F_WireRemoval

F_WireRemoval is particularly good at removing wires over heavily motion blurred backgrounds or wires over smoke, dust, or clouds. It can be used to remove each wire in a sequence or to quickly create a clean plate which can then be tracked into place.

F_WireRemoval also incorporates a tracker which automatically tracks a moving wire through a clip. This tracker has its own control panel, which will float inside the Viewer if you have checked Show On Screen Controls in the F_WireRemoval controls.

Inputs and Controls

Connection Type	Connection Name	Function
Input	CleanPlate	An optional input to allow you to supply a clean plate. This is used by the CleanPlate repair mode which will warp the clean plate onto the current frame and use the warped image to reconstruct the background behind the wire.
Input	Source	The clip containing the wire to be removed.

Control (UI)	Knob (Scripting)	Default Value	Function
F_WireRemoval Tab
	setUserKeyFrame	N/A	Create user key frame - creates a user key frame.
	deleteUserKeyFrame	N/A	Delete user key frame - deletes a user key frame.
	snapToWire	N/A	Snap to wire - finds the edges of the wire and snaps the edges of the region onto them.
	trackBwd	N/A	Track backwards - plays backwards through the sequence tracking from frame to frame.
	stepBwd	N/A	Step backward - tracks backwards one frame.
	stepFwd	N/A	Step forward - tracks forward one frame.
	trackFwd	N/A	Track forwards - plays forwards through the sequence tracking from frame to frame.
	smartTrack	N/A	Smart track - tracks from beginning to end of frame range in an intelligent order.
	deleteTrackKeysBwd	N/A	Delete track key frames backwards - deletes track key frames backwards through the sequence until either a user key frame or the beginning of the sequence is reached.
	deleteTrackKeyStepBwd	N/A	Delete track key frame and step backward - deletes a track key frame and steps backwards one frame.
	deleteTrackKey	N/A	Delete track key frame - delete the current track key frame.
	deleteTrackKeyStepFwd	N/A	Delete track key frame and step forwards - deletes a track key frame and steps forwards one frame.
	deleteTrackKeysFwd	N/A	Delete track key frames forwards - deletes track key frames forwards through the sequence until either a user key frame or the end of the sequence is reached.
	deleteAllTrackKeys	N/A	Delete all track key frames - deletes all track key frames from the sequence.
	deleteAll	N/A	Delete all track and user key frames - deletes both track key frames and user key frames.
Type	wireType	Three Points	Controls the number of points on the on-screen wire tool. Choose the number of points needed to describe the wire you wish to remove. • Two Points - choose this if your wire is straight. • Three Points - choose this if your wire is a simple curve. • Five Points - choose this if your wire has an s-shaped curve.
On-Screen Wire	onScreenWire	Show	Sets the display mode for the on-screen wire tool. • Show - shows both points and lines. • Hide - hides both points and lines. • Points only - only shows the points.
Show On Screen Controls	showUI	disabled	Shows or hides the tracker panel in the Viewer.
Output	output	Source	Sets the output mode for F_WireRemoval. • Source - output the untouched source image. Use this output mode to position the on-screen wire tool over the wire you wish to remove. • Repair - output the repaired source image, with the wire removed from under the on-screen tool. • Wire Matte - renders a matte for the wire. This may be useful if the wire has been tracked but cannot be repaired using F_WireRemoval and other techniques have to be used. • Repair Matted - output the repaired source image and a matte in the alpha channel. If you want, you can manually adjust your image further using the matte.
Track Range	range	Source Clip Range	Sets the range of frames to track the wire over. • Specified Range - use the Track Start and Track End controls to specify the range over which to track the wire. • Source Clip Range - track the wire over the entire range of the Source clip.
Track Start	start	0	Specifies the start of the tracking range when Track Range is set to SpecifiedRange.
Track End	end	100	Specifies the end of the tracking range when Track Range is set to SpecifiedRange.
Repair	repairMethod	Spatial	Sets the algorithm used to remove the wire from under the grain: • Spatial - this method uses a slope dependent filter that interpolates across the wire at the most likely angle, given the image behind the wire. It uses information from the current frame only. • Temporal With Static Scene - this method uses LME to align frames from before and after onto the current frame. This is useful for sequences where the wire is moving and where the motion in the rest of the scene is non-uniform. • Temporal With Moving Scene - also aligns frames from before and after onto the current frame, but uses GME. This is useful for sequences where the wire is moving and the motion in the rest of the scene is fairly uniform. • Clean Plate - choose this method if you have a clean plate you wish to use for the repair, or if F_WireRemoval does not do a good job of removing the wire from each frame.
Filter Size	filterSize	5	If the wire you are trying to remove has details within it (for example, a steel wire in which the twisted threads are reflecting light), then the algorithm may leave these alone, thinking that they are grain. In this situation, you can decrease the filter size.
Temporal Offset	tempOffset	1	Sets the time offset of the additional frames to use for the Temporal With Static Scene or Temporal With Moving Scene methods. This determines which two frames before and after the current frame are used to fill in the background behind the wire.
Luminance Correct	lumCorrect	disabled	Enable this where there are global luminance shifts between one frame of the sequence and the next, or between a frame of the sequence and a clean plate you are using for the repair. NOTE: The Spatial repair mode does not benefit from Luminance Correction.
Lum Block Size	lumBlockSize	31.12	Altering the Lum Block Size could produce a better result if Luminance Correction is not performing as expected.
Points
Point 1	point1	N/A	The position of the start point on the wire.
Point 2	point2	N/A	The position of the point on the wire between the start point and the mid point. This is only active if Type is set to Five Points.
Point 3	point3	N/A	The position of the mid point on the wire.
Point 4	point4	N/A	The position of the point on the wire between the mid point and the end point. This is only active if Type is set to Five Points.
Point 5	point5	N/A	The position of the end point on the wire.
Start Width	startWidth	15.56	The width of the wire at Point 1 of the on-screen wire tool.
End Width	endWidth	15.56	The width of the wire at Point 5 of the on-screen wire tool. This allows you to make your repair region wider at one end than the other, for example, where there is motion blur on the wire.
Overall Width	overallWidth	15.56	Alter the width of the repair region along its entire length, and for all key frames.
About	about	N/A	Displays a dialog containing information about this node.