VFX Cleanup and Rig Removal
Cleanup is the VFX work nobody is supposed to see.
A shoot picks up things that shouldn’t be in the final shot. A rig that holds a camera or a light. Marks on a wall. A scuff on a product. Our job is to take them out, so the shot looks like they were never there.
Rig removal is the same idea for equipment. The rig was needed on set. It isn’t needed on screen.
Good cleanup is subtle. If a viewer spots the fix, it failed. The patch has to match the grain, the light and the movement around it. Below are six projects where that was the job.
Gymshark
We did over 20 cleanup shots for this spot. All of it was subtle and invisible. With 20 shots there are 20 chances for a fix to show, so each one has to hold up on its own.
Netflix | This Is a Robbery: The World’s Biggest Art Heist
We did the cleanup for a shot in this Netflix docuseries about the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art heist. When it was released in April 2021, it was the number one viewed documentary on Netflix for a few weeks.
Nike | Own The Floor
We did a few cleanup shots for this Nike spot.
iHop 2 x 2 x 2
We did the rig removal on this spot.
McDonalds UAE
We did the cleanup for this project.
Jeep Grand Wagoneer
We did the cleanup and roto for this project. Roto means cutting a subject out of the shot, frame by frame, so it can be worked on separately. More on that in Match-Moving and Roto.
More cleanup and rig removal on our site
- Selling Sunset: we removed cameras visible on set and cleaned walls on Season 2.
- Imagine Dragons “Radioactive”: rig removal and cleanup, every shot delivered in 4 days.
- Lil Dicky “Hahaha”: cleanup on 3 shots in 2 days.
- Maroon 5 “Girls Like You”: we removed tracking markers from some shots.
- Appy Fizz: wire removal and mattes.
Have shots with rigs, wires, marks or markers in them? Get in touch. Send the shot and the deadline. Happy to take a look. You can also see all our work or watch the CG Lab reel.