motion track non video elements

[Joseph W. bourke]

I would suggest that you use expressions – just using the pick whip to make the position of one layer follow another is quite simple and powerful. Here’s a quick rundown on the pick whip:

https://www.jjgifford.com/expressions/basics/pickwhip.html

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Ben Wolfinsohn]

oh yes. i know how to do that well. but i just needed to use the motion tracker to track moving pixels in another comp. so not possible then?

thanks!

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

You can pick-whip an Expression between two properties across two comps. The trick is to set your Workspace to display both Timelines.

HTH
RoRK

Intensive mocha & AE Training in Singapore and Other Dangerous Locations

Imagineer Systems (mocha) Certified Instructor
& Adobe After Effects ACE/ACI (version 7)

[Ben Wolfinsohn]

but is it true that you can only motion track movie files?

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

[ben wolfinsohn] “but is it true that you can only motion track movie files?
“

Yes. It’s unnecessary/additional work to track a still image. Parenting and Expressions are more productive and effective methods to achieve your desired results.

HTH
RoRK

Intensive mocha & AE Training in Singapore and Other Dangerous Locations

Imagineer Systems (mocha) Certified Instructor
& Adobe After Effects ACE/ACI (version 7)

[Todd Kopriva]

I’m confused about what you’re trying to accomplish. The point of motion tracking is to extract motion information from video—i.e., from a source about which you don’t already have the motion information. If you have an animated element in a composition, you already have its motion information, as keyframes and/or expressions. So why not just use that information that you already have? Why use an imperfect and indirect process like motion tracking?

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
After Effects quality engineering
After Effects team blog
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[Ben Wolfinsohn]

i bult a really complex movement by using a series of time remapped comps that i then needed to follow the end movement. and theres no way to follow the movement without eyeballing the final end comp. if i follow the comps that were used to build it then it would never be the correct movement.

[Mato Kokotic]

If you REALLY want to do it your way, you can always render your comp, import it and then motiontrack it…