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Mocha Pro / AE psr export vs plugin render and influence of anchor point
In trying to stabilize one very specific bit of an image like an eyeball, a logo on a shirt, etc, i’ve been getting close, but still not as stable as I’d like.
First, I want to make sure I’m understanding correctly the relationship between plugin render and output formats. I’m guessing if I output psr to AE, it’s essentially discarding any shear or perspective data, so to stabilize for those, I’d need to use the plugin render instead, right?
Also, just occurred to me that outputting PSR to AE would allow me to move the anchor point of the scaling to the center of the thing I want hyper stable. In theory, this might be helpful if the object were near the edge of the screen as even tiny scale adjustments via the stabilizer could cause larger shifts in the object if the anchor point is default center.
Since the tracking was done assuming that default center, though, I’m assuming moving the anchor, would then screw up the relationship between the position and rotation data. If nothing else, the rotations would be all messed up since everything is now rotating from a different point than was assumed when tracking.
I’m wondering, though, if there’s maybe a way to adjust for that. For instance, if I just paste the position and rotation data directly to the object, then precomp it (so as if I only output P/R data), and then apply the scale instead to the precomp after moving precomp anchor to center of hyper-focus point via pan behind tool, would that do it? If that still then messes up the relationship with p and r data, is there perhaps some script I could apply that corrects for it?
I’m already using the adjust track for drift compansation, but having trouble getting the stability I’m after for objects (like eyes) that change shapes, so any other tips or tricks in general for really nailing a dynamic element down to a single pixel center appreciated.
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1 Reply
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After spending several days stright re-tracking the same footage dozens of times, it occurs to me that absolutely locking a specific pixel down might require a different workflow. After all, planar tracking attempts to stabilize a general area, not a point. As it stretches and rotates, it necessarily distorts. I assume that objects further from the anchor distort more.
What if…
I instead zoomed way in, and tracked that individual item for translation only. For instance, to lock an eye in place, what if I just focussed on getting the eye perfectly motionless without having to worry about what rotation or scaling might do to it.
Would there then be a way to KEEP that center most pixel (center of the iris in this case) LOCKED in place while the REST of the plane gets rescanned for rotation and scale, and stretched as necessary to stabilize the plane?
In other words, can I stabilize just the position of a tiny object first, then maybe reorient the footage so it’s at the exact center of the footage or exact center of the tracking area, or whatever it is that Mocha uses to determine the anchor of scaling or rotation. I’m assuming that’s the center of the image since pasting psr data from Mocha to AE would then be processessed according to the anchor which AE defaults to the center of the image.
Is there a way to do this or achieve similar end in prioritizing a single pixel as the thing that should be absolutely locked in place and never moved in order to stabilize the rest of the plane?
Is this job better split among other tracking tools? Point tracking for the position then center, and retrack for rotation and scale only in Mocha? Some other combo?
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