Wire removal

Wire removal is a visual effects technique used to remove wires in films, where the wires are originally included as a safety precaution or to simulate flying in actors or miniatures.

Wire removal can be partly automated through various forms of keying, or each frame can be edited manually. First, the live action plates of actors or models suspended on wires are filmed in front of a green screen. Editors can then erase the wires frame by frame, without worrying about erasing the backdrop, which will be added later. This can be accomplished automatically with a computer. If the sequence is not filmed in front of a green-screen, or with a green wire a digital editor must hand-paint the lines out. This can be an arduous task.

The modern technique of wire removal was pioneered by Industrial Light and Magic, when they used it in films such as Howard the Duck (1986), Back to the Future Part II (1989), and Hook (1991).

Adobe After Effects

Adobe After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing application developed by Adobe Systems and used in the post-production process of filmmaking and television production. Among other things, After Effects can be used for keying, tracking, rotoscoping, compositing and animation. It also functions as a very basic non-linear editor, audio editor and media transcoder.

Description

Adobe After Effects is software primarily used for creating motion graphics and visual effects. It allows users to animate, edit, and compose media in 2D or 3D space with many different built-in tools and third party plug-ins which can be downloaded from the Internet depending on what type of plug in the user is looking for. It also provides individual attention to variables like parallax and also user adjustable angles of observation.

Adobe After Effects is a layer-oriented program. Each individual media object like video clips, still images, audio clips, etc. runs on its own. In contrast, other Non-Linear Editing Systems use a system where individual media objects can occupy the same track as long as they do not overlap at the same time. This track-oriented system is more suitable for editing and can keep project files more simple. The layer oriented system that Adobe After Effects has is suitable for extensive video effects work and also key framing. Other compositing packages, especially the ones that employ tree or node workflows, such as Nuke and Fusion, are better suited to managing complex interconnected data flow within a composite. Adobe After Effects is capable of countering the problem somewhat by selectively hiding layers or by grouping them into pre-compositions.