• Adobe After Effects

  Rotoscoping / Keying out twigs (Use a Track Matte?)

  Posted by Cesar Vargas on January 9, 2018 at 12:46 am

  m working on a clip that is about 2minutes long, and has a face behind a bunch of twigs and branches, and I need to blur the face out.
  I was wondering what techniques you guys would do in order to keep the sharpness of the twigs and branches.

  I’ve done this clip by rotoscoping, but it does take a really, really, long time, and I wanted to see if there was a smarter way I could go about it.
  I’ve heard that maybe a track matte might help, but I can’t seem to get all the twigs in one go, since the twigs are different shades of green, grey and brown.
  I’ve tried the color key, keylight, and extract effect, but none really get all the twigs in cleanly with a good sharp edge on them (Some of them are out of focus.)

  Also, when using the extract tool, should I be in Lab color mode or RGB? The main delivery system is TV.

  Has anyone encountered trying to key out something like this? Any tips would be appreciated!

  Stephen Smith replied 8 years, 7 months ago 2 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Stephen Smith

  January 9, 2018 at 3:30 pm

  Are you blurring the face because that is what you want or because you can’t show the face? If you don’t want to see the face I would do a 3D track and cover them up.

  Stephen Smith

  Utah Video Productions

  Check out my Vimeo page
• 

  Cesar Vargas

  January 9, 2018 at 6:18 pm

  I apologize for the lack of video, I know it’s frustrating to know what I mean without having an example. Maybe these sample links will help:

  Woman behind twigs
  https://www.videoblocks.com/video/female-checking-vineyard-branches-medium-shot-on-vineyard-branches-in-winter-while-not-yet-growing-winegrower-checking-branches-for-their-health-hcsvyvjs-j4wgjor3

  Blurring Man behind twigs and branches
  https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-16967941-stock-footage-professional-gardener-pruning-apple-tree-branches-with-special-scissors-in-spring-time-over-blue.html?src=search/3776juEc5q-f7bTpSVEYsw:1:38/3p

  Another example:
  https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-32512873-stock-footage-young-grower-man-pruning-fruit-tree-branches-with-shears-high-on-tree-on-blue-sky-background.html?src=rel/16967941:6/3p

  Probably the best example:
  https://www.videoblocks.com/video/active-man-gardener-prunes-and-trims-bushes–rc6ggvgtej14xtrm4

  I need to blur the face for anonymity, but also, I sometimes get shots where I have to blur things underneath (Face, logos, etc). In the first example, I would probably Roto it, but in the 2nd and 3rd examples is what I deal with. I know the first response may be “get a better shot” but I work in the part of the pipeline where they just give me a clip and need to blur out a person’s face..Just curious to see if there is another way other than Rotoscoping.

  Stephen, sorry, I still don’t understand what you mean by doing a 3d track to cover them up..Do you mean 3d track the branches, and create masks for them?
  (By the way, great work on your page!)

  Thanks for the response guys, I really appreciate you guys taking the time out of your day to help!

  -Cesar
• 

  Cesar Vargas

  January 9, 2018 at 8:48 pm

  Ah, ok..I was wondering if there was a way to separate them out and create some kind of matte…

  Thank you for that response!
• 

  Stephen Smith

  January 10, 2018 at 2:26 am

  Cesar,

  Thanks for the kind word about my webpage. As for the 3D track. I thought you wanted to just get the person out of the shot. I was going to suggest doing a 3D track and placing additional branches in the shot to cover the person up. But it sounds like you want them in the shot. Unfortanly you will have to rotoscope which will take a long time. Sorry.

  Stephen Smith

  Utah Video Productions

  Check out my Vimeo page

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