How to Remove Occluded Object

[Ryan5C13]

Hi, I want to remove the white wall light fixture from the shot here.

Usually that would be easy. However, as you can see, the actor's head passes through it in the course of the shot. 

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[Jose Panadero]

There are some options for that. The first step is to freeze one frame to create a clean version of your wall. Then you can use these tools:

1.- Using Mocha to create roto masks for the actress

2.- Using the Rotobrush inside After Effects to create a matte for the actress. Probably this is the easiest option for this shot.

In all cases you must plave the clean wall below any other layer.

[Roland Kahlenberg]

You'll need to roto. Use either Rotobrush2 or Track + Roto with mochaAE or just old school roto with AE's Mask Tool.

[Rick Gerard]

3 Steps:

1. Duplicate the footage layer
2. Trim the duplicate layer to a frame or two before the actor moves in front of the object you want to remove and set the out point where the actor moves just out of the frame so you are only doing roto on the frames that need it
3. Do the roto work

The shape of the actor's head wrapped in a towel is not going to change much so if you have to do the roto manually it might be pretty easy. If you are going to use Rotobrush draw a garbage matte in the frame so Rotobrush will not have to search outside of the required area.

Once the matte has been created you can then export a clean frame of the wall using the Composition/Save Frame As/Photoshop Layers, then use that image to create your clean plate. Insert the clean plate between the Matte (rotoscoped) layer and use the Matte layer as a track matte to hide the clean plate or just let the actor's head pass by the clean plate.

If there is camera movement you'll have to do some motion tracking or motion stabilizing. The most efficient way to do that depends on how the camera moves. 

You'll probably have to do some color correction and edge blending to hide the clean plate, but there is no need to rotoscope any more of the actor than the part that passes in front of the object on the wall. Fortunately, the light fixture does not appear to be on so you won't have to deal with removing the light wrap that would be there if it was on. 

Your comp would look something like this:

Matte setup for roto

Rotobrush

Composite

The real trick to doing this kind of work is in making sure you don't spend any time fiddling with frames that you don't need to. Without the mask, before doing the Rotobrush you would have a lot of unnecessary fiddling and processing to do. If the Roto layer was not trimmed you would be spending a lot of time creating a matte (mask) for frames that do not need masking. 

[Ryan5C13]

Thank you Rick for the very detailed reply. I will follow your instructions closely and let you know how it works out. 

One final question: should I apply Neat Video noise correction before or after Rotoscoping?

Thanks,

Ryan