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Wire Removal with Subject Crossing Line

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rickdeck666

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Wire Removal with Subject Crossing Line

PostWed Jul 28, 2021 5:52 pm

I have an overhead shot looking down at a rug, stationary. We have a VFX of a chair "sliding" in by itself. Lines that pull the chair are visible on the rug. Actor enters frame and the lines get pulled and the chair moves in behind the actor for him to sit down. I've been having trouble figuring out how to hide the lines. I've tried basic stuff like Paint and Wire Removal but when the actor crosses the line his shoulder gets cloned out. Then I tried to animate the line but the carpet looks like its moving. I tried to paint frame by frame but the line changes with each frame so the rug looks jittery. Another thing I thought was to make a background plate of the shot in Photoshop with the wires painted out, then put the video on top of that photo and erase only in the areas where the wire is so the lighting would look constant with the photo underneath. Is that possible? Can anyone think of a better way to do this?

Thank you in advance!
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Sander de Regt

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Re: Wire Removal with Subject Crossing Line

PostWed Jul 28, 2021 6:59 pm

Without seeing the shot it's difficult to give very specific advice.
Usually in situations like this the chance you'll be getting away with just one approach is very slim.
You'll most likely need to use a combination of techniques.

How furry is your rug? Do you see the fibres move when the wires are pulled?
The Paint and Wire removal works best with a solid background, but - as you've discovered - it can also draw attention to itself.

The seperate background approach might be the best way to go about it though. You can put the patch on top of the wires, covering them all in one go and then indeed remove the parts you don't need.

There is no need to paint out the wires in Photoshop, you can create that still directly inside of Fusion with a seperate branch. The downside of a still can be that you won't see any of the noise that might be in the original footage etc.

Is there any chance you can share the shot?
Sander de Regt

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Kel Philm

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Re: Wire Removal with Subject Crossing Line

PostWed Jul 28, 2021 7:41 pm

My approach would be to create a clean plate with the wires removed (choose a frame where the lighting will match most of the frames). Paint out the wires with a mask with a soft edge on it (experiment to see which gives the least detectable edges), cut this with the roto of the shoulder. Then finally create additional masks to colour correct only the clean plate to match the shadows (usually animating the gain down and back up works best).
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rickdeck666

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Re: Wire Removal with Subject Crossing Line

PostThu Jul 29, 2021 3:36 pm

@Sander de Regt - Thanks for your response! Here's a link to the shot:


@Kel Philm - Thank you for that advice! Do you mean actually roto-ing the shoulder? Sorry just lost you at that step. Please be sure to take a look at the clip above for reference, if you are able.
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Sander de Regt

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Re: Wire Removal with Subject Crossing Line

PostThu Jul 29, 2021 7:06 pm

Thanks for showing the shot. Has this been edited into the rest yet?
Because I have the feeling if I were to edit this, I'd most likely only enter the shot when the head of the actor is already in the frame. It feels a bit 'empty' in the beginning, but of course I don't know the context of the shots.

In this case the wires almost remove themselves once they start moving. So I'd probably take one of those frames and use that with a bit of paint work as a clean plate and then - like I mentioned before - just put that on top of the original footage and then - like @Kel Philm probably means - cut out the bit you don't need with a bit of roto when the shoulder crosses that part. I think this shot could be done in less than an hour and you'd get away with it, no problem.
Sander de Regt

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Kel Philm

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Re: Wire Removal with Subject Crossing Line

PostThu Jul 29, 2021 9:31 pm

Looks like you've got some clean plate about 20% of the way in (as soon as the wire moves) and it looks clear of shadow so I'd be using that. As Sander said once its in motion it doesn't appear detectible and with everything else that is going on it should be pretty straight forward, only the first 25% of the shot needs to be altered (I think). Just use the clean plate to cover over the wire till it is moving, then roto the part of the shoulder that will be covering that clean plate and you should be done.
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rickdeck666

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Re: Wire Removal with Subject Crossing Line

PostFri Jul 30, 2021 12:53 am

Thank you both for your advice, will try all! Cheers!

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