Blacking out reflections in video

jak.willis wrote on 1/3/2022, 11:25 AM

Hello,

I have a scene in one of my videos where the camera is pointing towards a microwave oven, and unfortunately you can see the camera reflecting off of the door. Does anyone know whether or not it is possible to somehow “black out” these reflections so that you can’t see them?

Comments

Former user wrote on 1/3/2022, 12:22 PM

@jak.willis Hi, Duplicate the track/event & add a mask in between just over the door, then edit the track below,

or if it's a static camera export a single frame as a png, alter it in a photoshop type program, isolate the door so everything else is transparent, draw/alter the reflection then add to the timeline,

there's a few ways to do this. can you upload a clip using the arrow next to the smiley

jak.willis wrote on 1/3/2022, 1:57 PM

@jak.willis Hi, Duplicate the track/event & add a mask in between just over the door, then edit the track below,

or if it's a static camera export a single frame as a png, alter it in a photoshop type program, isolate the door so everything else is transparent, draw/alter the reflection then add to the timeline,

there's a few ways to do this. can you upload a clip using the arrow next to the smiley

Hello,

Yes, I have attached some very short clips. They were filmed 11 years ago.

CubeAce wrote on 1/4/2022, 5:43 AM

@jak.willis @Former user

Hi Jak.

I was expecting Gid to answer your reply this morning but perhaps time constraints prevented a detailed reply.

While Gids answer is possible it may be from a user point of view completely impractical in the amount of time, effort, and resources needed to implement such a solution.

You would first have to export the video clips as individual frames which MEP or VPX would export as bitmap files of several MBs each. That would soon amount to a lot of disk space.

Each image then would have to be worked on separately and the offending parts of the image either painted out, have the areas erased with an other image behind to replace the area concerned, or use a cloning tool which could end up looking an uneven mess when finally stitched back into a movie clip. Photoshop would be my ideal photo editing package to do this in the least amount of time. Possibly because I'm used to it but also for the range of tools available within the program that could make the job easier if you are familiar with Photoshop.

Even then it will not be straightforward. When finished with your editing of the bitmaps they will have to be re-imported back into MEP and converted back into a video clip.

To my mind this would be extremely impractical and time consuming with no guarantee of a good looking result, but that of course is up to the individual to decide.

Ray.

 

 

 

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Former user wrote on 1/4/2022, 5:55 AM

@CubeAce @jak.willis Hi yeah sorry i'm working right now so on my phone,

I had a look at the clips posted before i left home, a static fixed camera wouldn't be too much work, 1 or 3 replacement doctored images would do, but the way that camera is moving even with the fancy editing stuff i have it wouldn't be practical, I'd consider re filming it before i tried to correct it in any editing software. every frame is different & a consistent patch/cover-up wouldn't look good.

The doll in the clip looks like Tom Baker - Dr Who 😂

jak.willis wrote on 1/4/2022, 7:49 AM

@CubeAce @jak.willis Hi yeah sorry i'm working right now so on my phone,

I had a look at the clips posted before i left home, a static fixed camera wouldn't be too much work, 1 or 3 replacement doctored images would do, but the way that camera is moving even with the fancy editing stuff i have it wouldn't be practical, I'd consider re filming it before i tried to correct it in any editing software. every frame is different & a consistent patch/cover-up wouldn't look good.

The doll in the clip looks like Tom Baker - Dr Who 😂

Hi Gid,

Yeah, one of the big issues with these clips is the rapid motion. Basically I am re-editing old episodes from a series that I used to make, and the clips that you’ve seen are from episodes filmed 11 years ago when I was 15 years old. So these were in the days before I started to mature as a video maker which explains the amateur-looking footage you see.

But, as you can imagine, it is proving quite difficult going back through these old episodes and attempting to fix a lot of the issues present. I’m getting there slowly though.

And, you guessed right, it is indeed Tom Baker 😉

jak.willis wrote on 1/4/2022, 7:52 AM

@jak.willis @Former user

Hi Jak.

I was expecting Gid to answer your reply this morning but perhaps time constraints prevented a detailed reply.

While Gids answer is possible it may be from a user point of view completely impractical in the amount of time, effort, and resources needed to implement such a solution.

You would first have to export the video clips as individual frames which MEP or VPX would export as bitmap files of several MBs each. That would soon amount to a lot of disk space.

Each image then would have to be worked on separately and the offending parts of the image either painted out, have the areas erased with an other image behind to replace the area concerned, or use a cloning tool which could end up looking an uneven mess when finally stitched back into a movie clip. Photoshop would be my ideal photo editing package to do this in the least amount of time. Possibly because I'm used to it but also for the range of tools available within the program that could make the job easier if you are familiar with Photoshop.

Even then it will not be straightforward. When finished with your editing of the bitmaps they will have to be re-imported back into MEP and converted back into a video clip.

To my mind this would be extremely impractical and time consuming with no guarantee of a good looking result, but that of course is up to the individual to decide.

Ray.

 

 

Hello Ray,

Many thanks for your detailed directions.

Yeah, I had wondered whether this was going to be an impossible thing to achieve. But I’ll have a go with what you have told me to try out and I’ll get back to you on it 👍

Former user wrote on 1/4/2022, 8:16 AM

@jak.willis Love Dr Who, the new yr 'special' was crap tho 😒

I have a program called Mocha Pro, (can't use it in MEP) it's used professionally & is expensive, but that wouldn't cope well with tracking in that clip so a replacement image/cover could be applied with the camera moving so much, also it doesn't like tracking reflections, there would be so many adjustments & keyframes it would be like manually editing it,

If you export individual images you're going to have to 'photoshop' each image, that would be boring time consuming & inconsistent as Ray says, I would consider using a duplicate track, blur/defocus that track, then use a mask so only the blur shows through on the door hiding the camera lens, but MEP is a little limited with the control of masks, I think there's a program called Xara that allows you to edit masks?, been a while since i looked into that & never bought it, 🤷‍♂️

browj2 wrote on 1/4/2022, 8:52 AM

@jak.willis @CubeAce @Former user

Hi all,

The best solution, in my opinion, would be to use Xara Photo & Graphics Designer or Xara Designer Pro X from within MEP as I show in my tutorial on making masks with Xara for MEP. Because of the rapid nature of the source, instead of advancing the video a half second, change it to every frame and adjust the mask (or masks). With the animated mask back in MEP, make sure that the image behind the mask is a dark part of the microwave door. The mask can be given some blurring to soften the edges. Before exiting, it's best to export the animation from Xara because MEP has a tendency to empty the XAR file - a persistent bug that I have reported to Magix on numerous occasions.

We have the tools to do great things like this. There are almost no other video editing programs that can do this and I don't understand why MEP and VPX users have never understood this great feature.

John CB

Last changed by browj2 on 1/4/2022, 8:53 AM, changed a total of 1 times.

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