Thanks Winrock - that's an interesting thread; I hadn't come across Wax before - I'm going to look into that.

My original idea of Batch processing all the individual frames within Photoshop is a non-starter, I think. I don't know much about PS but it appears easy enough to do a general filter as a batch, but not something more involved like individually burning three localised areas of an image.

It's back to working within Vegas... maybe with some sort of mask?

Anyone know if After Effects has Photoshop-like re-touching capability?

Thanks again,

Andy Mac

http://www.eyeonline.com/Web/EyeonWeb/Products/dfx_plus/dfx_plus.aspx

with the Module 6 - Paint option and 1 , the trackers ... (Or Modules 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7 is the same price)

Hi B JM. I went to the eyeonline website, and rather worryingly, there were no prices displayed... just an ominous message saying 'contact us for pricing'.
Looking at a recent issue of DIGIT magazine, I see the Digital Fusion product comes highly recommended... but equally highly priced at £2,650 GBP(!) ouch!
I was hoping for something more within my means... but many thanks for the recommendation; something to aspire to!

Cheers,

Andy

http://www.eyeonline.com/Web/EyeonWeb/Buying/PriceList.aspx

$1295 with all modules except network rendering ..

DFX+ 4 with Module Bundle
Includes Modules 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7

this would only work if your frame is static (no camera movement):

Export one still frame from your clip

Create a photoshop template/file from that still where just the offending pixles are effected, fix it, and everywhere else leave as a transparency.

Overlay that still image file (psd) above your video clip, so that the corrected section of the frame is seen 1st (your psd file) and the rest of the video plays through the transparency.

Like I said, this only works if there is no camera movement and nothing moves under the damaged pixel.

Ed
imperialrabbit.com

I think you might be able to get it as cheap as $995 and now is a good time to buy, when thhe new version is released the price goes up. You'll be able to upgrade though for only a few $100.

All that side, this should be doable in Vegas as well as it can be done just about in anything. The offending drops of water are on the lens so they shouldn't need to be tracked, they should be static within the frame.
So one just copies the track to one above, applies the corrections to adjust for the water and uses several cookie cutters to composite the corrected areas into the OK parts of the frame.
But it maybe not that easy, if these were drops of water then there'll likely be diffraction of the light as well as level shifts (the drops are little lenses). This MIGHT be fixable using the displacement or height map FXs, you'd need to make a suitable greyscale sphere to drive the FX though.
Bob.

Here's a simple fix using only Vegas. Add a new video track above your present video. Duplicate your video and place on this track making sure the duplate and original line up. Drop in the Cookie Cutter filter. Set to Circle, cut away all but section. To start make the size and border much larger so you can see them. Now using the Cookie Cutter tools, first size and position the mask to roughly where you want it. Next use the eye dropper to get close to the surrounding color. Finish by feathering until is disapears, then back off a bit. If necessary to move if the rain drop slides down setting up keyframes. Repeat for other drops. This isn't as good a method, but its fast, easy and nothing else to buy. If this doesn't quite do it you can do the same with more fancy masking. You may get better results if you slide both feather and border almost all the way right. This is also effective for removing blemishes, that kind of thing.

Many thanks to all for your suggestions! One of the things I love about Vegas is that there are always several ways to solve a problem... another thing is that you'll find out more than you ever thought possible right here on this board :-)

To set the scene, I was shooting at night from outside looking into a group of 4 well-lit adjacent rooms, with dancers performing inside. It's impossible to re-shoot, and the film has to be ready in a week. It was autumn, and there was very fine drizzle which was pretty much invisible, but 3 or 4 spots made it onto the UV filter on the lens. Because of the lighting, they show up as slightly lighter patches around 60 pixels in diameter. One is right over a dancer, so sadly a static fix won't do - hence my initial plan to fix all the frames in Photoshop (bad idea ;-)

I'll try the duplicate layer and 'cookie cutter' plan.

Thanks again to all for your help

Andy Mac

The Delogo filter, which I discussed in the thread winrock posted, will do exactly what you want, without any real work, other than creating the mask where each smudge or raindrop exists. There will still be some residual smudge where the raindrops were, but these will doubtless be far less obtrusive than the original drops.