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May 06, 2019 Content-aware fill is available in the latest edition of After Effects (16.1) and Adobe has made sample footage available, as well as tutorials for the tool. It's actually quite easy to use. Just select unwanted items using keying, masking, or the Roto Brush. Apr 03, 2019 Content-Aware Fill in Photoshop removes a selected area of your image, replacing it with an automatically generated background via sampling adjacent pixels. The new feature in After Effects does the same, but since we’re working with multiple images instead of just one, it also samples from adjacent frames. May 01, 2019 Content-Aware Fill takes care of removing and tracking the object in your shot for you, as well as filling in the missing pixels. Read on to learn more about how to use Content-Aware Fill in After Effects CC, so you can start removing elements in your own clips and making your shots look even better.

In this video tutorial, learn the basics of the brand new Content-Aware Fill in After Effects — including a free project file!

Adobe set the internet ablaze with the announcement of the new Content-Aware Fill feature in the latest After Effects CC release. Now, let’s see if this new feature lives up to the hype. (Spoiler alert: Yes, it does.) In this tutorial, we’re going to cover how to use the new Content-Aware Fill feature in After Effects CC.

Jun 21, 2012 USAGE. Open a video in After Effects and export it to a sequence of images 2. Using AE’s Tracker, track a point through the sequence 3. Select the track point, and execute the script posted below.

So, let’s get started! (Be sure to download the project file, which includes footage to follow along!)

Download the project file

This project file is free for personal or commercial use. By downloading, you agree not to redistribute this file.

What Is Content-Aware Fill?

Content-Aware Fill in After Effects lets you remove unwanted areas or objects in video footage, while automatically filling in the area of the removal. It analyzes frames over time to fill in missing pixels by pulling them from other frames in the footage. It’s similar to the Content-Aware Fill in Photoshop, except in After Effects, it’s temporally aware, and it works on video footage.

How to Start Using Content-Aware Fill

To begin using Content-Aware Fill in After Effects, navigate to the Window tab at the top of the screen, then select Content-Aware Fill. This will open up the Content-Aware Fill panel in your workspace. You will then need to mask out the object you want to remove from your footage. (You may need to keyframe the placement of your mask if your object is moving throughout.) Set the mask to Subtract so that you now have a transparent alpha channel where that mask is on your footage. You should be able to see a mini-preview of where that mask is on your footage in the Content-Aware Fill panel.

You can now select Generate Fill Layer in the Content-Aware Fill panel. After Effects will then analyze the footage and render a .PNG sequence, which it places in the composition. That .PNG sequence fills in the masks/gaps in the footage.

If everything worked correctly, the unwanted objects should no longer be in your footage.

Adobe Content Aware

Different Fill Methods

There are three different fill methods you can select from when you use Content-Aware Fill. They are named Object, Surface, and Edge Blend. The Object Fill method will likely be the most commonly used, and it is the default fill method.

• Object Fill: Great for removing moving objects in your footage.
• Surface: Ideal for removing stickers, decals, or logos on a smooth surface.
• Edge Blend: Fast method, best used on low-detail surfaces like paper.

Creating a Reference Frame

In some cases, when Content-Aware Fill isn’t giving you the results you want, you may have better luck using a Reference Frame. (I find this ideal when removing static objects from footage, such as a cell tower or a parked car.) When you select Create Reference Frame, After Effects automatically exports a frame from your video to Photoshop. You can then use the Clone-Stamp tool to fill in the removed area. Then save and close the image in Photoshop.

That reference image will automatically import back into After Effects and into your composition. Content-Aware Fill will now take that reference image into account when it generates the fill throughout the video.

Extra Tips

From my experience with Content-Aware Fill, it seems to work best on objects moving through your footage. This allows After Effects to “see” what the video should look like when the object isn’t supposed to be there. When removing static objects in the scene, results will vary. I recommend using the Create Reference Frame option in those cases. Also, I got the best results when I put a small amount of feathering on my removal masks. It doesn’t take much — usually about 2-8 pixels of feathering.

Interested in the tracks we used to make this video?

• “Retro Vibes” by Wolves
• “Don’t Forget” by Marc Walloch

Looking for more video tutorials? Check these out.

It’s that time of year again, when Adobe raises the bar with amazing new features in its professional video and audio tools. In the months leading up to the big reveal, some very talented creative professionals road tested features in the latest beta version of Adobe After Effects and provided valuable feedback to the product teams.

After Effects Content Aware Fill Waiting

One customer, Jack Tunnicliffe of Java Post, is a veteran of the film and television industry, having worked in nearly every aspect of film and television production. After purchasing Adobe After Effects in 1995, he started focusing exclusively on post-production, namely visual effects and color correction work. Today, he’s a go-to person in the industry for fixing shots and doing invisible effects work.

Putting Content-Aware Fill for video to the test

For the past few months, Jack spent time testing Content-Aware Fill in After Effects, and even used it on an upcoming Hollywood film, A Score to Settle, starring Nicholas Cage and Benjamin Bratt. His focus on fixing shots is one of the things that drew him to Content Aware Fill for video, which is powered by Adobe Sensei, our artificial intelligence and machine learning technology.

“Repairs are a big part of any high-end production,” says Jack. “For me, Content-Aware Fill in After Effects is a huge tool in my tool box.”

Almost every project Java Post works on requires some form of removal, such as logos, objects, or shadows. The studio does most repairs by tracking clean plates and painting. Now with Content-Aware Fill, Jack can accomplish many of these tasks directly in After Effects or by using it in conjunction with Adobe Photoshop to create reference frames to help handle lighting changes in shots.

“When people start learning how to do removal, they often think it’s simply a matter of painting or cloning items away using adjacent frames. But in reality, the clone work has to be so precise, it’s an impossible task, as even the smallest changes in paint or texture chatters in playback,” explains Jack.

With Content-Aware Fill, the dream of easily painting or cloning out items is now a reality. One scene in A Score to Settle uses squibs, which are miniature explosive devices, to simulate Nicholas Cage being shot. In the original scene, the squibs were visible under his jacket—especially when the sun reflected off them. To fix the shot, Jack created a reference frame in Photoshop of the jacket with the bulges removed. He then brought the frame back into After Effects and ran Content-Aware Fill, which adjusted the other frames to match.

“Content-Aware Fill in After Effects stayed true to the reference shot of what the jacket was supposed look like, and it did it over multiple frames,” says Jack.

Images courtesy of Goldrush Entertainment and Minds Eye Entertainment.

In another shot, Jack used a reference frame to calculate lighting changes in a clip. A bottle of pills fell under a bed and the cap remained directly in the light source. In the master shot used by the film, the cap was not there. There was also a hand passing through the light source. They further refined the shot by using several reference frames to correct the lighting.

“Tracking a clean plate or freeze frame doesn’t account for lighting changes and takes another form of manipulation to accomplish,” explains Jack. “Content-Aware Fill can provide the data for the lighting changes through reference frames in the shot. When we posted the corrected clip for producer approval it was immediately approved.”

Images courtesy of Goldrush Entertainment and Minds Eye Entertainment.

Traditional removal and repair work gets a makeover

Content-Aware Fill is also useful for fixing blemishes on skin, also known as digital makeup. In the past, Jack painstakingly tracked every blemish and then blurred and painted each shot. With Content-Aware Fill, he can track regions of a person’s face, create reference frames in Photoshop to clean up the blemishes, and then give After Effects the information to follow the lighting changes as the person’s head moves in a scene.

“Content-Aware Fill in After Effects in the right hands is much more powerful than Nuke and digital painting,” Jack says. “I could process a shot in one-tenth the time in After Effects.”

Jack also discovered that Content-Aware Fill can save the day if a movie is rejected during the QC process at lab. This can happen when a camera hasn’t been black shaded properly or has dead pixels. These pixels, which are visible on the big screen, can be invisible during post production. By putting a mask around the region where the pixels exist and running Content-Aware Fill, Jack easily filled in spots with information from surrounding pixels.

Images courtesy of Java Post.

“In one shot I fixed there were almost 400 dead pixels, but they weren’t visible until we blew the shot up to 400%,” says Jack. “Once I knew where they were, I created a mask for one shot that ultimately worked for every shot because the sensor never moves. Content-Aware Fill just uses the surrounding information to fill in the pixels in each frame – it’s amazing.”

As Jack works with movie and television clients to meet their exacting requirements, he envisions the latest After Effects feature to become an integral part of his everyday work. With just one keystroke, he can remove objects and avoid hours previously spent cleaning up shots. “In an industry where both speed and quality are paramount, Content-Aware Fill is invaluable,” he says.

Learn more about Content-Aware Fill in After Effects.