Changing the color of a moving object such as an open speedboat

[julianm44443758]

Is this possible to change the color of the exterior of the boat given that two men drive the boat and can be seen in the drone shots ?

[Roei Tzoref]

depends entirely on the shot. show it to us and tell us what exactly need to change and in what way, and for how long.

[julianm44443758]

I have many different shots some of them are straight above the boat and some from the side (10 feet away and 60 feet away etc.) and some from the back, the two drivers are standing in the middle of the open 40 foot boat driving.

[Roei Tzoref]

can we see and example and for you to describe in what way the color needs to change? it's all in the details. this could be easy or way too much work depending on how exactly it needs to change and how exactly it is captured in the shot.

[julianm44443758]

the boat's sides and deck is white with some blue horizontal stripes in it, I would be happy to just make the exterior all matte silver.

[Roei Tzoref]

oh... well... this is not easy stuff. red for yellow or purple for blue would have been easier. of course we need to see it. but sounds like awful lot of work and if at all reconstructing the whole thing in post.

[Mylenium]

Agree with the others. You are dancing around. Show us screenshots and then peopel can tell you what to do. From basic masking and color corrections to full 3D replacment this could be anything, even if it is already apparent that very little thought and planning have actually been done to facilitate the process.

Mylenium

[julianm44443758]

[Roei Tzoref]

the boat's sides and deck is white with some blue horizontal stripes in it, I would be happy to just make the exterior all matte silver.

with a dedicated team of compositors, 3d modeling and texture artist, practically a studio - yeah. anything can be done in post. including replacing the sea with hot lava. is it doable for a beginner in VFX user? no.  maybe through some other creative process such as color grading the whole shot, you could get the look and feel that you want. but a silver boat? nope.

[julianm44443758]

yes we are discussing here basic editing, if it would cost thousands of dollars it would be cheaper to reshoot with a different boat ( for optimal solution in a perfect world with a huge budget)..... So the follow mask etc would not work because of the water's changing formation etc? there are also side shots where the actors do not "block" the exterior of the boat but i assume it doesn't make much difference in this case.

[Mylenium]

There's a million issues here ranging from the camera work to the boat itself. Turning it silver (even matte) would mean having a way to re-create the lighting and reflections and that basically can only be done with a full 3D replacment. If you can settle for a a military navy grey, then color adjustments might go some way, but you'd still need to mask it out first. This is really something where a little more production planning in advance would have saved a lot of trouble. Salvaging these shots now after the fact simply will be a lot of work one way or the other.

Mylenium

[julianm44443758]

Gentlemen, thank you for your replies. This scene was not filmed to be planned to be fixed in post , instead I'm always looking to make things better although this boat would work ok as well. This boat was chosen for budgetary reasons, and NOT because I was planning to fix it in post. If it's possible to make it look gray or silver etc. for tv as well as big screen believably in the 10 different angle shots for less than $1000 it might be worth it, if not which I assume is the case, then I have to be happy with the current boat or reshoot, I assume.

[Roei Tzoref]

If it's possible to make it look gray or silver etc. for tv as well as big screen believably in the 10 different angle shots for less than $1000 it might be worth it, if not which I assume is the case, then I have to be happy with the current boat or reshoot, I assume.

you can be sure. this is heavy duty work.

[Szalam]

Silver is impossible because "silver" isn't a color as much as it's a level of reflectivity. You can't add reflectivity without the previously mentioned 3d modeling, texturing, animating, match moving mess. Honestly, silver would probably be better to be an entirely VFX shot instead of changing this one...

Grey might be doable, but the big problem is that the boat and water spray are really similar - in fact, they're both pretty much white.

So you can't use any sort of keying to get just the boat color and adjust it. You will have to do some very tedious rotoscoping. It wouldn't be so bad if it were moving slowly, but you've got spray occluding the boat. This is the kind of job that would be about equal cost to reshoot vs. fix in post.

[Dave_LaRonde]

julianm44443758  wrote

... i assume it doesn't make much difference in this case.

That's correct.  If you can't afford a re-shoot, you have to live with it.

Next time you'll think twice before you say to yourself, "We'll just fix it in post."

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi JulianM,

Which option did you end up going with? It would be great to find out how you solved this issue.

Thanks,
Kevin