Overview

This standard is about removing or “painting out” unwanted content from plates.  This could include rigs, scratches, dust, blemishes from developing chemicals, company logos, safety harnesses, markers used for blue or green screen, modern elements from period drama and people that should not be in shot such as animal handlers or puppeteers.  

This standard is for those involved with Paint and Prep or Compositing.

Performance Criteria

You must be able to:

  1. interpret the brief for paint and preparation work 
  2. retain details of grain composition, colour and artefacts, only making essential changes identified in the brief
  3. make sure you only clean up those parts of plates that will show in the final image 
  4. when required, sufficiently degrain plates to allow paint and preparation work to be carried out effectively 
  5. select appropriate techniques to achieve work of the desired quality in the shortest amount of time 
  6. check and confirm that clean up activity leaves no traces 
  7. work in correct colour channels to achieve the desired effect
  8. paint with subtlety and accuracy 
  9. check and confirm that the contents of cleaned up plates are believable
  10. use consistent paint-strokes when carrying out any frame by frame painting 
  11. check and confirm consistency between frames
  12. regrain plates to the same level as the original 
  13. confirm that the end result is what is needed for compositing

 

Knowledge and understanding

You need to know and understand:

  1. the advantages, disadvantages and uses of different clean up techniques and the relative time taken by each
  2. the importance of respecting the creative vision of the client or director
  3. when it is appropriate to use patches
  4. how light behaves on different surfaces and in different situations
  5. the colour channels, how they interact with each other and how to select which ones to work with when cleaning up plates
  6. what computers and software can and can’t do in relation to paint and preparation
  7. how to use the software required
  8. the advantages and disadvantages of different matte generation techniques and how to use them 
  9. how to track in patches using point, planar or image projection techniques 
  10. how to clean up plates to get believable results without blurring or inconsistencies
  11. the impact of boiling or bubbling on consistency and how to paint frame by frame 
  12. the purpose and methods of degraining and regraining