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francisco rb5470484
Participating Frequently
April 5, 2019
Answered

Reference Frame Issue — Content Aware Fill

  • April 5, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 7231 views

Hello Kevin;

I am having issue with the reference frame. Does the two Photoshop boxes the boxes on the content- aware fill settings have to be checked? I tried the PNG way but Photoshop did not open, and does After Effect have to be closed when working on the reference frame in Photoshop. Once back in Photoshop, Do I track again? Because if I just click on the generate fill layer I am getting an opaque error.

Thank you

Frank

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer David Arbor

    You need to have a transparent area on the layer you want to fill. This can be done in a myriad of ways, including Mask Tracking and setting a Track Matte. The button to create a reference layer should open Photoshop, but if it doesn't you can make your own and import it into After Effects. All you have to do is select both the layer that you want to fill and the reference frame (I'm not sure if it needs to be named "Reference Frame" but that's what AE will call it when it's automatically generated), and generate your fill layer.

    You only need to track your shot to be filled once.

    If you successfully tracked something to fill on your footage, make sure to set that mask to Subtract mode. Your footage needs to have transparent pixels in order for Content-Aware Fill to work. You see the transparent area visualized as a black and white matte in the preview area of the CAF panel.

    3 replies

    M
    maarrkk
    Participant
    July 30, 2020

    after the mask generate process etc. the content aware area is all black, and moves, and the video its replacing is warped. i just a few different settings and played with it, but i cant get the mask area to stop being black. i cant see any settings to fix this and theres nothing on the internet about it. i dont know why these programs cant just all work the same when you use them, specially when you havent changed any settings and your following tutorials closely but the same thing doesnt happen. im using AE 2020 version

      L
      laurenr42438644
      Inspiring
      November 23, 2021

      This is happening to me as well. The only solution i've found is to just try recreating the reference frame over and over again until it actually works which isn't worth my time. 

       

      D
      David ArborCorrect answer
      Inspiring
      May 21, 2019

      You need to have a transparent area on the layer you want to fill. This can be done in a myriad of ways, including Mask Tracking and setting a Track Matte. The button to create a reference layer should open Photoshop, but if it doesn't you can make your own and import it into After Effects. All you have to do is select both the layer that you want to fill and the reference frame (I'm not sure if it needs to be named "Reference Frame" but that's what AE will call it when it's automatically generated), and generate your fill layer.

      You only need to track your shot to be filled once.

      If you successfully tracked something to fill on your footage, make sure to set that mask to Subtract mode. Your footage needs to have transparent pixels in order for Content-Aware Fill to work. You see the transparent area visualized as a black and white matte in the preview area of the CAF panel.

      R
      Community Expert
      Rick GerardCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      May 21, 2019

      It's pretty straight forward. Type Content Aware Fill in the Search help field in the top right corner of AE and check out the user guide. There are a couple of tutorials. One of them will walk you through the entire process.

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