Billboard signs/Images?

A

artistiam

Well-known member
I'm wondering how would I replace an image to a moving image on a billboard?

Let's say if you go to New York and theres a add with a major star I want to replace it with a moving image?

I think I might know but there's some brainiacs on here and I know some of you have 5 different answers.

Thanks in advance.
 
How many frames of footage are you needing to replace?
Is your camera locked during the shot or do you have movement?


I've had some luck with Picture in Picture if you get the angle correct and build up some borders or frames in P.S,

Other alternatives
You could get your footage at the right angle, mask off the billboard and play with opacity until the footage layer is dominant in that area.

Might not be the most efficent methods but might work if its not an elaborate deal. Be sure to match the lighting of the video and the areas around it.
 
artistiam said:
Thanks yes the camera would be static.
Click to expand...

Well, in that case it's easy, you just stick on top, make any ness adjustments to make it look like it belongs there and voila, you're done.

There are steps in between, but that's the gist of it.
 
Often you will get a better effect by placing your new video BEHIND the original layer.

Like this...

Grab a frame from your locked down original shot and bring it into Photoshop.
Now using the tools in photoshop, you can cut out the area of the billboard that you want to replace. This will allow you to use un-even lines and even some partially transparent pixels on the edges if necesarry. The aim is a smooth (invisible) transition.
Now you need to color you image so that the original image is pure white, and everything to be cut out it black. - the partially transparent pixels should be gray.

What you have created is a "Matte" image frame, also known as the Alpha channel for keying. You won't see any of this frame in the final video, but rather it will define where a "hole" (for your video) is.
Save this as a simple .tiff image. - No transparancy or layers needed.

Bring your foreground (original) video into your favorate NLE (I use Premiere, this bit might be a little different on other NLEs) onto Video track 2.
Bring in your new billboard video onto Video track 1 (behind the original). Don't worry about scaling for now.
Apply a "Image Matte" key to your original footage on track 2, using that image we created in photoshop as the key source. The new video should now be visible through the original video in the places where the matte image is black (the billboard space).
Now scale your new video using Corner Pins or any other transforming method of your choosing) so that it lines up, but slightly over-laps the hole behind.

The result will be the new video replacing only the areas of the billboard you cut out. The benefit of this method over putting the new video on top is that you end up using the original billboard frames with smooth edges over the new video.

This method does not work for moving video (as each frame would need it's own Matte, which would take ages).

- Mikko
 
mikkowilson said:
This method does not work for moving video (as each frame would need it's own Matte, which would take ages).
Click to expand...

I know you can do it in AE, I saw a tutorial where they used a Matte to define blur for a synthesized DOF.

It was pretty cool, they basically animated the Matte. I can't find the link to it.
 
I do this all the time in FCP using the Distortion tool and keyframes. Very quick and easy. There's also a third party plug-in by someone, I forget who, for FCP, that does tracking. CHV? I think it may be CHV.
 
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