How to paint over scratches by using image data from a previous frame?

Question

In After Effects, I'm working on removing scratches and dust from an old 16mm film scan. Since these scratches and dust particles only show up on one frame then disappear – is there a way to paint them out with using the image data of the previous frame that has no dust or scratches? For example – Let's say I want to fix a scratch that goes through a person's face. The fix needs to be seamless. The previous frame is clear of the scratch. So I want to be able to click on an frame area that has the scratch on it -and have After Effects to copy the image data from the previous frame and automatically place it onto the area of the current frame that has the scratch on it. This way I can have the best chance to restore the frame. Is there a way to do this in After Effects? Hopefully what I'm trying to accomplish make sense. I don't want to use the clone tool and clone from the same frame. Some of these scratches and dust particles are extensive and I need to use the data from previous frames that are clean to make my repairs. Thank you!

Rick Gerard · Accepted Answer

Without a specific sample of a couple of frames, it is pretty hard to give you an exact recipe, and unfortunately, the recipe for each frame may be a little different. There is no automatic way to do this precisely that I know of. There is a Dust and Scratches filter that can help, but it's pretty much a shotgun approach. it hits most of the image and can tend to degrade things.

The closest thing you could do to automate the process would be to somehow calculate the differences between frames and create a matte based on the scratches that work on the footage to poke a hole in it. If there is a lot of camera or subject movement this idea will fall apart.

The manual approach is to create a track matte for a copy of the footage with Dust and scratches applied. Applying Dust and scratches on the original footage may help eliminate some minor scratches but major ones require a little more aggressive approach. Something like this:

Turns into something like this with a little work:

I have uploaded a short video of the workflow in action.

Mylenium · Answer

The clone stamp can sample from different frames. I would suggest you actually read the online help on such basics:

https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/paint-tools-brush-clone-stamp.html

Mylenium

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