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J
joesaa
Participating Frequently
June 13, 2021
Question

Removing logo from a moving object

  • June 13, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 3053 views

Hello Adobe community,

I have been trying to remove a logo from this Caterpillar machine
The way I am doing it is by tracking the logo on Mocha then using content aware fill. The best method that worked so far is the edge blend.
The file is a high quality EXR file. That has to be sent back to color correction. Ive put the settings on 32bit on content aware fill. This footage was shot on an Alexa so what you're seeing is the SLog footage straight from the camera
The problem is after I import the file to Davinci for color correction and applying an S curve to add contrast. the mask has color banding visible in it.

Any idea on what the problem is ? And is there another way to do so ?
Keep in mind I am an amateur in After effects.
Thank you !!

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

R
Community Expert
Rick GerardCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 13, 2021

I would use what I call the stabilized power pin workflow to stabilize and expand the area you are going to fill. Then I would do the repair and render only the repair as an EXR sequence. When that is done I would apply the same corner pin tracking data I got from Mocha to the repair to position it on the equipment. I would then solo that layer so the repair is the only thing showing, and render that file with an alpha channel. Then the repair-only layer would be brought into Davinci (or whatever app you wanted to use for the final composite, and color corrected there.  That's the way I usually do things. If there is a composite to be added to a scene and then the final color grade applied, I usually render the repair as a separate layer.

 

I probably would have used Clone instead of Content-aware fill. I've had better results with that kind of repair. 

 

The other option would be to remove all color correction from the original shot, do the entire composite in After Effects, and render your EXR sequence from AE so the whole shot could be color corrected later. Almost all of my compositing shots in AE have no color correction added. If I need to see a temporary grade I'll add an adjustment layer set as a guide layer on the top of everything so that the Preview in AE has color correction but the renders don't. 

 

Maybe this tutorial I did will give you some ideas. It shows how to set up and use the stabilized power pin workflow.

If I have some time later today I'll post some more screenshots and instructions.

J
joesaaAuthor
Participating Frequently
June 13, 2021

I am trying to use Mocha Pro removal as well, But the background is kind of tricky to allocate since it should be the catterpillar arm itself

 

R
Community Expert
Rick GerardCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 13, 2021

I downloaded your footage and set up the stabilized power pin workflow. Content-Aware fill would be my very last choice for this kind of repair.

 

I ran Mocha AE, did a corner pin track, applied Corner Pin to a duplicate of the footage layer named Repair, did the Stabilized Power Pin workflow in the tutorial I posted. In the repair comp, I added a solid to use as a track matte for the repair comp and animated a mask just over the logo. Then I added a solid with an expression that looks at the position of a Null and samples color from the Power Pin Stabilized repair layer so that it matches the color of the background. The Repair comp looks like this:

And that gave me the main comp that looks like this:

this is the expression that samples the color in the Repair comp:

src=thisComp.layer("Stabilized");
point = thisComp.layer("Null 1").position;
src.sampleImage(point, radius = [.5, .5], postEffect = true, t = time)

I'm also uploading a movie that shows what you would get when you render as well as the final with the guide layer adjustment layer to spruce up the color. It should be no problem to do the final composite in DaVinci and match the color there.

 

I don't care for the Drag and drop here feature, but it works OK for a short movie. Here's the comp. It should work if you replace the missing footage with your sample footage. The whole thing took me about 10 minutes.

 

Let me know if you need more help. 

 

 

    J
    joesaaAuthor
    Participating Frequently
    June 13, 2021

    Unfortunately, 
    I am quite an amateur, I would say a beginner in after effects. Most of the stuff you mentioned. I have no clue how to procceed in doing them. Tried to follow your steps which were very clear. But I kind of found it difficult to do. 
    Although what you did looks great. Is that shift in color towards the end solvable ?

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