Hide / Mask a visible date, top left on a video

[rob-mcp]

I am sure I posted this, solapologies for the repeat (If it is) I can't find it.

I took a video on an action camera, I forgot to turn off the date stamp, ,on the video playback I see a white text date, top left.

I could crop 5% top off, but it looks odd, is there a way I can maks the date out, most of the video is sky but it changes blue, and clouds appear, also foliage.

Any suggestions?

[Peru Bob]

You can try Content Aware Fill in After Effects.

https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/using/content-aware-fill.html

[Peru Bob]

You can also try increasing the scale if you don't lose too much resolution.

[rob-mcp]

Thanks Bob, from another Bob!

I will try both suggestions, content aware might be better as some things at the top ( folks heads! ) might look better still visible.

I will let you know how I get on.

Regards, Rob/Bob.

[rob-mcp]

Failing miserably, need to learn After effects and masking...

[Warren Heaton · Accepted solution]

@rob-mcp 

Here’s a quick Content-aware Fill step-by-step:

1. Start a new After Effects project.
2. Import the video clip.
3. Save the project with a descriptive name.
4. In the Project panel, right-click the Clip and choose New Como from Selection.
5. In the resulting Composition, Layer 1 will already be selected.  Select the Rectangle Tool and then click and drag around the white text.  Draw the Mask so that there is a little space around the white text (the space should be about 1/5 the hight of the white text).
6. While the Layer is still selected, press M to show the Mask Path and change the Math Path pop-up menu from Add to Subtract.
7. In the Content-aware Fill panel, Fill Method pop-up menu to Edge Blend and then click “Generate Fill Layer”.
8. As soon as it finishes, save the project again.
9. While the Composition panel or the Timeline panel is selected, choose Composition > Add to Render Queue.
10. In the Render Queue, set the Output Model pop-up menu to “Best Settings” (this is the default) and the Render Settings pop-up menu to “High Quality”.
11. Save the project again and then click Render.
12. When the render is complete, save the project and close After Effects.

[rob-mcp]

Hi Warren, I cannot thank you enough. That is without doubt, THE MOST PERFECT reply I have ever had to a query.

The result in the video is not half bad, not perfect, the sky is brilliant, some foliage and earth shows as blurred, but I can live with it as it's such a small distraction, in light of gaining 5% on the top of the video (my poor hack) the results are astounding, if you're ever in the Cross Keys Pub, I'll buy you a drink!

Thank you.

I saved the instructions in a Word doc, so I can play around, usually if I find a process that works, I'll save in a doc as a reference.

Thank you again.