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Animating Masks and Tracking
Hey Everyone,
Here’s what I’d like to do:
I have about 20 videos, cut, in sequences in Premiere Pro, with sports footage. I have to blur out names on jerseys.
Here’s an example of one clip:
8 minutes long
bunch of zooming in and out
some scenes in the clip have multiple jerseys
some scenes have nothing to blur, etcA response I received on another forum said this:
“You could have an adjustment layer with a blur effect and many masks on it. One mask for each jersey.
Then you need to animate the masks which you could do either by hand or using the AE tracker and the Tracker2Mask script. You can also track with Mocha, turn the tracking data into AE trackpoints with the Mocha Import script and then use Tracker2Mask with it.”
I’d like to do the first option he gave, adjustment layer with a blur effect and using masks. Then use the AE tracker and Tracker2Mask.
I understand some of you may not be familiar with the script he made or whatever, and if I can go without using it that’s okay. The tut video he has for it makes it seem important though.
Anyways, if someone can help me do this, as in, step by step, I would be more than happy to pay good money!
I’m a noob at AE so I need my hand held. For example, if telling to make a mask, tell me exactly step by step, how to do that.
The problems I’m running into are:
I don’t know how to “stop” the masks. Like if I want to blur 6 seconds, I don’t know how to keep it at that 6 seconds. There’s no “split clip at playhead” type of option like there is in premiere.
Also when I added the masks in the adjustment layer, I don’t know how to link the tracking up to the masks, and make the masks scale/rotate, etc.
Anyways, I’d really appreciate the help and would have no problem paying for it.
THANKS!
– Jennifer
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14 Replies
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Here’s a video tutorial that shows how to do this:
“Motion tracking and rotoscoping”
The effect applied in the tutorial is a color-correction effect, but the same thing could be done with a blur effect instead.And here’s a way to remove the numbers with motion tracking and the Clone Stamp tool:
“Removing an object with Clone Stamp”Here’s a more advanced tutorial from the same series that shows how to do the same thing with Roto Brush instead of rotoscoping:
“Isolating a subject with Roto Brush”
I don’t recommend that you try the more advanced way first, but know that there are many ways to do this kind of thing in After Effects.If you’re having trouble with something like this, you should probably begin at the beginning:
https://blogs.adobe.com/toddkopriva/2010/01/getting-started-with-after-eff.html———————————————————————————————————
Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Technical Support for professional video software
After Effects Help & Support
Premiere Pro Help & Support
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8 minutes…. man….
I’m not sure it’s even worthwhile to jump thru all the hoops to track everything– maybe it’d be a snap, but what with players turning around, running in front, etc., I just dunno.
FWIW, here’s what I’d do:
Take the FINISHED CUT,
add an adjustment layer that blurs, and
add multiple masks to it, and
just animate them by hand.
Start w/just one, and have it jump around to whenever it needs to switch to another player/whatever. If you don’t need ANY blur, drop the layer opacity to zero.
After you’ve animated Mask#1 for the entire thing, go back and add Mask #2 to the same layer to cover up additional blur areas.
You can turn off Blur#2 by animating the mask opacity.repeat until done.
Welcome to editing.++++++++++++++++
“Putting the HARM in ‘harmonica’ since 2005.”
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Another thought would be to make as many solids as you’d need. Mask them to be smaller and track those solids to cover the names, then precomp all those tracked solids and use that precomp as a track matte for the adjustment layer. It makes it so you can avoid the whole tracker to mask ballet.
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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Hey –
Thanks for the response!
It’s not like a whole football team of jerseys or anything like that. It’s mainly just 1 – 3 players at a time, up close – so it’s not that bad.
The problem I’m having is I don’t know how to animate the masks – whether by tracking or by hand – that’s where I’m stuck. I googled animating masks related keywords and couldn’t find any information that suits my needs…
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Then you should definitely start here as Todd suggested: https://blogs.adobe.com/toddkopriva/2010/01/getting-started-with-after-eff.html and/or get that great training resource that Dave mentioned.
– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.
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All I need to know how to do is animate the mask – I really don’t have time to go through a course on AE.
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Thanks for the reply.
LOL @ “Hours pass.”
Okay so that’s the manual way of doing that. This is why I had to leave Premiere Pro. I can do it manually in there, too…
So, isn’t that what “Tracker” and “Tracker2Mask” will automate for me?
So I guess the confusing part for me right now is how to link up the trackers with the masks.
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> The problem I’m having is I don’t know how to animate the masks – whether by tracking or by hand – that’s where I’m stuck.
Did you not watch the video that I linked to in my first post (“Motion tracking and rotoscoping”) that I said showed how to do exactly that?
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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Technical Support for professional video software
After Effects Help & Support
Premiere Pro Help & Support
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“Did you not watch the video that I linked to in my first post (“Motion tracking and rotoscoping”) that I said showed how to do exactly that?”
I tried playing the video at 3 separate times so far and each time it doesn’t load/play.
I also wasn’t sure whether you were talking about an alternative way of blurring the jerseys.
Just tried the link again and it’s loading so I’ll watch it – thank you!
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What kind of job throws this task at you without adequate training or time?
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“Putting the HARM in ‘harmonica’ since 2005.”
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