How to get the game's interface out of your gameplay footage
Tell Vizard Agent the game's interface has to go and that none of the action may be lost. It measures exactly where the panel sits on a full frame, maps the subject's path across the whole recording, and reframes so the interface falls outside the crop, having first checked the action never travels through the part being cropped away.
What do you type into Vizard Agent?
Say the action is the constraint. A request to remove the interface is easily satisfied by cropping into the middle of the frame, which loses the interface and half the play. Naming what must survive turns it into a real question about geometry, and saying "clean" stops Vizard Agent adding text of its own.
Prompt
What does Vizard Agent actually do?
A game's interface is drawn into the recording, so it cannot be switched off afterwards. It can sometimes be painted out, and it usually looks like it. Cropping it away is cleaner, and the only question is whether the action ever goes where the interface is. On a racing capture with a built-in panel, most of the work was geometry. In the session behind this article it:
- Assessed the car's position and movement across the recording and where the interface panel sat relative to it.
- Took a full frame to measure the panel's area precisely, giving a boundary in pixels rather than an impression of where it roughly sits.
- Mapped the car's whole journey through the recording, then chose a crop that excluded the panel across the entire clip.
- Tested a reframe to one side to keep both subjects visible.
- Looked at the car exactly as it passed the panel's area, the frame where the crop either works or does not.
- Rendered and graded the reframed version, then checked the final framing, the car's clarity and the panel.
When does this not work well?
Some interfaces surround the action. A HUD with elements in every corner, a minimap in the middle of the play area, or a timer over the subject cannot be cropped away without losing the thing you are keeping. Low resolution is a problem too, because cropping costs quality you cannot spare.
Common questions
Will I lose part of the play? Not if the path allows a crop. Vizard Agent maps it before choosing.
What if the interface is everywhere? Vizard Agent will say so and offer the alternatives.
Why not paint the interface out? A semi-transparent overlay leaves a patch that moves with the action. Vizard Agent's crop leaves nothing at all.