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Adding and Removing Film Grain
Adding and Removing Film Grain
Removing Grain from a Clip
About Film Grain
Grain is a basic characteristic of film that
is derived from the individual silver halide crystals randomly distributed across
an image. The random distribution of these crystals creates the
visual impression of graininess, which adds a distinctive look to
film. In addition, different film stocks have different grain signatures.
You can use grain management
tools to create convincing composites between video, or CG-generated
elements, and film material. The DeGrain and ReGrain tools are useful
in a number of scenarios. For example:
- If you are pulling keys from key-in film
clips, film grain can make generating a clean matte more difficult.
Using the DeGrain tool, you can remove the grain from the key-in
clip, generate the matte from that clip, and apply the matte to
the original grainy key-in clip. The result is a clean, precise
matte applied to a properly grainy film clip.
- If you are mixing film clips originating
from different film stocks, you can match the grain in the clips
to make the grain in your results look consistent.
- If you are working with footage originally
shot on film and transferred to video, you can remove the grain
and match the film material with video material.
- If you are working with video material
or CG-generated elements, you may want to add grain to the clips
to result in a film look.
- You can use DeGrain tools to remove grain
from film clips before performing any image processes. After you
are finished, you can use ReGrain tools to restore the film grain
to the final result.
Grain management workflow,
much like working with LUTs, depends heavily on the specific qualities
of the media you are working with. Use the procedures described
in the following sections to put together the processing steps that
you need to get the results that you want.