HELP: Need to Remove Airplanes from Night Shot...

Tom Lowe

Tom Lowe

Well-known member
I like this shot I got last week in the mountains, but all those damn airplanes near the end of the clip really ruin it for me. :cry:

http://www.timescapes.org/lakestars.mov

Is there any way to use AE or PS to remove those planes? I figure about 100-200 frames probably have planes in them. If I have to do it by hand, so be it, but any technical tips would be much appreciated!
 
hmm, well the easiest way is to get a photo of all those stars with out the mountains. In the original footage, rotoscope out the sky leaving the mountains, put the pix of the stars in the background then key frame a rotation of the stars. On the ends where you see them on sides of the mountains I would add some sort of disortment to give some demension.
The other option is key frame the stamp tool and cover the planes. I would keep a plane here and there cause they look like shooting stars. You're right though, near the end it's annoying.
 
How about I am not god and don't choose when the milky way lines up with air traffic out of san francisco every night!!

hahahaha.
 
duplicate the layer 2x and mask the section of the sky where any given plane has a path both just before and just after the passing of the plane. then freeze the layers with the masks on the frames before and after and stich them together to be as one single still precomp image you can motion track with motion blur to match the movement of the sky on top of the main video layer. you can do this for each passing plane. this will create a clean plate of moving sky over the top of the passing planes. a pain since youve go to do it for each plane, but not incredibly too difficult. some planes you could even just use the before shot for. hope this makes sense as im not speeling it all out in keystrokes but the concept is pretty straightforward, and it would be one way to do it seamlessly where your end result is exactly what you would have seen were the planes not there.
 
Tom Lowe said:
I like this shot I got last week in the mountains, but all those damn airplanes near the end of the clip really ruin it for me. :cry:

http://www.timescapes.org/lakestars.mov

Is there any way to use AE or PS to remove those planes? I figure about 100-200 frames probably have planes in them. If I have to do it by hand, so be it, but any technical tips would be much appreciated!
Click to expand...

I don't know how to remove them planes, but I gotta say that is an AWESOME looking video. :) I kinda like the airplanes in there as they look like shooting stars.
 
I think the shot looks better with the planes in it.
The plane light streaks kind of add a nice random element to it and remind us that nothing is unblemished by humanity. Without them it would look like it was faked in AE.
 
Just use the clean frames before and after the planes, and put them over top of the frames with the planes in it. You will have to move and rotate the section of sky slightly, lining up the stars via blending modes.

Neil hit the nail on the head with masks. mask out only the portions of the frame that show the plane.


I agree with the other dude though, they look like shooting stars and that is really cool, but I can understand why you would want a clean and pristine sky.
 
Wow. That IS amazing. How the heck did you capture such a shot.
I agree with who ever said to leave it. Just leave it in it's natural state. The planes look like shooting stars. Adds a mystic, space-like feeling. Do share you camera technique. Looks like DSLR stills: One taken every few minutes or so? Long exposure? Still amazing.
 
ellsworth, thanks. yeah, this sequence was shot with a Canon 350D DSLR still camera, doing 45-second exposures at f/3.5 on the EF-S 10-22mm lens, ISO 1600. I had 5 second-intervals between frames. Hope that helps.
 
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