Get rid of the tripod in 360 video — The Quick & Dirty™ method using only MistikaVR and Photoshop
There are many ways to remove the tripod from your scene, but most require using a least three programs. I am going to show you how to do it with only two: MistikaVR and Photoshop.
- It is Quick
- It is Easy
- It is almost automatic
- Higher quality output as you only need to render once.
Most importantly, this will open up a technique later to get really good plating on more dynamic shots.
Step 1:
Have your stitched footage ready in MistikaVR
Step 2:
Set your Mark In and Mark Out on the same frame and export it out as an image sequence.
Step 3:
Open the exported image in Adobe Photoshop and then from the menu select:
3D →Spherical panorama →New panorama from selected layer
Step 4:
Rotate the image 90 degrees so we are looking at the Tripod.
Step 5:
There are many Photoshop tools you can use here, but as this is my quick & dirty(tm) tutorial, just select the area around the tripod and then select fill from the menu or pressing Shift+F5. Make sure Content Aware is selected and click OK. This will remove the tripod and fill in the missing detail.
Step 6:
Double Click Spherical map from the Layer Section. This will return you to an equirectangular image but with your changes made. Export the Image, we now have a clean plate.
Step 7:
Most tutorials will tell you to export the stitched footage and then mask it in Premiere or After Effects, we will not be doing that.
We are going to jump back into MistikaVR and add it as a new camera!
Drag the image from windows explorer into the camera section in MistikaVR
Step 8:
Make sure the new camera is selected, and in the Input Camera tab, select LatLong.
Step 9:
Change the Input Camera Weight to -50. Add an Edge point. Change the OutPut camera Pitch to -90 degrees. and make sure the edge point covers the tripod completely.
Step 10:
Return the Output Camera Pitch to the original, And you are ready to render your footage out without any tripod!
TIP: Remember to remove the In and OUT marks before rendering the footage.
Ben Huss is a 360 filmmaker and VR Consultant. His Company SkyEdge 360 specialises in dynamic 360 film and has all the toys including custom built drones, rovers, POV headsets and cable cams. He is an affable chap and available for hire. Connect with him on Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benhuss/
