MaskTracker+ extends features of Mask Tracker

MaskTracker+ is a new AE script from Mamoworld that expands features of the Mask Tracker in After Effects, opening up planar tracking capabilities that allow you to do much more than just moving masks.

Read more at Pro Video Coalition...

trackFinger AE: tracking gestures on iOS

trackFinger AE is new iOS app (on App Store) that allows you to record the movements of up to 10 fingers on an iPad, and then send tracking data as keyframes in e-mail text to paste into Adobe After Effects.

There's more on Pro Video Coalition.

Re-creating the 'Lost' smoke monster

Red Giant TV has a new tutorial and project by Seth Worley, Episode 52: Re-creating the Lost Smoke Monster. The tutorial features Trapcode Particular and 3D tracking with the Camera Tracker plug-in from The Foundry.

Update: BTW, @Oddernod posted some intro tips for Trapcode Particular on Twitter,

• Been playing w Particular a TON lately - quick tips: work w lots of small particles (less than 3) at low opacity (less than 5%) set to ADD mode
• use Glow Spheres as particle type, set to big size & feather values, & low opacity. Use motion blur set to subframe
• crank shutter angle up & play w levels & opacity boost. Work in 32-bit Linear for some terrific glow blends
• Study those Physics settings! Wire up a Expression Slider to Particles/sec to act as a multipler for working vs render values
• Treat Particular like a 3D app's particle system: use Motion Preview mode to quickly design the movement, then design the look.

Stereo 3D conversion tutorials for After Effects

Andrew Murchie noted new tutorials in the Enhanced Dimensions AE resource in New 2D to 3D After Effects Conversion Tutorials. He added Chris Heuer's Orlock the Vampire conversion with Mocha and AE, which won a Imagineer Systems' contest.

Chris also wrote a nice backgrounder, Nosferatu becomes Orlok the Vampire in 3D!, on the process for The Stereoscopic 3D issue of Creative COW Magazine.

For more of stereo 3D in After Effects and Premiere, see Stereoscopic 3D resources for After Effects and other AEP posts tagged Stereoscopic. Here's part 1 of Chris' tutorial from Vimeo:

Update: see also mocha: roto for 2D-3D stereo conversions, and many more on the Vimeo page of Ross Shain,

Fxphd Jan 2011 orientation week video

The latest fxphd term is open with courses on VFX, editing, motion graphics, compositing, roto/tracking, color correction, 3D, photography, 3D stereo, and more. Members have access to a variety of higher end software over the fxphd VPN, and for an extra fee some past classes.

The overview movie is out and provides a comprehensive overview of the new term, in QuickTime on the blog or via torrent.

Here's a look at stuff in the last term:

fxphd July10 Term Orientation Week Video from fxphd.com on Vimeo.

Some tutorials for removing logos and objects

A complete outline of the DVD training course Adobe After Effects CS5: Learn by Video can be found with the 20th free video, Removing a Logo from a Moving Image. (Streaming only on Video2Brain). A similar beginners' video is also available, Removing an Object with Clone Stamp (embedded below from a Peachpit podcast series).

For a resources of various difficulty levels, see Leak object removal tutorial and other AEP posts tagged roto like Roto: removing unwanted objects, Basic Footage Coloring And Object Removal, Simple Object Removal in AE, and Stabilization and object removal with AE CS5 +tracking.

Leak object removal tutorial

Mathias Möhl of Mamoworld is full of cheer, seeing a growing market in leak object removal (spurred by Wikileaks) in his Tutorial: WikiLeak Removal, which shows you how to:

• Verify the leak
• Track the leak with Mocha
• Remove the leak with After Effects

Stephen Colbert had a fun comment in December 15 show opening: "TIME's person of the year is Mark Zuckerberg. Sorry Julian Assange, I guess you didn't violate enough peoples' privacy." For some background, see Is What WikiLeaks Does Journalism? Good Question at GigaOM. [update: the NYT added interesting points aside from any politics in Banks and Wikileaks, and CBS News posted How WikiLeaks Enlightened Us in 2010 by Joshua Norman.]

For more info on object removal in AE, see Roto: removing unwanted objects, Rotoscoping tips, and other posts tagged roto. Here's Mathias:

Tutorial: How to remove WikiLeaks from web videos from Mathias Möhl on Vimeo.

Alien Attack! with Mocha and Camera Tracker

Harry Frank has a new After Effects tutorial video on Red Giant TV, Alien Attack!, that shows:

"how to destroy the city of Los Angeles through an alien attack. He’ll explore compositing, both 2D and 3D tracking, color correction and visual effects techniques that will blow your mind. In addition to After Effects, Harry will be using Mocha for AE (which ships with AE CS4+) and Camera Tracker, the new 3D camera matching software from the The Foundry. [plus Trapcode Horizon]"

Red Giant TV Episode 50: Alien Attack! from Red Giant Software on Vimeo.

Stabilize motion without zoom

Mathias Möhl has a new After Effects tutorial video (and project) on his Mamoworld website, Stabilize Motion Without the Need to Zoom, which reconstructs missing parts of the image from other frames (with the freedom to tweak and adjust not found in one-click solutions):

"In this tutorial you learn how to stabilize a shaky shot with the Mocha tracker and the MochaImport script. After stabilization, you usually need to zoom in a bit to get rid of empty areas that show up at the borders of the image. Instead of this, we use a clever technique to fill the missing parts at the borders such that there is no need for zooming any more. The technique uses frames before and after the current frame to fill in parts of the image that are missing in the current frame. Sounds complicated but works very well and is done with a few clicks using MochaImport.

Things to learn in this After Effects tutorial:

• Learn how to track in Mocha (I use Mocha Pro, but it also works with any other variant)
• Learn how to stabilize a shot with the MochaImport script.
• Learn how to smooth the camera movement with a simple expression.
• Learn how to fill in missing parts at the borders of the stabilized footage by inserting appropriate material from the frames before and after the current point in time."

A comment on the tutorial mentions an alternate method using the Echo effect to reconstruct missing areas; another option for minor adjustments is the YY_MorphShake plug-in by Andrew Yang, which stretches the edges of the layer to fill in empty spaces. See also Content-Aware Fill for clean plates + extending edges at AE Portal.

Here's Mathias:

Tutorial: Stabilize Shaky Footage Without the Need to Zoom In from Mathias Möhl on Vimeo.

Separating elements in AE with Mocha

Andrew Devis has a new After Effects tutorial video, Separating Elements using Mocha 2 Tracking:

"In this video tutorial Andrew Devis will show you how to separate out different elements in your footage to layers so that you can apply color correction or effects in completely different ways on each layer for that unique look you're looking for. Firstly, Andrew will show you how hard it is to separate elements natively using AE native tracker and then how easy it is to do using Mocha 2 tracking for AE."

Using Mocha and CS5 also seems much easier than experimenting with the TrackerViz (tips by Mark Christiansen and Sean Kennedy) or Tracker2Mask scripts.

Mamoworld: a new After Effects resource

Mamoworld is a new After Effects resource with free video tutorials and scripts by Mathias Möhl, who is already known for his AE scripts and tutorials on his previous blog AE Extensions and on AE Scripts (see previous AEP notes). The new site has 4 fresh tutorials and some older ones.

Mathias also provides new versions of his AE scripts on the new site. All scripts have both a German and an English user interface. The MochaImport interface has been updated with intuitive new features, for example with a way to work with a stabilized version of the footage in a precomp so that all changes performed there are automatically applied also to the original unstabilized one. This feature is also available for corner pin tracks without needing a third-party plug-in. Those that know Tracker2Mask, KeyTweak, and Chameleon (for color swatches) may want to take a look at their new features too.

Scripts aren't meant for scripting gurus, so duck in! By the way, see comments by Mathias on the various strengths of approaches to tracking in AE in Building an Airport Scene with MochaImport [updated].

Here's one of the new tutorials:

Tutorial: Mocha Corner Pin - Part 1 from Mathias Möhl on Vimeo.

CameraTracker AE 201 training series

The Foundry has released an AE 201 training series for its CameraTracker plug-in (sample below). It:

"builds on what was covered in the 101 series. Topics covered include integrating CameraTracker with Red Giant Software's Trapcode Particular to achieve light sweep particle effects in a moving camera scene, projection mapping both natively in AE and with Digieffect's Camera Mapper, and in-scene graffiti. ... There's also a french language tutorial put together by Mattias Peresini (Mattrunks) linked to from the same page."

Mocha AE tracking in Moving T-Shirts

Eran Stern shows how to track graphics and blend them onto Moving T-Shirts in a new After Effects tutorial video.

Cow reviews CameraTracker for After Effects

Bill O'Neil reviewed CameraTracker by The Foundry for Creative Cow. CameraTracker is a plug-in that "allows you to pull 3D motion tracks and matchmoves without having to leave AE. It analyses the source sequence and extracts the original camera's lens and motion parameters, allowing you to composite 2D or 3D elements correctly with reference to the camera used to film the shot."

O'Neil demos CameraTracker with several movie samples and screenshots and says:

"CameraTracker will also integrate with other comp camera effects such as Shatter; and third party effects such as Trapcode Particular, Lux and Stroke. The Foundry's last video tutorial explains this.

The Foundry's CameraTracker has a slight learning curve, but once you understand how it thinks, you will be on your way to pulling great tracks and match moves inside of AE. There are unlimited possibilities with this tool, including the creation of set extensions, projection mapping, and in-scene titles, to name a few." ... Read the rest at Creative Cow.

By the way The Foundry has 10 tutorials and docs for Camera Tracker, and lists other resources too, including a 3-part tutorial at AEtuts. For some other resources see Voodoo Camera Tracker: free matchmove alternative with AE.

Reverse stabilization and 'Roto Assist'

Chris Zwar shared some resources on first stabilizing shots with camera movement, then doing keys or roto in a thread on the AE-List on the Roto Brush tool ("roto assist" when it bogs down) .

For more on the Roto Brush see AE Help (stabilization) and AEP posts with Roto Brush or stabilization resources. In addition to this advice, there's more from Chris on Thoughts on keying - The Myth of the Single-Click:

"Roto Brush will disappoint anyone who HASN'T had to do meticulous frame-by-frame rotoscope work before, and therefore doesn't know how tedious and difficult roto can be. Having a tool that gets you 70% of the way there is still a valuable time saver. But I haven't yet had a shot where it worked perfectly by itself. [snip]

In the same way that keying can be improved by pre-prossessing the footage to remove grain and adjust hue/saturation, images can also be pre-processed to improve rotoscoping too, and to help the roto brush plugin.

When I'm doing roto on any scene with camera movement I use a 3-step inverse camera process- firstly I motion stabilise the shot, then I work on the stabilised shot, then I put the original camera movement back in. I call it 'inverse camera' but it's also called 'reverse stabilisation' and it's demonstrated in a much more interesting way by Andrew Kramer:

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/demon_face_warp/

It's also demonstrated on the Creative Cow:
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/oconnell_pete/roto.php

And the technique is then elaborated on by Roland:
http://library.creativecow.net/articles/kahlenberg_roland/reverse_stabilization.php

If I'm working with people who are new to rotoscoping then I get them to watch Andrew's tutorial first, because working on stabilised footage can make the roto process so much easier."

SynthEyes as 2D tracker for After Effects

Josh Johnson posted SynthEyes Quick Tip: SynthEyes for AE 2D Tracker at his new website VFXdaily:

AE & SynthEyes Quick Tip: SynthEyes for AE 2D Tracker. from Josh Johnson on Vimeo.

Corner pin tracking magic

Video Copilot has a new After Effect tutorial video and project, #112. Magic Tracking:

"In this exciting new tutorial we will go beyond basic tracking with a new Video Copilot preset for utilizing corner-pin tracking data. This new preset allows you to create dynamic Null Objects based on corner pin data from Mocha AE. It’s a simple solution to getting precise control over your tracking data and the tutorial shows you all you need to know. The explanation is more complicated than the process!

The preset interpolates a specific point based on your corner-pin data so you can attach elements to an infinite plane of a moving shot to fake depth and parallax; without 3D tracking."

You can find more info and other approaches to Corner Pin effect, tracking & resources, and mocha inside AE Help and via the post tags below.

Update: Andrew Kramer posted an add-on project, Magic Ball Tracking,

"In our recent Magic Tracking Tutorial, we used a new preset to help locate a specific point on a surface tracked with Mocha AE. This technique works well to establish objects onto a specific location like a sign but you can also slide objects on the surface as well. This example shows the ability to animate that point along the surface by keyframing the position of the NULL. For the boulder I used CC Sphere with some fast rotation and manually scaled the ball as it reaches the camera.

You can even download the project and see how I did the other effects as well but I encourage you to check the Magic Tracking tutorial to see how it works. There is no 3D tracking and it was all created within After Effects and tracked with Mocha."

Tracking markers & tutorials

AEtuts posted Downloadable Tracking Markers – AE Premium Download:

"This package contains 8 unique, high quality tracking markers, created specially to make 3D tracking easier and more accurate. All the files are in vector format so you can size them according to your needs."

If you’ve been helped by AEtuts and would like help others (and get extra projects and other free stuff), consider becoming a Premium Member.

There have been a variety of other tracking markers posted on the internet, Eric Alba's are still available, along with a discussion of How to make Adjustable-Height Tracking Marker Poles. There's also a video of Making LED tracking markers from Andy Nicholas and VFXHack.

Last year, Hollywood Camera Work has posted 4 sample tutorials and free green screen and tracking plates from Visual Effects for Directors, which was reviewed by Mark Christiansen on PVC. Tutorials include How to place tracking markers and How to shoot for planar tracking. Here's the preview via Filmaking Central:

Blast Wave tutorial from Video Copilot

Video Copilot has a new After Effects tutorial video, # 111. Blast Wave:

"...we’ll be creating a powerful explosion and shockwave inside of After Effects using elements from Action Essentials 2 and built-in effects. We will use Mocha to motion track the difficult shot and explore advanced blending and compositing tips."

Even templates have their own tutorials

Cassidy Bisher has several After Effects tutorial videos available on Vimeo (via Lester Banks) that support his AE templates at Dropdrop.com. One cluster is a series on "spy gadgets," which looks at tracking in AE and in Mocha for After Effects, all in support of his "Top Secret" templates (example below).

For some related tutorials and background, see Designing & Compositing a HUD and posts on tracking and Mocha. See also Resources for mocha for After Effects and Motion tracking overview and resources in AE Help.

Spy Gadget Tutorial 1 from Cassidy Bisher on Vimeo.