Remove Titles from Footage? at DVinfo.net

Peter Moretti · March 1st, 2009, 08:54 PM

I'm working with footage that has titles baked into the image. The material is off an actor's DVD reel. For the actual show the titles may have worked, but they are horribly distracting in a reel. Sadly, the original source files are not available.

Is there a way to remove the titles from the image and replace them with some type of an interpolation based upon the surrounding footage?

I'm using Avid MC 3.1.1 with Boris CC and Avid FX (Boris Red). I also have Sony Vegas 8.0c.

Thanks MUCH for any advice, help.

Eric Lagerlof · March 4th, 2009, 10:39 AM

Peter, how about this just to see if any process would really work. If the titles are just say, white letters over a dark background, maybe you could try something like keying them out so you have letter shape holes in your actor. (Maybe feather the key a pixel or two.)

Duplicate the 'holy' layer and, using the bottom layer, blur and perhaps offset a few pixels and/or scale to up or down 10% . It might work, and at worst give you an idea of whether any kind of hand rotoscoping would be worth it.

Also, if the titles aren't in the middle, could you crop the titles out and come up with some graphical filler to fill in the screen. Maybe have 3 parts of his/her performance seperated then framed in a "monitor/TV screen" and they pop up or rotate around eachother as different parts of the performance happen.

If nothing else, hope this can kick start some new ideas of yours. Good Luck.

Aric Mannion · March 6th, 2009, 09:29 AM

If the titles are on top or bottom, you may want to scale the image up so that you can crop the titles out, but would create a softer image. If the titles are over his face, you could put some type of solid color over them and type the actors name over that, using the shot for your own titles. I guess if the titles where not on the actor, but over a sky or building you could recreate that backdrop and overlay it on top of the title.
There is no real way to extract titles embedded on an image.

Peter Moretti · March 7th, 2009, 04:09 AM

Thanks for the suggestions :). I'm going to try the keying route. I'll let you all know it goes. Thanks again.

Jon Shohet · March 7th, 2009, 12:12 PM

I haven't tried it myself, but maybe it's worth checking out:

VirtualDub MSU Subtitle Remover

you'll need virtualdub to try it...

March 1st, 2009, 08:54 PM	#1
Peter Moretti Trustee Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Sherman Oaks, CA Posts: 1,259	Remove Titles from Footage? I'm working with footage that has titles baked into the image. The material is off an actor's DVD reel. For the actual show the titles may have worked, but they are horribly distracting in a reel. Sadly, the original source files are not available. Is there a way to remove the titles from the image and replace them with some type of an interpolation based upon the surrounding footage? I'm using Avid MC 3.1.1 with Boris CC and Avid FX (Boris Red). I also have Sony Vegas 8.0c. Thanks MUCH for any advice, help.

March 4th, 2009, 10:39 AM	#2
Eric Lagerlof Major Player Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Pacifica, CA Posts: 348	Peter, how about this just to see if any process would really work. If the titles are just say, white letters over a dark background, maybe you could try something like keying them out so you have letter shape holes in your actor. (Maybe feather the key a pixel or two.) Duplicate the 'holy' layer and, using the bottom layer, blur and perhaps offset a few pixels and/or scale to up or down 10% . It might work, and at worst give you an idea of whether any kind of hand rotoscoping would be worth it. Also, if the titles aren't in the middle, could you crop the titles out and come up with some graphical filler to fill in the screen. Maybe have 3 parts of his/her performance seperated then framed in a "monitor/TV screen" and they pop up or rotate around eachother as different parts of the performance happen. If nothing else, hope this can kick start some new ideas of yours. Good Luck.

March 6th, 2009, 09:29 AM	#3
Aric Mannion Major Player Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Boston, Massachusetts Posts: 616	If the titles are on top or bottom, you may want to scale the image up so that you can crop the titles out, but would create a softer image. If the titles are over his face, you could put some type of solid color over them and type the actors name over that, using the shot for your own titles. I guess if the titles where not on the actor, but over a sky or building you could recreate that backdrop and overlay it on top of the title. There is no real way to extract titles embedded on an image.

March 7th, 2009, 04:09 AM	#4
Peter Moretti Trustee Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Sherman Oaks, CA Posts: 1,259	Thanks for the suggestions :). I'm going to try the keying route. I'll let you all know it goes. Thanks again.

March 7th, 2009, 12:12 PM	#5
Jon Shohet Major Player Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: London, UK Posts: 277	I haven't tried it myself, but maybe it's worth checking out: VirtualDub MSU Subtitle Remover you'll need virtualdub to try it...