Removing Tree Tops

Apple Motion

Removing Tree Tops

Posted by Mike Simmons on February 7, 2011 at 9:11 pm

Alright, here’s a snippit of a clip I’m working on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uR21im–RI

For a large part of the video, the man’s position is good, but he keeps moving between those two tree tops and looks like he has Mickey Mouse ears. Is there a good way in Motion to remove the trees?

I’ve tried color, and chroma keying them out, but the darker parts of the trees have the same coloring as the man, so that doesn’t work.
I’d just throw a garbage matte on them, but the man moves too much.

Any ideas?

Stephen Smith replied 15 years, 2 months ago 6 Members · 10 Replies
10 Replies

Shonit Jain
February 7, 2011 at 11:07 pm

Wow! I would recommend just cloning and adding more trees.

Good Luck…
S

Photgrapher, Videographer, Web Designer, Editor, Still and Motion Graphic Designer yet not Invincible – Only an EYETOGRAPHER
Pls Like – https://facebook.com/eyetography
Jeff Greenberg
February 8, 2011 at 2:54 am

Own After Effects CS5? The new rototool is great. Even still, you’re going to have to do this frame by frame; it’s brutal (but I’ll admit, I had a good laugh and then felt bad for you.)

I don’t think there is any real magic way to handle it. I like the idea of adding other trees to try and make the other areas look cluttered. But it looks like Roto City here.

Best,

Jeff G

Apple Master Trainer
Avid Cert. Instructor DS/MC
Avid & Color Videos Vasst.com
Compressor Essentials Lynda.com
Gareth Randall
February 8, 2011 at 7:53 am

I also suspect it’s going to be a long boring roto job, but if you lose the trees by covering them up with a layer of clean sky, it *might* just be possible to key the guy’s head back in over the top with a motion-tracked mask. I’d certainly give it a try.
Mark Petereit
February 8, 2011 at 1:35 pm

Whatever you do, save the original footage. I’m sure someone who sells teaching materials would LOVE to buy this footage to use in their shot-composition lesson. And if you come up with a clean solution, it’d make for a great tutorial!
Stephen Smith
February 8, 2011 at 3:18 pm

I would key out the blue sky, I’ve keyed out worst. Then I would add more trees in. That is the easiest thing to do.

If you don’t want the trees I would not waist the time roto-scoping every frame / 5th frame or whatever. Motion can roto scope something this simple for you. I cover this in my training DVD Moving with Motion. Check out my Kinetic Typography tutorial and it has an ad at the end about how my training dvd covers that subject.

Best of luck.

Stephen Smith
Utah Video Productions

Check out my Motion Training DVD

Check out my Motion Tutorials
Mike Simmons
February 8, 2011 at 6:17 pm

Thanks for the tips everyone! I’ll try keying out the sky and adding more trees. That seems the least labor intensive.

And I’d certainly be glad to sell the footage to anyone who makes training materials. It’s funny AND educational.
Mark Petereit
February 8, 2011 at 7:10 pm

And you could really have fun with it and go completely the other way. Use a motion tracker to pin his Mickey Mouse ears to his head. (-:3
Mike Simmons
February 8, 2011 at 9:40 pm

Removing the sky and adding trees seemed to be a pretty decent fix. Luckily there are a lot of cut aways, so we only see the guy talking for a few seconds at a time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5pFy0xAstA

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Mark Petereit
February 8, 2011 at 9:47 pm

Excellent work! Give yourself a raise. 😉
Stephen Smith
February 9, 2011 at 5:50 pm

Ha ha, that’s great.

Stephen Smith
Utah Video Productions

Check out my Motion Training DVD

Check out my Motion Tutorials

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