timelapse: cleaning background plate (WIP)

by - 2012/07/10 18 Comments Compositing

for a wide angle shot we needed a clean plate that’s going to be mixed with holographic effects of Amsterdam. unfortunately there was no clean plate shot, that’s why we had to clean it up by hand in gimp. for the scale to look more correct, a lamp had to be removed. also the shadows had to match the footage shot on that day and people on boats and in the street had to be erased.

this is a timelapse recorded during the photo touchup process. there’re still some obvious mistakes, but since this is only the base of the background for that particular shot I hope they will not draw any attention.

before:

after:

  1. 3pointedit says:

    Love timelapses, thankyou so much guys. It looks great. So happy this is all open apps. Picking up some Gimp tips is cool too.

  2. J. says:

    I feel totally manipulated! :P

    Btw, there’s one mistake in your ”Gimped” version that’s quite obvious and easy to fix:
    Left from where the street lamp was, you see a bunch of leaves that seem to be floating. :P

    • guest says:

      Yeah, that is pretty funny, but I doubt anyone would notice it unless they were watching it on a 4K display and just happened to pause at a moment where this was shown.

  3. David Jordan says:

    Nice, this sort of thing can be painstaking work. Will you be camera mapping this plate into the shot?

  4. radek says:

    Can I ask what version of Gimp are you using? 2.8?

  5. Manuel says:

    How are the plans for the ‘before break-up’-Amsterdam?
    Are you going to put a bunch of clean-sci-fi atmosphere in there or is that too much work to finish the movie within the deadline?
    Just wondering because that would obviously be a lot of work and there were no WIP-screens of it so far.

    Nice plate cleaning!

    • David Jordan says:

      I was wondering this too. The really obvious thing is the early 21st century cars. I’m not sure how they fit with robot arms and space stuff.

      • J. says:

        Celia with her robot arm is present time, 40 years later scientists have build the dome around the bridge to manipulate/prevent the break-up 40 years earlier (to prevent Celia from creating the ”killer robots” in the future), but things start running amok…

        • Manuel says:

          From my understanding, judging by the robots, the space travel wishes of thom and the fashion style im pretty sure its not supposed to be present time, but rather a future time.

          • J. says:

            Well, in a couple of years people will be sent into orbit by private companies.
            And robot arms do already exist, but not as fancy/sleek/advanced as in the film of course.

            Btw, I think it’s a safe to say that time traveling will never be possible. (as long as Herr Einstein’s theories hold)

            And the costumes make no sense either, but as long as it looks cool and fullfills a nerd’s wildest dreams, I think the Mango team is doing pretty well! P

  6. Payton says:

    Is the camera moving in this shot? If so, what is your workflow for having the clean plate track to the original footage?

  7. Sean says:

    Are you guys using a version of Gimp that works in 32bit or floating?