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  • Writer's pictureDwight Gibson

VFX - Tracking in After Effects

Updated: Nov 6, 2020

While NukeX is an okay piece of software, it's important to learn others as well - take the best bits of different pieces of software and utilise them together to create better projects. There are still some pieces of software that handle tracking better than Nuke. Take Adobe After Effects, for example, which now comes with the free-to-use Mocha plugin.

Implement your video of choice into a new After Effects composition. Under Effects, add the Boris FX Mocha. Open Mocha under your asset and create a tracking mask. Track throughout the video and, after some time, you'll have a complete tracking rail. Be sure to search for any inconsistencies.

Create tracking data from this and add a new null object. Layer the export to that null. Now you can hide the null since it's done its job. Add the asset you want to track. Position it where you want it and mark the null as its parent. It'll automatically inherit the tracking position. Check for inconsistencies.

Finally, fit the tracked asset with whatever it needs to fit into the scene. Tint it so the colours match, add a bit of blur, etcetera.

While I admit the tracking is somewhat off, skewing at points it shouldn't skew, I feel it is an okay start. The tracking I could improve potentially by including the eyebrow as a tracking point since it stands out more than skin. I feel as though I should've blurred the wound a little more, but I can work on it over the week.

 

06/11/2020

A new iteration of the tracking video has appeared thanks to me updating the tracking mask to include the full face excluding the eyes, mouth, nose, and ear. This made for an incredible improvement. There is still a small amount of skew, but it's only noticeable on repeated viewings. I tried smaller masks specialised in specific areas of the face, but those didn't have the desired results. This is the closest I've gotten to a perfect mask.

While I admit that it still isn't perfect, it's still one hell of an improvement. If you put the two side-by-side, the difference is noticeable. I still have another two hours to work on this before the hand-in, so I could still work on this furthe

On the left is the mask from v.003 and on the right is the mask from v.005.

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