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Tracking A Mask
I have an interior scene that occurs at night. One of the window panes in the b.g. is not blacked out, so there is day light showing, thus ruining the illusion of night. I created a mask which is black to cover the window pane, but… when my main character enters into frame, she walks in front of the window pane and my black mask (a small black rectangle) appears on her. I need to know how to track the black mask so as my character moves in front of the window pane the small mask tracks with the outline of her body and when she walks away, the tracking fills in the window pane once again: giving the impression that it’s dark out. Question: Do I create my mask, scale it down, darken it to black and then in the Motion tab in the Viewer, do I use keyframes frame-by -frame for the entire scene to achieve this effect?
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1 Reply
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Your best bet is probably to use After Effects or something similar to achieve this.
However if the outline of your character is really simple (the part passing in front of the window that is) you could use the four or eight pont garbage mask effect (under Video Filter -> Mattes) to create a simple mask around her. Put a copy of your shot on a videotrack above the one where you have the mask you have already created to cover the window. Add the garbage mask effect to the (new) clip and adjust the shape to the outline . This will literally put back the part that is missing of her on top of your black rectangle. Then you would have to manually keyframe the mask to move with her, adjusting the shape as necessary. The main rule is to use as few keyframes as possible.
You could also try using a luma key instead of a garbage mask if there is enough luminance difference between the character and what is outside of the window. If the window is more or less completely white (from the light outside) you might be able to get a decent key.
Stephan
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