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is there an easier way to blur/pixelate moving faces?
Right now I’m using a combination of Motion Tracker and manually keyframing masks. I express the masks position to the tracking point’s feature center.
Some one minute clips are a nightmare, and take atleast 3 hours to fully work up. The persons head bobs in and out of the clip sometimes, people pass by on the street, so I have to constantly make new layers while switching from motion tracking to keyframing depending on how they move.
Is there a better way?
I was hoping maybe there is some kind of software that would let the clip run at slow motion while the user drags a mask over the person’s face by mouse. Basically that would be human brain assisted motion tracking.
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16 Replies
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your going to have to either track or do it by hand.
However, that said, instead of applying the effect to a layer, why not create an adjustment layer, and create a small circular matte at the center of the adjustment layer. Then, apply the blur or mosaic effect to the adjustment layer. Then animate the adjustment layer’s position, scale an opacity to control the effect.
If you track the face, you can apply the tracking data to the adjustment layer, so that it follows the head.
This way, you only have to animate and work with one layer.
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Aharon Rabinowitz
arabinowitz(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com—————————————-
Click the link below to subscribe to the Creative Cow After Effects Podcast, and get free AE video tutorials:https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=111087911
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Thats terrible… I can’t believe no one yet developed a track by hand plugin or external software.
Yes I’m using adjustment layers, thats what I meant to write. The reason I use many of them is because I have to constantly change from motion tracking to manual keyframing due to a chaotic street scene.
So for the first 10 seconds I can track, then some people block the view. At that point I stop motion tracking. Create a new adjustment layer. Fast forward to the point where the person’s face is again in view, and start doing manual keyframes, because now its impossible to track as they are bouncing in and out of the field of view.
The problem I’m having during motion track is when a pedestrian walks past my subject, I don’t know how to “turn off” the mask. So I just create another adjustment layer, zoom a bit forward, and begin tracking/keyframing from that new point.
On the clip I’m working on today there are 9 different layers because the scene is changing so erratically – heading bouncing in and out – people walking by – subject turning their head sideways – etc etc.
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You don’t need a new layer. Make the adjustment layer invisible by making it’s opacity “0%” – then go back to 100% when you need the mask again. use Hold keyframes to go from 100 to 0 and back with no fade.
I don’t know of any decent external tracking tools that are available for this sort of thing, but maybe someone else can sound off.
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Aharon Rabinowitz
arabinowitz(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com—————————————-
Click the link below to subscribe to the Creative Cow After Effects Podcast, and get free AE video tutorials:https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=111087911
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Aharon, I love your podcasts on After Effects, maybe you could do another Podcast showing us the technique you have described?. I’m sure it will be a useful addition to your Podcast tutorials.
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Hi here are a couple tips in case you are not doing this already. Hold down option to offset your tracker when you need to.
If a foreground element completely blocks you subject (so that there is nothing to ‘offset track’), then skip forward to the first frame where your subject is visible again. The inbetween frames will be interpolated. People who cross in front of your subject should be on their own black mask layer.
Good Luck
Pete O’Connell -
This is not going to be helpful.
How do they do this for a live or “5sec time delayed” event on TV? They don’t use AE, I’ll bet. Graham’s right, there should be a hardware controller for this sort of compositing; a nice touch screen thing, where you just follow the offending object with your smiting thumb would be nice.
That said, couldn’t the hardware used to do football plays (old-skool on-screen drawing) be used to do the tracking? I have no Idea. I to am limited by the very non-real-time nature of AE and so don’t have access to any of this stuff.
I want a trackball or Ps2 controller to link to a null layer in real-time, so I can put my quarters in and composite video like a video game. Maybe Dan can cook up a script for that. Human Interface Devices and AE, Woohoo!Oh, Oh, I have another great idea. Just record your monitor with a camera and block the face with your thumb for real. Now that’s a personal touch. Sure it looks crappy, but that dude’s offending face has been smitten forever, Mwah, ha ha ha ha! and it’s realtime, and you get to star your thumb in the movie. What could be better than that?!
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I’ll often apply the track to a null object, and then parent the adjustment layer to that null. Any tweeks in animation I do to the adjustment layer (like if the track shifts a little off, etc.), so any camera shake, etc., still gets incorporated into the track. It all makes it easier if I need to change out the blur (i.e., client says “Use a black bar instead of a mosiac effect).
For people crossing in the foreground, I’ve used track mattes. The biggest advantage to this is that you can reposition the blur w/o having to adjust the mask you used to cut out the blur.
Andy
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[XONIKZ] “Oh, Oh, I have another great idea. Just record your monitor with a camera and block the face with your thumb for real. Now that’s a personal touch. Sure it looks crappy, but that dude’s offending face has been smitten forever, Mwah, ha ha ha ha! and it’s realtime, and you get to star your thumb in the movie. What could be better than that?!”
Take this idea a step further….animate a face onto your thumb, to give it that “STAR” quality. LOL.
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Why can’t motion sketch play the background in slow motion?
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BG can’t be played during Motion sketch. At best, you can get one frame.
That’s just the way it is.
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Aharon Rabinowitz
arabinowitz(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com—————————————-
Click the link below to subscribe to the Creative Cow After Effects Podcast, and get free AE video tutorials:https://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=111087911
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