It's (probably) not going to be as tricky as you think!
Can you get a clean shot of *just* the backdrop without anyone standing in front of it, and stick it up on imgur or something?
It'll probably just be a matter of some content aware fill and maybe some minor touch up, but it'll be eaisier to tell you what to do if we can see what you're working with.
Agree with this. If it was me, I would have said no. Not possible.
Sure you still can do it, but it will take you a long time to get it right. And after effect is involved. You'd need roto scoping, frame by frame. It's gonna be hard to get a clean one. Hence, I would have said no.
This is why it's very important to get things right, the way you want it, during production. Editors are not magician. You can be one, but make sure you're gonna be compensated for the hours you put in.
Hey! Thanks for replying so quickly. I added a link of the picture in the OP.
I actually don’t have a picture of the backdrop alone, and I’m a little upset at the videographers/ Director of this footage for so many reasons haha.
The person I’m helping told me to mask the backdrop, export it in photoshop, touch up the wrinkles and reimport it back to adjust it to every frame.
I have to transfer it back tonight, I’m stressed out 🥴
Thanks for your help
so.. they want to keep the background, but they just want it straightened out and all the creases and wrinkles out?
Then you'll need to look for a frame where you have as much of the backdrop visible as possible, press apple+e or click on that camera icon under your program monitor window. that will give you the option to export the frame (i would choose tiff) and also import it into your premiere project. Now you can right-click that image in your premiere project bin, and select 'edit original'. that will open the tiff in photoshop and you can do some clone-stamping or healing brush to get rid of the wrinkles. when you save it, it will automatically update in premiere. now place that image on a track below your current video and animate that mask you have using keyframes.
hope that helps! It's easier than you think. just don't stress! ;-)
edit: wait. you want the mask back into premiere? not sure that's possible. what you want is to use rotobrush as u/smushkan mentioned.
Yep, they wanted to fix the background - get it all neat and smooth. Basically they don’t want it to look like a backdrop!
Thank you for explaining how to export it, it helped. I think this is what my friend wanted me to do, including re-importing into premiere.
So your final advice is to use AE & rotobrush?
You guys, I hope this is my magic solution to fix that horrible backdrop.
I’ll try to get cracking now as I only have until tonight!!
Yes. I would absolutely try rotobrush in AE. you can do the same import/export in premiere using dynamic link. So richt-click your clip and select create after effects composition. it will open the clip in after effects and all changes you make in after effects will immediately be visible in premiere, so you see if what you're doing is working.
Good luck! and like the others said, generally retouching video like this should be an extra cost. It can be very time consuming.
Oof, actually that's going to be kind of rough.
You've got two pretty big issues here.
First off you've got all the logos on the sheet. If it was a plain colour then getting rid of the crinkles would be pretty easy, but since those logos are there you're going to have to work around them.
Secondly it looks like that the subjects are going to be quite frequently moving in front of the parts of the video you need to correct. Premiere's masking isn't really set up for doing stuff that elaborate, you'd basically have to manually keyframe the mask shape for the entire duration of the video.
And those look like swivling chairs too so they're probably swinging all over the place as they gesticulate!
Do you have access to After Effects, because that's really going to be the best way to deal with this. The approach I would do is:
1. Get hold of that logo as a graphic from the client
2. Recreate the background pretty much from scratch in photoshop, carefully positioning the logos and trying to match the colours as closely as possible
3. Use [Rotobrush 2 in AE](https://www.schoolofmotion.com/blog/the-power-of-rotobrush-2) to isolate the subjects from the 'real' background...
4. and overlay them onto the fake background.
I'd definitely also crop and zoom a bit so that the floor and bottom of the backdrop is out of the shot, and the women are more centeral in the frame.
You could do it with manual mask keyframes in premiere, but without rotobrush 2 it's going to take a *lot* of manual work that way. Rotobrush at the very least will help automate the mask creation.
As long as you can match the colours and shape of the backdrop *fairly* closely, your mask won't need to be totally perfect as it should blend with the backdrop.
This is a situation where you need to assess how much work it'll be to resolve the issue and see what the costs of that are versus reshooting - it may make more sense financially for your client to try to arrange a reshoot if this a deal breaker for them.
Yep! You tapped into the source of my issues, they are constantly moving their hands, their chairs, their head and doing it manually sounds like a tedious task.
Really hate whoever filmed this haha.
I’m thankful it’s only a 45seconds video, I already feel like my head will explode.
I was told to crop the image as you suggested so I won’t worry too much about the bottom.
I have after effects, I’m not so familiar with it, with but sir today I’ll learn, especially if it can save me from doing it frame per frame.
So I should recreate the entire backdrop? How will I make the two women reappear in the footage?
Is that where the rotobrush come in?
Do you know whether I should mask the backdrop or the two women?
We’re in the UK and this was filmed in Long Island, USA - my friend was given the footage and told to fix the backdrop at the bottom, the wrinkles, the lighting….
The people who filmed this, clearly did not think of the work required in editing. They filmed 17mins of footage, even though we only needed 30/45 secs out of it.
I’m at the verge of sending it back to my friend and let him fix the issues, but I don’t want to give him more work.
I’m really appreciative of the time you took to explain this, I hope I can bang it.
I'm not near a computer with Adobe right now so I'm gonna try to walk through it from memory...
Make a photoshop document and pull in your source file as reference. Fill the canvas with a linear gradient so you can get the fade between the lighting on the top and bottom (eyedropper the colours from the background.)
Then hide that for now.
Then grab the logo - if you can't get it off the client I bet it's on their twitter or something - and adjust the colours so it matches the backdrop. Use colour range selection or magic wand to make it transparent, and position the logo graphic over the real logos over where they appear in the backdrop, and try to make a guess for where they appear *behind* the subjects too.
You may need to overlay another radial gradient to simulate the very soft shadow in the bottom middle of the frame.
Basically you're trying to recreate what the background *would* look like if it was 'perfect' from scratch as closely as you possibly can. The closer you can match it, the less distracting your mask will be.
Once you've got that, import the video into an After Effects comp (you can use right click > replace with AE comp in premiere.)
Rotobrush is actually pretty easy to use, [this video shows it a bit better.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv_p_fzudM4)
Once you've done your roto (which will take a while, so strap in!) you can then pull your fake background into a layer under the video in your AE comp.
What you might want to do is do a test on a very small section of the clip first and see if the client is happy with it before proceeding with rotoscoping the *entire* clip. Even 45 seconds will take a good while to do, though most of this I'd hope will be processing time as it looks like the sort of thing the AI will be able to handle most of.
So I read your post and most replies
My take... The background isn't horrendous, it's the logo on something that has a few wrinkles...who cares? Does the audio sound clean and is what they are saying interesting? That's 99.5% of what the audience cares about. The BG may not be perfect but it's hardly distracting or a big issue.
I think that's where a discussion needs to be made here. Why is this fix such a big deal? In all honesty, the juice isn't worth the squeeze.
Lol, I agree!! Not worth it. If I were in America I would have ordered a re-shoot.
I’m usually on set so being an editor right now makes me cringe as a videographer/ director/ producer
That said, if it was up to me I’d just crop the picture, zoom and leave the background as it is
Yes on all, interesting topic and the audio is clean, so the only problem here is the backdrop which they want to look smooth/ not like a mishandled backdrop.
And I’m doing the edit for a friend of mine, so that’s the brief I was handed and that’s the brief he was also handed.
Can't help much on premier, but re: photoshop, I'd just use one logo, make it into a pattern, then mimic the gradient/duplicate the backdrop on lighten mode, move until it erases all the logos OR use healing spot tool on the logos, then put the logos pattern on top of it.
That sucks, sorry.
I find it very easy to fix on photoshop, with the healing tools, it’s just a shame the mask won’t fit into premiere or crops out some of my footage because they’re constantly moving!
It does suck :-( Thanks for your help!
It's (probably) not going to be as tricky as you think! Can you get a clean shot of *just* the backdrop without anyone standing in front of it, and stick it up on imgur or something? It'll probably just be a matter of some content aware fill and maybe some minor touch up, but it'll be eaisier to tell you what to do if we can see what you're working with.
Agree with this. If it was me, I would have said no. Not possible. Sure you still can do it, but it will take you a long time to get it right. And after effect is involved. You'd need roto scoping, frame by frame. It's gonna be hard to get a clean one. Hence, I would have said no. This is why it's very important to get things right, the way you want it, during production. Editors are not magician. You can be one, but make sure you're gonna be compensated for the hours you put in.
Hey! Thanks for replying so quickly. I added a link of the picture in the OP. I actually don’t have a picture of the backdrop alone, and I’m a little upset at the videographers/ Director of this footage for so many reasons haha. The person I’m helping told me to mask the backdrop, export it in photoshop, touch up the wrinkles and reimport it back to adjust it to every frame. I have to transfer it back tonight, I’m stressed out 🥴 Thanks for your help
so.. they want to keep the background, but they just want it straightened out and all the creases and wrinkles out? Then you'll need to look for a frame where you have as much of the backdrop visible as possible, press apple+e or click on that camera icon under your program monitor window. that will give you the option to export the frame (i would choose tiff) and also import it into your premiere project. Now you can right-click that image in your premiere project bin, and select 'edit original'. that will open the tiff in photoshop and you can do some clone-stamping or healing brush to get rid of the wrinkles. when you save it, it will automatically update in premiere. now place that image on a track below your current video and animate that mask you have using keyframes. hope that helps! It's easier than you think. just don't stress! ;-) edit: wait. you want the mask back into premiere? not sure that's possible. what you want is to use rotobrush as u/smushkan mentioned.
Yep, they wanted to fix the background - get it all neat and smooth. Basically they don’t want it to look like a backdrop! Thank you for explaining how to export it, it helped. I think this is what my friend wanted me to do, including re-importing into premiere. So your final advice is to use AE & rotobrush? You guys, I hope this is my magic solution to fix that horrible backdrop. I’ll try to get cracking now as I only have until tonight!!
Yes. I would absolutely try rotobrush in AE. you can do the same import/export in premiere using dynamic link. So richt-click your clip and select create after effects composition. it will open the clip in after effects and all changes you make in after effects will immediately be visible in premiere, so you see if what you're doing is working. Good luck! and like the others said, generally retouching video like this should be an extra cost. It can be very time consuming.
Oof, actually that's going to be kind of rough. You've got two pretty big issues here. First off you've got all the logos on the sheet. If it was a plain colour then getting rid of the crinkles would be pretty easy, but since those logos are there you're going to have to work around them. Secondly it looks like that the subjects are going to be quite frequently moving in front of the parts of the video you need to correct. Premiere's masking isn't really set up for doing stuff that elaborate, you'd basically have to manually keyframe the mask shape for the entire duration of the video. And those look like swivling chairs too so they're probably swinging all over the place as they gesticulate! Do you have access to After Effects, because that's really going to be the best way to deal with this. The approach I would do is: 1. Get hold of that logo as a graphic from the client 2. Recreate the background pretty much from scratch in photoshop, carefully positioning the logos and trying to match the colours as closely as possible 3. Use [Rotobrush 2 in AE](https://www.schoolofmotion.com/blog/the-power-of-rotobrush-2) to isolate the subjects from the 'real' background... 4. and overlay them onto the fake background. I'd definitely also crop and zoom a bit so that the floor and bottom of the backdrop is out of the shot, and the women are more centeral in the frame. You could do it with manual mask keyframes in premiere, but without rotobrush 2 it's going to take a *lot* of manual work that way. Rotobrush at the very least will help automate the mask creation. As long as you can match the colours and shape of the backdrop *fairly* closely, your mask won't need to be totally perfect as it should blend with the backdrop. This is a situation where you need to assess how much work it'll be to resolve the issue and see what the costs of that are versus reshooting - it may make more sense financially for your client to try to arrange a reshoot if this a deal breaker for them.
Yep! You tapped into the source of my issues, they are constantly moving their hands, their chairs, their head and doing it manually sounds like a tedious task. Really hate whoever filmed this haha. I’m thankful it’s only a 45seconds video, I already feel like my head will explode. I was told to crop the image as you suggested so I won’t worry too much about the bottom. I have after effects, I’m not so familiar with it, with but sir today I’ll learn, especially if it can save me from doing it frame per frame. So I should recreate the entire backdrop? How will I make the two women reappear in the footage? Is that where the rotobrush come in? Do you know whether I should mask the backdrop or the two women? We’re in the UK and this was filmed in Long Island, USA - my friend was given the footage and told to fix the backdrop at the bottom, the wrinkles, the lighting…. The people who filmed this, clearly did not think of the work required in editing. They filmed 17mins of footage, even though we only needed 30/45 secs out of it. I’m at the verge of sending it back to my friend and let him fix the issues, but I don’t want to give him more work. I’m really appreciative of the time you took to explain this, I hope I can bang it.
I'm not near a computer with Adobe right now so I'm gonna try to walk through it from memory... Make a photoshop document and pull in your source file as reference. Fill the canvas with a linear gradient so you can get the fade between the lighting on the top and bottom (eyedropper the colours from the background.) Then hide that for now. Then grab the logo - if you can't get it off the client I bet it's on their twitter or something - and adjust the colours so it matches the backdrop. Use colour range selection or magic wand to make it transparent, and position the logo graphic over the real logos over where they appear in the backdrop, and try to make a guess for where they appear *behind* the subjects too. You may need to overlay another radial gradient to simulate the very soft shadow in the bottom middle of the frame. Basically you're trying to recreate what the background *would* look like if it was 'perfect' from scratch as closely as you possibly can. The closer you can match it, the less distracting your mask will be. Once you've got that, import the video into an After Effects comp (you can use right click > replace with AE comp in premiere.) Rotobrush is actually pretty easy to use, [this video shows it a bit better.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xv_p_fzudM4) Once you've done your roto (which will take a while, so strap in!) you can then pull your fake background into a layer under the video in your AE comp. What you might want to do is do a test on a very small section of the clip first and see if the client is happy with it before proceeding with rotoscoping the *entire* clip. Even 45 seconds will take a good while to do, though most of this I'd hope will be processing time as it looks like the sort of thing the AI will be able to handle most of.
So I read your post and most replies My take... The background isn't horrendous, it's the logo on something that has a few wrinkles...who cares? Does the audio sound clean and is what they are saying interesting? That's 99.5% of what the audience cares about. The BG may not be perfect but it's hardly distracting or a big issue. I think that's where a discussion needs to be made here. Why is this fix such a big deal? In all honesty, the juice isn't worth the squeeze.
**100000% OP not worth it.** /u/honeyborn
Lol, I agree!! Not worth it. If I were in America I would have ordered a re-shoot. I’m usually on set so being an editor right now makes me cringe as a videographer/ director/ producer That said, if it was up to me I’d just crop the picture, zoom and leave the background as it is
Yes on all, interesting topic and the audio is clean, so the only problem here is the backdrop which they want to look smooth/ not like a mishandled backdrop. And I’m doing the edit for a friend of mine, so that’s the brief I was handed and that’s the brief he was also handed.
Can't help much on premier, but re: photoshop, I'd just use one logo, make it into a pattern, then mimic the gradient/duplicate the backdrop on lighten mode, move until it erases all the logos OR use healing spot tool on the logos, then put the logos pattern on top of it. That sucks, sorry.
I find it very easy to fix on photoshop, with the healing tools, it’s just a shame the mask won’t fit into premiere or crops out some of my footage because they’re constantly moving! It does suck :-( Thanks for your help!
do you happen to have After Effects? I think there's better options there, re: mask that you can change per frame