Apply tracking data to masks?

[Mike Clasby]

Here are two scripts that do what you want:

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/916999

[Morgan Chadwick]

record your tracking data to a null object and use the null object to parent your mask 😉

[Jiri Fiala]

Morgan, that’s what i tried first, but you cannot set Mask position in AE. Only its shape. If I duplicate the layer and parent it to the null, the whole layer moves and the masked region moves all over the place…

[Jiri Fiala]

Thanks Mike, but that seems way too complicated for something as basic as this…

[Jimmy Brunger]

I’d love to be able to apply different trackers to diff points on a mask…would that be a script-based command or is it not possible in AE?

I currently use Mocha for all my tracking & roto, but export of masks to AE is not possible so I have to export matte runs and track matte them in AE. To have mocha masks in AE would be special. Both can use Bezier splines so it *should* be possible I would have thought.

*Production Studio Premium CS2 / *Combustion 3 / Mocha v1.0.1 / Elastic Reality
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[Nate Hanson]

I think this tutorial explains exactly what you need to do. He applies a mask to an actor’s face and then gets the mask to stay “on” the face throughout the clip, even with shaky camera moves.

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/kramer_andrew/Demon_Face_Warp.php

Hope it helps!

Nate

[Simon Bonner]

Hi Jiri,

Try adding your levels to an adjustment layer and drawing the mask onto that. Then track the footage, add the track data to a null, and parent the adjustment layer to the null. I think this works…

Simon

[Christopher R. green]

[Jimmy Brunger] “I’d love to be able to apply different trackers to diff points on a mask…would that be a script-based command or is it not possible in AE?”

This is exactly why I wrote the Connect_Vertex_to_Point script, which is at the top of my scripts page:

https://www.crgreen.com/aescripts

With my script, you do one vertex (mask point) at a time.

[Mathias Möhl]

Tracker2Mask is a free script of mine that does the job and is really easy to use.
Usage is explained in the video tutorials here:
https://aextensions.blogspot.com/2009/02/tracker2mask.html

[James Niebauer]

ok so. what you need to do is create a new null layer. label it footage tracking. track your footage. apply to null later. create new solid layer. make it comp size. mask out your footage on solid layer. invert the mask. feather and expand if needed. set blending mode to silhouette alpha. select footage, null layer, and solid and go to menu layer precompose. pre comp into new comp. name it footage pre comp. now you have footage precomped. bring in footage that you will overlay. track it. apply to new null layer. position tracking pre comp to scale position and rotation on overlay. parent tracking pre comp to new null layer. your done.