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Point Tracker in After Effects
The Point Tracker in After Effects isn’t very good, and for a couple of years now I’ve been using Mocha exclusively for tracking, but every now and again there is that specific type of shot that actually requires a 2D point track versus the texture tracking of Mocha.
It’s been rare, but there have been times where I’ve had to bring a shot into a Flame to use their 2D point tracker (which is really good) to get what I need from a shot.
In the Tracker options for After Effects, there is an pull down for ‘Tracker’ but the only option is “Built-in”. Has there or will there ever be another option for the tracker in After Effects that is better than the Built-in one?
There are quick things, especially in the world of Client Supervised cleanup, where it would be SO nice to be able to just knock thru a quick 2D track right in After Effects without having to jump out to Mocha and back in, even though Mocha Import has streamlined the process a ton.
Anyone else feel this way?
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5 Replies
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I’ve actually had quite a bit of success using AE’s built-in point tracker. Sometimes it’s a matter of knowing what point to pick (remembering that you can apply the tracking data to a null object to offset the track if need be). Sometimes it’s a matter of adjusting the point tracker’s settings to improve it. It all depends on the shot.
– 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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Yeah I’m very familiar with how the tracker works, and with tracking in general.
There have been cases where the exact same shot, After Effects wasn’t able to get anything useable to save it’s life, and Flame was able to nail it. There is definitely a qualitative difference in the trackers, and Flame’s is known for being great, and AE’s is known for being pretty weak in the industry.
My main question being — there is an option to choose which tracker to use in the Tracker Options…..how can I use a different one? Does this even exist?
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[Dustin Bowser] “My main question being — there is an option to choose which tracker to use in the Tracker Options…..how can I use a different one? Does this even exist?”
I’ve never seen one.
I’m not sure if this will help you or not, but Boris Continuum Complete implements their own tracker in a bunch of their effects (though I haven’t compared the results with the native Ae tracker or with Autodesk’s point tracker).
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
AE was trying to make up for the point tracker issues it had by adding Mocha…
If you would like to see AE update its point tracker, please file a feature request. The AE team is surprisingly small, so they tend to put their resources towards the things that get requested the most. Make sure you’re very specific about how the current implementation isn’t working for you, how you would like it to be improved, and why Mocha doesn’t work for you. Also, simply saying “Flame’s tracker works and AE’s doesn’t” won’t be as helpful as offering examples of shots and workflow.
– 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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Yeah have already filed a feature request. I do that all the time.
Again, my main question in this point, which is being a bit confused by the defending of the AE tracker which is not really my point, is why is there a Drop down option in After Effects to choose a different Point Tracker and yet one doesn’t exist. Just curious why that piece of UI functionality has existed even up through CC 2014 and yet there is no other option.
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