Masking for video

[Gabe Van Lelyveld]

Hello,

Thanks in advance for reading. I'm editing a video that contains two shots in which the set had to have black gaff tape around the perimeter of the floor in order to container a pool of liquid in a kitchen (see attached image, yellow arrows added). For budget purposes the scene had to be shot this way instead of allowing the liquid to go wherever and damage the set.

My question is, what is the best/simplest/most effective way to eliminate the tape from the scene and create a new background in its place? Luckily, the shot is entirely static and the tape is not too thick/prominent, so I'm fairly confident it can be done and done well. Unfortunately, I don't have an image from the exact angle without the tape, although I could potentially get one if that would be easier than recreating it in PS. I'm a beginning to intermediate PS user and this is a little above my skill level.

I'm running CS4 on a MacBook Pro. The footage is ProRes 422 which I can export as still images (jpg, png, other) to work on individually in photoshop (assuming this is the best/smartest method). Also, as you can see a character is in the shot and moves some but not a lot. There is a fair bit of the background that will be entirely the same from frame to frame. How best can I automate as much of the process as possible?

Thanks in advance, Gabe

 

[NemesisWorks]

Hello and welcome Gabe Van Lelyveld to PSG forums, what you are trying to achieve can be done in Photoshop using clone stamp, healing and pattern clone stamp tool and it may take upto 1 to 2 hours to complete a single image flawlessly .. and I bet you're working on multiple images right ?

why not use After Effects CS6 Pro ? I always use that for such editing....

for healing, cloning see these tutorials :

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[IamSam]

Hi Gabe, any areas that are void of the actress' movements, editing all frames could easily be automated with an action thus reducing the amount of individual editing. However, you would still have to edit the same frames one by one because the areas behind her, or closest to her body, hands, and mop handle, that had movement, would require individual frame editing.

The idea of having an original shot of the kitchenette prior to the gaff taping, would be your easiest solution, but it can be done without it as demonstrated by EN. Since it is static, only one edit needed for all.

As I'm not that familiar with other editing programs, Ps may not be the best choice for this job.

 

[Gabe Van Lelyveld]

Thanks IamSam and EM,

I haven't had a chance to look at the tutorials yet but will do so. I do have AE but I haven't taught myself the program yet so I'd have to figure out the basics first, which is totally do-able, just takes more time. But it might be worth the investment for the time I save on the back end not having to export everything to PS, work there and then re-import for Final Cut.

I'll look into it further and re-post if I have more questions.

Thanks again. I really appreciate it.

-Gabe