Erasing things

Billy Pilgrim said:
Is it possible to erase objects from shots with after effects 7? If so, how do you do it? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...


yes, both entirely inside AE and AE with Photoshop help.

AE by itself - Motion tracker (if needed) + Clone stamp ('nuff said)

AE with Photoshop - Using the clone tool and Healing Brush, erasefix the portions you wish. Then crop the fixed areas and put them on seperate layers (seperate layers is optional, but you can name them and it would keep AE a little more tidy). Then, open your photoshop doc in AE and select the layer to import, motion track the part you want to erase if needed and put the track data to the erased/fixed layer (which should be above your original footage. You will have to ad grain or use Match Grain to get that portion of the frame to look right, as well as enable motion blur if it is moving. You may run into trouble if the motion blur is not the same as the camera you are shooting with, so under the Advanced tab in the Comp settings, adjust the shutter angle as needed (look under Help for the exact setting) and then it should match pretty well.

You may run into problems with the Photoshop method, because you will have to add grain and match motion blur, but the healing brush is far superior to the clone stamp for clean up and if you can go that route (camera locked down or slow pans) you can get great results.
 
Last edited:
what are you trying to erase ? all depends on the shot etc.. If the camera is not locked off then life is far easier if you can use a copy of the same footage (just translated in frame and soft matted)
 
Rapier_100a's answer sounds good. but you can also delete objects in AE to with clone stamp tool
 
Last edited:
jackal2513 said:
what are you trying to erase ? all depends on the shot etc.. If the camera is not locked off then life is far easier if you can use a copy of the same footage (just translated in frame and soft matted)
Click to expand...

Most of the footage is hand-held, but I'm trying to erase distant headlights and tail lights of cars. basically in the film, the main character is also the only character, because everyone else is supposed to be dead, and it's not very believable when you can see little lights zipping around in frame. But I might also want to erase some parked cars from shots too. I'm also new to after effects, so I don't know.
 
uhh, that is gonna be hard. I would reshoot the scene, but in AE, try to use different blend modes and several layers, try CC etc...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top