hello,

shot a narrative film. made sure to avoid any and all trademarks. however, on to scene 11 today and there are american spirit signs in the background of my shots.

someone once told me fcp had an effect called "smear" that would enable me to color in the words, letters, colors of a sign or advertised brand in my film in order to prevent showing something owned by a company.

is this true? does anyone know how i can rid my scene of the american spirit sign behind my
actors? any and all techniques or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

michael

Typically, what you would do is to create a duplicate track above the original. The upper track has priority so you'll want to use the matte tool to cut a hole in that track where the sign is at. Blur the bottom track and then the blurred sign should be the only thing showing through the 'mask' you created. If it's a static shot, this is easy, but if the camera is moving, you'll need to 'keyframe' the position of that cutout to follow the movement of the camera.

Hope this helps a bit,

-gb-

thank you. gets me started in right dirction.

Micahel
If you prefer, I have a free Region Blur plugin that you can grab from http://web.me.com/andymees
Best
Andy

thanks andy.