Hair Color Change

[Michael Szalapski]

Your client believes in miracles, eh?

Reshoot. For the love of God, reshoot.

I don’t care how many extras are in these shots, or how many shots there are, it will be cheaper to reshoot than to spend all the tracking and compositing required for a realistic CG replacement. Which, by the way, would be nearly impossible.

Rather than CG replacement I think it would be better to recolor it in AE. However, even with a still image in Photoshop it’s very difficult to convincingly change something that’s black into something that’s white, much less in motion.
How thick is his beard? If you don’t see any skin beneath it you might be able to pull this off. But please tell me you’re going to charge them properly for fixing this monumental goof on their part.

It’s going to take you a lot of rotoscoping hours on that beard.

An excerpt from Dave LaRonde’s Stock Answer #2:

Since post typically costs three times the cost of production, fixing something in post is not a way to save money, but rather a way to spend more of it.

Okay, here’s my thought. On a duplicate layer, work out a color correction recipe that tends to work on the beard (don’t worry about surrounding colors, just the beard). Now turn that layer off.
On another duplicate roughly rotoscope the beard, then (if it’s black enough and the man is white enough) you could use that as an inverse luma matte for the color corrected layer.

If it doesn’t work, you’ll just have to do a tight rotoscope on the beard.

Dear, sweet baby Jesus, I do not envy you at all right now. Wait, you’re getting paid for this! Hello big bucks!

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Bill Kelly]

You could try animating a mask around his head and then using Effect>Color Correction>Replace Color. There’s a very, very good chance this will look like complete crap, but it’s worth a shot testing it out on a few frames to see what it looks like. Also, I agree with what was said, charge DEARLY for this. Let them learn their lesson.
Otherwise, like everyone else has mentioned, it’s probably cheaper to reshoot.

[Dave Johnson]

Sorry, but I just couldn’t help myself when I read this … no offense if the person happens to be a friend of yours or something, but whoever is responsible for this “change” is not a “Producer” or “Director” … they’re a hack … period. Even if your project is a Hollywood film or funded by someone for whom money/time is no object, something like this should’ve been worked out way before any cameras were rolling … in talent selection or, at the very latest, in makeup … professional-quality temporary spray-on hair dye costs about $10!!

[Dave Johnson]

[Dave LaRonde] “I heartily agree with the “hack” reference. “Myopic Artiste” ain’t bad, either.”

Myopic, yes … artiste, doubtful, but possible I suppose.

[Gautam Pandey]

🙂 Thanks Michael, Dave and Dave.. I agree.. Bad bad BAD planning and Direction!! I doubt he’s going to pay ‘Dearly’, he wanted me to churn it out in 3 days!! Needless to say …doesnt have a clue!

Did give it a shot with an adjustment layer and some CC on it.. doesnt look too good..

So going to wear the best diplomatic hat i have and lay out to him.

Thanks again!! 🙂

[Gautam Pandey]

Thanks Bill!! did give it a shot with an adjustment layer and some CC, the Replace colour is worth a shot too! 🙂

I’m sure all of you are right and a reshoot is the best option.

Thanks again!

[Gautam Pandey]

Wow! and Michael just quoted you! 🙂

Grateful for all the advice and help at the Cow!