time, headphones and your favourite music.