How do I erase a spot? (Not you, Douglas)

Steve Mann wrote on 8/27/2010, 11:26 AM
I have a video that I am working on for a client that has a spot on the wall behind the talent. The client wants that spot removed. (It's so small that I can barely see it in preview)

http://www.mmdv.com/sonyvegas/pba2.jpg

While I'm at it, I would also "erase" the electrical outlet also.

Can anyone give me a tip toward accomplishing this?

I tried duplicating the layer and moving the lower layer slightly, then using a cookie cutter to cut a hole in the upper track to let the lower, moved track show through.

This kind-of works, but you can see the edge of the hole that the cookie cutter made.

Any better ideas would be appreciated.

Steve Mann

Comments

musicvid10 wrote on 8/27/2010, 11:31 AM
Is the camera stationary?
Chienworks wrote on 8/27/2010, 11:33 AM
A judicious amount of feathering the cookie cutter would help a lot.
kkolbo wrote on 8/27/2010, 12:08 PM

The shadow may give you some trouble with the wall socket, but the spot would just need a little feathering in the cookie cutter.
If the camera is stationary, you could also take a still of the frame and blend a larger area in a rectangular patch made in your photo editing software. People tend to ignore parallel lines if the patch does not match perfectly.

You could also put a prop over the wall socket if he doesn't move in front of it :)

KK
Steve Mann wrote on 8/27/2010, 1:54 PM
In most shots the camera is locked down. I made a snapshot of a frame then used Photoshop to clone out the spots and put this image on the track below the track with cookies. Feathering looks better, but I have a new problem. Because I like to fade to black and fade from black on the end/beginning of the clips, the jpg image shows through the fades.....

I guess that I'll have to make an intermediate file with the spots removed, then do my fades on them.

Steve Mann
Chienworks wrote on 8/27/2010, 1:55 PM
You can duplicate the fades on the .jpg files too. Should work ok, even if the gamma doesn't match exactly, the difference shouldn't be too noticeable.
musicvid10 wrote on 8/27/2010, 2:13 PM
On the locked-down shots, was thinking of the VDub filter called LogoAway.
On those uniform walls it should work fairly well and follow your fades.
kkolbo wrote on 8/27/2010, 2:15 PM
To fade everything to black and back, place a track at the top of everything. Use the fade to color envelope on that top track to fade to black and then ramp it back to center to come back out.