• Adobe After Effects

  moving masks

  Posted by Colin Angle on May 16, 2009 at 11:23 pm

  I have multiple video files of various people walking back and forth across the same frame. I want to use AE CS3 to mask out the background (& parts of the mid ground) in the video files I place on the top layers so that you only see the people in those clips (without their surroundings) any ideas on the best way to approach this? Note: this video is on location at a bar, not a green screen.

  thnx,

  colin

  Todd Kopriva replied 17 years ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  Neal Barenblat

  May 17, 2009 at 12:47 am

  There’s a few options:

  Depending on the difference in luminance between your characters and the background, try a luma mask.

  Autotracing, which I know next to nothing about but I know exists. Probably won’t work how you want it to.

  Your best bet is to take a little time on this one and mask it by hand. It’s not glamorous but it gets the job done.

  https://www.nealbarenblat.com
• 

  Todd Kopriva

  May 17, 2009 at 2:24 am

  It sounds like you have some rotoscoping ahead of you. In a recent blog post about rotoscoping, I give some pointers about this sort of work, including several that I got from Pete O’Connell’s great Creative COW DVD, which I highly recommend.

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  Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
  putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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