Paint and Roto for Feature Film VFX 01

Name: Paint and Roto for Feature Film VFX 01
Rating: 4.6 (261 reviews)

Marker Removal in Nuke

Created byMichael North

Last updated 5/2018

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

Have confidence in knowing what to expect in the industry.
Students will be able to complete marker removal and other basic paint tasks to feature film standard using tried and tested methods.
Denoise and regrain plates, remove markers, bring back foreground objects, 2D tracking, 3D Projections, Edge Fixing.

Course content

1 section • 16 lectures • 2h 24m total length

Introduction9:36
Discover multiple marker removal techniques for feature film vfx, extend the green screen, and preserve grain while painting and roto to deliver clean, edge-preserving composites.
Cleanplates and Keymixing4:23
Patch green screen areas to create clean plates using the IBK color node, adjust size to remove spill. Use a masked K-Max roto with feathered frame-by-frame keyframes for seamless compositing.
Keymixing Roto and Tracking5:22
Learn to drive roto shapes with motion tracking to reveal or stabilize plates in vfx, using tracking data to animate ellipses, feathering, and quality checks via the red channel.
Roto Offsetting8:30
Learn a practical roto offsetting workflow to isolate paint using alpha channels, roto nodes, and channel merges, then track and transform patches to cleanly reveal the background.
Live Painting9:02
Use a roto workflow with the clone tool and roto paint node to patch frames from nearby frames and track for stability. Create alpha from painted strokes via Ajeeb Alpha.
2D Tracked Patch7:35
Master non-live cleanup using paint, clone, and blur to create a clean patch on a green screen, then track and merge it.
3D Projected Patch9:07
Explore a 3D projection workflow to project a patch onto a wall card with a 3D project node and scanline render, then refine across channels using keyframes and Oddjob values.
Edge Blur Unpremult7:11
Explore edge blur unpremult workflows for feature film vfx, using roto tracking, alpha inversion, and patching to extend edges and fix overscan artifacts.
Keying and Offsetting7:03
Master keying and offsetting to create a traveling alpha that cleans up moving markers without camera tracking, using clamp, dilate, blur, and transform offset to seamlessly align the plate.
Final Markers16:03
Explore marker removal in feature film vfx, evaluating ibk, rotor offset, glaive paint, and procedural methods, and apply a live roto clone offset workflow to preserve foreground detail.
Edge Fixing 110:07
Master edge fixing for vfx by creating a clean plate from a green screen, performing roto, syncing alpha channels, and using paint-based edge restoration for seamless compositing.
Edge Fixing 27:47
Switch to feather points to select and adjust edge points, rotate and skew corners for fast edge fixes on complex shapes; paint by hand on problematic frames to maintain consistency.
Edge Fixing 316:19
Master frame-by-frame painting and edge fixing with roder workflows, dilated edges, and level-set extrapolation to maintain consistent edges across frames while balancing automated methods with manual touch-ups for artifacts.
Edge Fixing 46:52
Learn practical edge fixing for feature film roto: use automated edge extend, fix sharp angles with manual paint, adjust feather fall-off and alpha, and render only the corrected frames.
Re-graining and Conclusion11:05
Learn to re-create grain from scratch, remove green screen markers, and preserve original plates by using alpha-driven grain, channel-by-channel regrades, and a structured paint workflow.
Bonus Material8:41
Stabilize moving footage by projecting the plate onto wall geometry and using a camera-driven texture map to enable fast cleanup with paint-out, then reverse the stabilization for final compositing.

Requirements

Passion and interest in VFX.
An intermediate knowledge of Nuke is required to follow along.

Description

About this tutorial:

In this tutorial we will be working on a shot I designed to emulate a typical ‘first shot’ you might be expected to get when you enter the industry: Marker Removal. I will demonstrate various different methods of removing markers and discuss the benefits and drawbacks of each method. We will cover methods of bringing back foreground objects over our painted background, and fixing contaminated edges. Anyone with an intermediate knowledge of Nuke will easily be able to follow along. We will be doing this task together from start to finish, from denoising the plate all the way through to re-graining our feature film quality final result.

Specifically it will cover:

- Best practice workflows.

- Denoising and re-graining.

- Clean-plate generation.

- Basic 1-point tracking and linking tracking data.

- Various static and live paint patch methods.

- 3D Projection workflows

- Edge extending.

- Edge fixing, both procedural and manual

- Methods of Quality control.

- Alpha preservation and manipulation.

- Stabilisation by 3D projection.

- Various tips and tricks.

About this series:

The first in a series of In-Depth Paint and Roto tutorials using Nuke. In this series I will illustrate various workflows and techniques that I use every day as a paint artist in the feature film industry. The footage used in this series is footage that I shot in order to accurately represent the sort of tasks that you can expect to receive once you enter the industry. The goal of this series is to as accurately as possible emulate work in the industry and to demonstrate tried and tested workflows that are required in order to achieve the standard of work required in feature film work. Most of all, this course is designed to give you the confidence to know what to expect and to know that you have the skills and workflows necessary to impress in the industry.

Project Files included:

- Nuke Scripts

- Iron Man Image sequence

- Shot camera and geometry

- Gizmo’s

Who this course is for:

Visual Effects Students, recent graduates, people who want to break in to the VFX Industry, or recent entrants in to the industry.