Making a Matt with alot of colours

[Mike Clasby]

This might be a perfect candidate for… (drum roll… or preferably the theme from Fantasy Island)

Da Script… Da Script:

https://del.icio.us/escruz/Rotoscope

You still have to draw a mask around you anime girl, but theoretically only one time.

The Script will make trackpoints for each vertice in your mask, then move the vertices with the track points, so the roto will be as good as the track is good. In a quick test I made a mask with the Pen Tool and the Script gave me 19 Track Points. The tricky part is getting a good track with so many track points, so 1 frame at a time is probably best. Pick track points that will be around for the duration of the clip. This might involve breaking the clip into pieces. Also many folks mask a figure in sections, like a mask for the head, one for the body, one for an arm that moves during the animation. That makes it easier to change the mask without moving individual points all the time (maybe rotating the mask works). So maybe you’d want to use three or four masks for your roto on anime girl. The script can do that, one mask at a time.

After you have a mask drawn, here’s how to use the Script.

Download, then copy/move the jsx file RotAE.jsx to AE’s Script Folder, then open AE.

Select the layer with the Mask, File>Run Script>RotAE1.1.jsx . Then select the Mask again, and in the control panel that popped up, hit “Apply Tracker”, and you’ll have as many track points as you have mask vertices.

Run you Motion Track. The mask will be as good as the motion track so you may have to adjust points by frame like in Aharon’s tut (see below).

Now twirl down the layer, select the Tracker 1 (above the mask points) and also select the Mask, then up in the Script’s Control panel, click ” Apply Mask”. You should be good to go.

You can still move individual mask points if the track wasn’t great, or adjust the bezier handles as needed, as the script just set mask Shape keyframes at each frame.

Aharon’s tut on adjust a “Trackpoints Gone Wild”, about five minutes into this:

https://forums.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/cartoon_look/Cartoon_Part_3/index.htm

Even with the script and a good track you’ll probably have to change a few of the curves between verticies by dragging the handles where needed.

There is no easy way to do what you want, but the Script might save time.

[Brendan Coots]

This script RULES

Brendan Coots
Splitvision Digital
http://www.splitvisiondigital.com

[Chocomel]

Hi, Thx alot for the great posts,

I tried to do the tutorial you wrote yikesmikes and I made a mask, I used the track points (script etc everything works fine)
then when i am at the “Apply Mask” Step (in the roto script) my computer is really buzy and then it says an error: “”After Effects: not enough memory to create list. (3k requested, 8188k available) (27 :: 30)””

The error wont leave and i got to close afterfx via ctrl alt delete (side note; it takes 1012mb at the moment i close it)

my mask got 40 track points, im guessing its a problem with my computer but my computer is pretty up to date, so im probaly having a setting wrong

Computer:
E6600 Conroe
Gforce 7950 gtx2
2048 MB RAM

so my computer should be able to handle it right? you happen to know what i can do? (or anyone else reading this)

thx again,

[Mike Clasby]

Maybe beenyweenies has more practical use with the Script, but I would try to make 3 to 4 smaller masks, say one for the head, one for the body, etc… so you have less vertices per mask. Then run the script for each mask separately.

Also, I know there was a bug in the earlier version of the script, where the script liked the layer with the script applied to it, to be on the top of the stack.

I think your mask has too many points.

You can ask the author of the script, here:

https://www.aenhancers.com/viewtopic.php?t=329

[Chocomel]

Well its weird since my computer isnt that old, and atm im using 15 track points (doing the hair) less then this is simply impossible since all those edges just need an extra vector point.

And im still having the error of a lack of memory, it even went to 1403mb in my ctrl+alt+delete screen

[Mike Clasby]

I don’t know what to say. A 19 point mask didn’t gag my system over a 10 sec test, and I only have 1 Gig of RAM and my machine is 1 1/2 years old (just an HP $800 wonder).

In my Edit>Preferrences>Memory & Cache, I have these settings:
Maximum Memory Usage: 120% = 1150 MB
Image Cache
Maximn Ram Cache: 60 % (default I believe, Adobe says don’t go over 90%) 575 M
Enable Disk Cache (Checked)
Maximum Disk Cache Size: 2000 MB
Chhose Folder: I made a folder named AE disk cache

I’m assuming your on XP, if so maybe a tweak of your “virtual memory paging file” would help. Here’s a paragraph from Adobe Support, the setup I followed:

1. Change the size of the virtual memory paging file. (Windowsonly)

To improve performance in After Effects for Windows, create a paging file with a maximum size of twice the amount of installed RAM. Virtual memory allows the system to use hard disk space to store information normally stored in memory (RAM). Windows manages virtual memory using a paging file; you define the minimum and maximum size of this file.

In the Initial Size text box, enter a value equal to the amount of the computer’s installed RAM plus 12 MB.

In the Maximum Size text field, enter a value equal to twice the amount of the computer’s installed RAM.

Complete instructions on changing the settings are here:

https://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=330390&sliceId=1

Troubleshoot system errors or freezes in After Effects (7.0 on Windows XP)

https://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=332589&sliceId=2

Also, this for Windows Vista:

https://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb402249&sliceId=1

Especially see these items:
15. Optimize the memory preferences.
16. Optimize the disk cache.

19. Set the virtual memory paging file to the default size.

If your on a Mac for CS3, see this:

https://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb402245&sliceId=1