Digital tool that removes stunt rigs, wires, and rig points from aerial shots via pixel analysis and intelligent fill. Industry standard for aerial action.
You know the problem: the stunt performer flies through the air, but three different steel cables hold them, plus attachment points on the shoulder and hip, and the viewer's eyes are inevitably drawn there. This is where 3-Depix comes in — a process that digitally removes these visual distractions from the image without compromising the performer's movement. Unlike classic rotoscoping, where you mask every frame by hand, 3-Depix works with pixel analysis and spatial reconstruction. The software recognizes the stunt rigs based on texture differences, edges, and motion patterns, then intelligently extrapolates the background forward and fills the gap. The result: seamless, photorealistic removal without the artificial artifacts that would arise from simple content-aware fill.
In practice on set, this means significantly greater freedom for you as a DoP — you don't have to perfectly hide the rigs in every take. Of course, it helps if there's a greenscreen in the background, as the reconstruction then becomes trivial. With complex backgrounds involving depth variation, perspective, and light refraction, 3-Depix becomes more challenging, but even here, modern implementations deliver impressive results. However, you need at least two different takes or additional reference shots of the same subject without or with a displaced rig — that's the secret. The software compares these frames, analyzes differences, and reconstructs the missing information from the stable areas. This works best on a clean studio set where lighting is consistent and there are no wild shadows cast by fluttering fabrics.
You often see 3-Depix used in fight scenes with wirework, superhero flight sequences, or highly complex stunt rigging operations. A skilled VFX team needs between two and four days per shot for complete rig removal using this method — significantly faster than classic matte painting. This makes it economically attractive for large productions. Ensure that you yourself maintain consistent lighting and depth of field during the shoot; variations in lens aberration or out-of-focus frames will make reconstruction a nightmare for the VFX department. During editing, you should coordinate with your compositor whether individual frames should be stabilized — excessive motion tracking can confuse the algorithms.