Exercise: Painting in Batch
Click on the icon for a quick preview of the exercise and the final result.

Download an archive that contains the footage as well as the setups used in this exercise.
Put these files in your Flame system: for example under the /usr/tmp directory.

To learn how to load material into the Flame Library, see the exercise:
“Loading an archive”

Images courtesy of: Sonne Postproduction Film & TV
Images are subject to copyrights: please read the disclaimer section at the end of these tutorials.

The Batch Paint tool can be used to retouch a shot, rotoscopy an element that demands frame by frame corrections or create graphic elements. It can also be used when a garbage mask is not sufficient to remove wires or rigs on a shot, such as in the following example.

Start in Batch.
1. Drag the Library node to the Batch schematic to access the Library.
2. In the Library, hold CTRL and select the clips “Peach_clean_frame” and “Peach_wire_removal”.
3. Press Load.
4. Drag a Paint node to the Batch schematic.
5. Connect “Peach_wire_removal” to the Paint input tab (red).
6. Press F4 to access the result.
7. Press Add in the Paint layer tab to add a layer node.
8. In the Batch schematic, connect “Peach_clean_frame” to the front tab of the layer (red).

There are several techniques that could be used to remove the wire on this shot; you could clone clean areas over the wire or, as in this case reveal a clean backplate. To do so, you need to add the clean frame on a separate layer.
We will start by removing the wire on the sequence and after switch to a frame by frame mode to finish the reveal.

1. In Paint, select the front layer of the clean frame.
2. Choose Paint mode: Reveal.
This mode will reveal the clip that is selected in the Layer tab.
3. Select the Paint On: Sequence option.
When you add a brush stroke with Sequence selected it is painted on every frame of the sequence.
4. Keep the default soft brush and change the size to 20.
5. Start at frame 1.
6. Paint on the wire and stop at the peach.
7. Scroll the clip to see what is left to be removed.

1. Go back at frame 1.
2. Switch Paint On: From Frame
From Frame will apply the brush stroke on the current frame as well as on all subsequent frames in the clip.
3. Move forward frame by frame and clean the remaining wire on every frame, don’t paint on the peach at this point.
4. Scroll to see the result.

To change the brush size, hold S and drag the cursor on the image.

We will use a clone brush to clean the wire and its shadow that remains on the peach.

1. Go back to frame 1.
2. Switch Paint On: Cur Frame
Cur Frame will apply the brush stroke on the current frame only.
3. Go back to frame 1.
4. Scroll slowly forward and stop at a frame where you see the wire on the peach.
5. Switch the Paint mode to Clone.
6. Be sure Result is selected under Overlay.
7. Reduce the brush size to 5.
8. Zoom in the peach.
9. Hold CTRL to select the area of the image you want to clone.
10.Select an area close to the wire.
11.Paint on the wire.
12.Change the clone area to remove the wire shadow as well.
13.Go to the next frame and repeat the steps whenever necessary until you reach the end of the clip.
14.Save the setup and render the result clip with an Output node if you want

Note: The nice thing about Batch Paint is that you can clean a clip before using it within another node. You can also use a context view to paint while looking at another node result in context.

To erase a brush stroke, use the pen eraser. Another way to go back to original frame is to select the original front on the Layer tab and reveal the front instead of the clean layer.