Remove White Background Without Spilling Over the Edges

[Johnski02]

Hi there,

So I'm trying trying to ultra key a white background out of a complicated cartoony image of a face. The face is mostly white with a completely white background. I'm wandering if there is a way to ultra key out just the background and have it stop at the black outline of the face so that the face retains its white colour, sort of like a bucket paint tool. Otherwise I would just have to mask the ultrakey to the face but it's a complicated image and it moves through its duration, so it would be a huge hassle.

Thanks for any and all help 🙂

[gerikp]

I think masking is the way to go, unfortunately. You might consider taking it into After Effects where you'll have more tools at your disposal for that kind of work.

[Johnski02]

Ok thanks for the help 😉

[gerikp]

Sorry I didn't have an easier way. Maybe someone else has something I haven't thought of yet. Good luck!

[Avidwarp]

If the black line is always around the cartoon face in every frame, then I think I would try using Auto-trace (found in Layer/Auto-trace on the top menu) in After Effects.

It will trace every detail the code can detect, you would have to manually delete or turn off the masks that you do not require.

i.e. the detail Auto-trace will pull from the facial features also in the frame.

Auto-trace is an older technology built into After Effects that takes an image and creates AE masks around pixels of differing values, based on Alpha/Red/Green/Blue or Luma. Sounds to me like it would suit your problem if you tried Luma. Set the work area around the length of the media you would like AE to trace. You can preview the masked areas by turning on the Preview switch and finetune the other settings like tolerance and minimum area to guide the trace to your media and hit the OK button to set the trace going.

[Steve Griffiths · Accepted solution]

Roto Brush 2 in the latest versions of After Effects is the tool you need.

You may need to follow a few tutorials to get the hang of it but it absolutely will do what you want. Trust me 🙂