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Best way to mask burned in timecode
Dear all,
I’m trying to come up with the most efficient way to mask out an “empty” timecode that was burned in onto some VHS footage:
The problem is that the camera pans and zooms several times during the whole duration of the footage, and there are also scene changes. There’s also no question of cropping and resizing due to resolutiuon concerns.
In addition, the timecode also shifts constantly by several pixels throughout the whole footage.
Can anyone suggest the best way to rotoscope out the timecode so that viewers on a big screen will not realise that it was there in the first place?
Or is this a job for photoshop or some other app?
Thanks in advance!
PS: I’m not very familiar with AE but I did used it many years ago for greensceening so I’ll appreciate an answer with as much detail as possible. Cheers.
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5 Replies
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Hey, I think best (always) post an image with your Q since we are all very good Visual people… letters are not among our best senses… 🙂
but before seeing anything, you might try the CC simple wire removal tool that comes with AE. if you spread it enough you at least make it a little more subtle.
might need to use a few Wire removals, maybe for each digit?
good luck anyhow.
Ido.
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Wire removal tool? Thanks Ido, I’ll check it out right now.
I did post a picture. It’s not visible?
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Just got my hands on Mocha Pro.
Will anyone recommend something that I could use from there?
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I think you’re going to spend more time than it’s worth trying to hide it using mocha or other removal tools.
I’d go with what Dave said and just put something over it. What’s the context of the shot? Since it’s so low resolution, if it’s for a documentary or something like that, I’d leave it. Any attempt to cover it could be more distracting than the timecode itself. -
(In After Effects) Make a copy of the footage layer, draw a tight mask around the time code (taking into account how much it shifts) and apply Median filter, 6 pixels or so.
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