These effects provide useful tools for improving the quality of your video footage and fixing common issues.
Clone Stamp
The clone stamp is useful for duplicating or removing specific parts of a layer. Combined with HitFilm’s feature tracking this is a very powerful feature.
A separate layer can be used as a clone mask, defining the area to clone. Using a simple plane is usually the easiest way to do this, as the plane can be easily resized and positioned if necessary.
The clone source can be from the applied layer or from another layer, as defined by the Clone From property.
The Source and Target positions can then be specified, or linked to other layers. This enables the cloning to be linked to points containing tracking data.
Deinterlace
HitFilm is designed to create progressive projects and output. If you are using interlaced footage in a project we recommend deinterlacing it with this effect to avoid visible interlace ‘combing’.
There are two options:
- Field separation discards one of the fields. This results in a half-resolution image. You can also separate the fields while retaining both, which results in an increased framerate. The composite shot containing the footage should have its framerate set to twice that of the footage to retain normal playback.
- Field displacement uses optical flow techniques to analyze movement within the fields and attempts to create a new, full resolution frame which merges the two fields together. This generates a full resolution frame but artefacts may be visible if the merge is not fully successful.
Denoise
Denoise is available in the Edit: Repair Pack.
See Denoise.
Grain Removal
Grain Removal is available in the Edit: Repair Pack.
Basic grain removal. Also see Denoise for advanced noise removal.
Rolling Shutter
Rolling Shutter is available in the Edit: Repair Pack.
Some capture methods used by video cameras produce an effect called rolling shutter. This is particularly common with DSLR cameras. Rolling shutter can be identified by a wobbling, jelly-like instability in the frame during rapid movement.
The rolling shutter effect is designed to counteract rolling shutter, correcting the video and minimizing the effects of rolling shutter.
Shutter direction is used to define whether the camera uses a vertical or horizontal shutter. Consult your camera’s specifications for more information.
Correction
The correction property is used to specify the amount of time it takes for the camera’s shutter to travel across the frame.
In the case of cameras using a vertical shutter, this is defined as the time it takes in frames to capture from the top row of the image to the bottom row.
Positive values indicates the vertical shutter is travelling from top to bottom, while negative values are for bottom to top. You should consult the specifications of your camera to find the correction value to use.
Shutter sync
This property determines which part of the rolling shutter frame should be used to fix the image.
- -0.5 will use the frame at the beginning of the vertical shutter capture, as defined by the correction property.
- 0.0 will use the frame halfway through the vertical shutter capture. This is usually best as it will result in the minimum amount of distortion.
- 0.5 will use the frame at the end of the vertical shutter capture, as defined by the correction property.
Optical flow
Rolling shutter works by tracking the movement of every pixel in the frame using optical flow techniques.
The View menu can be used to observe the accuracy of the optical flow track.
Different videos may require adjustments to the optical flow properties. Adjusting the Window size and Sigma properties tend to yield the best results.
Wire Removal
Wire Removal is available in the Composite: Toolkit Pack.
Easily remove wires from your shot using this tool to paint them out
- Start Position: Sets the location of the start point. You can either move the Position point on the Viewer, or change the values manually.
- Use Layer: Allows you to use the position of another layer by selecting it. Useful if you have tracked the ends of the wire, and want to use the position of Point layers that contain the tracking data.
- End Position: Sets the location of the end point. You can either move the Position point on the Viewer, or change the values manually.
- Use Layer: Allows you to use the position of another layer by selecting it. Useful if you have tracked the ends of the wire, and want to use the position of Point layers that contain the tracking data.
- Width: The Wire Removal effect draws a line over the wire, between the start and end points, and repaints that line using background info from the video. This slider sets the width of the line. Adjust it so it covers the entire wire that needs removed.
- Gradient: Softens the edges of the repainted line to blend it into the background. Try to raise this setting only as much as the scene requires. Setting it too high may create a ripple as the wire moves.
- Reflection: Increasing this setting adds a reflection at the center of the line, which may help to blend the line into the scene better.