Zero said:
You are right, Angel. I suspect that a bit of digital painting will be involved in order to reconstruct a few frames.
What do you mean by "creating patches as a global fixer"?
Its like making big areas that will not change in one layer and track the shot with them. Then you can roto out the moving objects and then do the fine tuning with frame by frame. The size might vary. Even matte paintings can be used as patches.
ILM did that technique by adding a patch of sand layer for removing the shadow under the speeder so they could add it again.
Darth_Editous did a similar solution for removing the flying droid in tattoine.
Photoshop as prime use yes, then use compositing programs as combination for tracking and stabilizing :)
-Angel