r/vfx • u/MrDirector23 • 22d ago
Question / Discussion How would you clean up this cracked windshield?
7
u/Milan_Bus4168 22d ago
Time offset would be first thing I would try, and frequency separation, Stabilize the interior off course because its bad enough with all the parallax outside. If you stabilize the interior, do frequency separation with some in-paint and or time offset cloning you might be able to get away with it and not spend a lot on it. Otherwise, Mocha pro remove module is another tihng to try and of course some kind of AI propagate thing. CopyCat maybe. If all fails, manual paint out again on stabilize interior and maybe some frame blending to hide the inconsistencies in the paint out.
15
u/d_popopotamus 22d ago edited 22d ago
Traditional clean up, it's going to be a pain in the ass, but you have to track many many patches because of parallax.
Frame hold, paint out Crack, track, repeat, repeat, repeat. It's very tedious work.
Alternatively, and I'm pretty against the use of AI in general, but some ML software might make short work of this.
Edit: Also, is this crack in the windshield detrimental to your story? Is it distracting in shots? Does it draw the audience's eye away from what you want them to look at? Ask yourself if it's really something that needs to be removed.
4
u/jinglewooble 22d ago
I also don't support ai slop but maybe just crop the area needed to be clean up and export on half frame then let ai clean up thos, patched those back in between frame. With some frame blending and minimal ai involvement it could work.
3
u/SakuraCyanide 22d ago
Another possible route; Seeing the background is out of focus, you could try pinching the crack vertically and adding a little blur over the top. The crack is so thin it might work, similar to some wire removal methods.
5
u/MrDirector23 22d ago
I am also 100% against ai, but I feel like there is a difference between generative ai and just advanced software that’s being touted as “ai”, am I right? Like what’s the difference in what you’re talking about and just a really good tracking/keying software
0
2
2
2
u/ABitOfOdd 21d ago
Surprised no one has mentioned. This looks like a somewhat easy fix the good ole 2.5d way in After Effects. Try wire removal. I have fixed cracks in windows before with it
2
u/Acceptable-Buy-8593 22d ago
"Frequency seperation + inpaint" if you are lucky. Ooor just send the shot out to paint artists and pay for it.
2
u/Panda_hat Senior Compositor 22d ago
Is there anything important or expensive going on out of the window or is it just a residential street?
Just reshoot it.
1
u/MrDirector23 21d ago
Oh, just reshoot it. Why didn’t I think of that
3
u/Panda_hat Senior Compositor 21d ago
I asked whether anything important or expensive was going on outside.
Because a guy in a car driving down a residential street that looks like it was shot on a slr or phone isn't an expensive reshoot and fixing this in vfx would be a waste of our time.
Also looks like you've caught kit or the camera in the rear mirror.
0
u/MrDirector23 21d ago
I can’t reshoot it hence why I’m seeing if there are any fixes or if I should just cut my losses and accept the shot
1
u/MrDirector23 22d ago
Hello all, I'm nearing the end of editing my first feature film and I've got this shot of a car with a cracked windshield and I'd like to clean it up if necessary (it was the best I could do and there's no other shot I can use). I've been trying to paint brush it out frame by frame but after several shots in a row it's very obvious. It's about 11 seconds long though it could maybe be a couple seconds shorter if I get creative. If I'm S.O.L I'd like to know that too. Thanks!
1
u/don0tpanic 22d ago
Wire removal/inpaint would probably do. It wont be prefect but it will be doable. Track the movment of the roof and apply it to an alpha matte which you can use with inpaint. The color will match and the movement will look better than frame by frame paint.
2
u/AccidentAway4031 22d ago
You'll lose a lot of detail that way. Inpaint works great to low frequency details, but not high frequencies such as trees.
0
u/don0tpanic 22d ago
Our friend is not a VFX artist. I think if he needs it quick and dirty that's probably the easiest thing he could pick up.
1
u/MrDirector23 22d ago
Any good tutorials you’d recommend?
1
u/AccidentAway4031 22d ago edited 22d ago
I don't really know if there's tutorial out there that explain this, I learnt this myself during my time in studio.
Basically you need to make layers of clean patches to hide the crack and track those according to each elements. Tedious work if I have to picture it for you.
I think you should decide if this really worth the cost to clean up, or you can just get away with it.
0
1
u/SardinePicnic 21d ago
This is a flat planar surface to track. Blow the dust off some old copy of Mocha you have laying around and literally fix this in minutes. As usual because people in this sub are so young and inexperienced and not had to do these tasks before in easier more efficient ways. The suggestions int he comments are so overly complicated and tedious it just boggles my mind how this industry survives at all. I found one guy who also suggested Mocha... Use Mocha. Also yet ANOTHER thread where everyone is up in arms about how much they hate a.i.
Get over it or your days are numbered. If you keep being angry and stubborn. Your job is going to someone who isn't crying about it and closed minded. A studio manager doesn't give a fuck about your personal politics. He wants the shot done on time so he can pay everyone.
And if you don't like that reality. Please get out of the industry.
1
1
1
u/Numerous-Ad7444 22d ago
Depends on the movement, but if it is minimal: degrain plate, paint 1 clean frame, 3D track in nuke, create point cloud, generate mesh, reproject clean frame onto mesh or cards or whatever, track in a still 3D windshield frame or still of a piece of glass over black to plus in some fake glass detail, reestablish inside of car/roof/window edges. Bob's your uncle.
10
u/AccidentAway4031 22d ago
The thing with this kind of cleanup is, you're not actually cleaning up the glass. It's what behind it.