I recently shot a short film in the desert of Jaisalmer, but in some of my footage there are unwanted buildings in the background that ruin the isolated, cinematic look I was going for. I know that professional background and object removal can be done with After effects but are there any beginner friendly tools or are there any ai powered tools doing the same
I searched online for alternatives, but most answers seem to point back to After Effects, so I’m wondering if there’s a simpler or cheaper solution for removing unwanted objects from video footage.
For a static shot, tools like Robust Video Matting or BackgroundMattingV2 are excellent choices if you have a decent GPU. I use them all the time for background removal, matte painting, and other visual effects workflows.
Once the background and foreground are separated, the cleanup process is straightforward. You can paint out unwanted objects in Photoshop, or use AI inpainting with models like Stable Diffusion to remove or replace background elements.
For a moving shot, things get more complicated. It usually requires motion tracking, manual painting, and a lot of patience. In some cases, the Patch Replacer node in DaVinci Resolve works really well, as long as the foreground subject doesn’t overlap the background. I often use this approach for removing shadows or cleaning up crew members in a scene, but on bigger shots I’ve had to go frame by frame in Photoshop to fix everything manually.
AI video editing tools are powerful, but they can also be a massive rabbit hole. Running models locally gives you far more control and produces useful results for real editing tasks. By contrast, most online AI video generators get a lot of hype but are still pretty limited and mostly geared toward quick demos or meme content rather than serious production.
Hey, I’ve had to clean up background clutter in video footage a few times, and here are the best tools I’ve found for removing unwanted objects or backgrounds quickly and effectively:
• Adobe After Effects(Content-Aware Fill for Video): Industry-standard for complex removals just mask the object and After Effects handles the rest.
• DaVinci Resolve (Fusion/Studio version): Great value and powerful, especially for tracking and removing objects in motion.
• HitFilm Pro: Lightweight, faster workflow for smaller projects, still handles background removal and object deletion well.
• Unscreen Pro: Online tool focused on automatic background removal—ideal when you need a quick cut-out without full editing software.
• Movavi Video Editor Plus: User-friendly and budget-friendly, useful for simpler tasks where you just need to erase an element or blur a background.