Roto Scoping in Motion 5

[Lawrence Diggs]

I am not sure If I should start a new thread at this point or not but…..

I think I may have used the wrong term to describe what I want to do. The effect I want was called rotoscoping to me when I first saw and inquired about it so tht is what I started calling it. so let me describe what I want to do and some one here can perhaps give me another name for it and give me some advice on whether it should be moved to a new or different thread.

There are many filters in Photoshop. Those filters can be expanded with plug-ins like Topaz Adjust and Topaz Simplify. I want to take my .mov files and run them through these filters and get these hyper cartoon effects. I can do it in Photoshop to some extent but PS seems to choke, crash and burn on anything longer than about 10 seconds.

I see that Motion5 has filters but they seem quite limited, compared to Photoshop. For example I don’t see a way to get a cartooning effect or watercolor effect. But, maybe I am missing something.

Is there a way to expand the filters in Motion5? Can anyone suggest a low cost, under $100, solution to get this effect?

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Lawrence Diggs] “There are many filters in Photoshop. Those filters can be expanded with plug-ins like Topaz Adjust and Topaz Simplify. I want to take my .mov files and run them through these filters and get these hyper cartoon effects. I can do it in Photoshop to some extent but PS seems to choke, crash and burn on anything longer than about 10 seconds.

I see that Motion5 has filters but they seem quite limited, compared to Photoshop. For example I don’t see a way to get a cartooning effect or watercolor effect. But, maybe I am missing something.

Is there a way to expand the filters in Motion5? Can anyone suggest a low cost, under $100, solution to get this effect?
“

There are definitely ways of doing this effectively in Motion but without seeing the exact look you are aiming for it’s hard to know exactly what techniques to recommend.

There are also third party plug-ins that “cartoonify” your footage though whether they are worth the investment I cannot comment not having used them – my guess is you can probably get as good a result using Motion alone …

Maybe you could post an example of what you’re trying to do so we can advise a bit better.

Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[Stephen Smith]

The newest version of Photoshop will now let you bring in videos so you can add Photoshop filters to them and then export them out. If you have After Effects it comes with a Cartoon filter that works great. I used it in parts of this book trailer.

A free plug-in for Motion that I have never used is Fordee TV Cartoon Effect for FCPX. Look for it on the bottom of the page that I linked.

Hope this helps and best of luck.

Stephen Smith
Utah Video Productions

Check out my Motion Training DVD

Check out my Vimeo page

[Lawrence Diggs]

Thanks. These seem to be for FCPX which I do not own. Do they work with Motion5? Do all FCPX plug-ins work with Motion5?

[Lawrence Diggs]

Thanks. These seem to be for FCPX which I do not own. Do they work with Motion5?

Also your trailer link just takes me to a still, not a movie. Did I miss something?

[Stephen Smith]

Take a look at Livetoon. I have not used it but you can try it out first to see if you like it before you buy it. It will work in Motion 5. It is the program on the bottom: https://www.dvshade.com/

For my book trailer you need to click on the play button. If it still is not working I’m not sure why. Maybe flash isn’t installed? Here it is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiVYr0jzU8g&list=UUXYmDfn2ZV_OLjj8MsbJz8w&index=2

There is a free plug-in for Motion 4. I’ll try to find it but I’m not sure if it will work in 5.

Stephen Smith
Utah Video Productions

Check out my Motion Training DVD

Check out my Vimeo page

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[Lawrence Diggs]

Great video! I want to be you when I grow up :-).

Are there other plug-ins like LiveToon, that render other effects, that will work in Final Cut Express 4?

[Simon Ubsdell]

If you have Motion I really would recommend that you try and see what it can do – you’ll be astonished at how powerful it can be. Of course you can go out and buy a one-stop filter that wil make your work look just like everybody else’s work but you probably don’t want that in the long run.

Take a look at this Photoshop tutorial for instance:

https://www.photoshoproadmap.com/Photoshop-blog/give-your-photos-a-retro-comic-book-effect/

All of these effects can be achieved in Motion – it’s all about building up the layers and filters and adjusting the blend modes to get the look that’s just right for you. (In fact in that tutorial the filters are really simple: levels, grain, halftone, blur, etc.)

There are many filters in Motion that – in the right combination – will give you some pretty amazing looks.

Try any of the following: Color Reduce, Hatched Screen, Line Art, High Pass, Edges, MinMax, Posterize.

The key thing is not to expect one single filter to do everything in one go.

Experiment with how you layer everything up. Who knows you could come up with a look that no-one’s ever quite thought of before. The experimentation process is a huge amount of fun and can teach you so many new tricks that you’d never have thought of.

Or you could just buy a plug-in.

It’s up to you 😉

Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[Lawrence Diggs]

I agree.

Do you know of galleries with material people have done entirely in Motion5?

I don’t have M5 yet. I still have cold feet. I know it is a very reasonably price piece of software. But my engine just blew and I am a bit short on money right now, so I am struggling to make sense of this purchase. However, the greatest cost for me is the learning curve, i.e. the time it will take me to learn M5. And if after the reasonable cost and expense of time I find out it is not designed to do what i want it to do, it won’t be a good value in my case.

So I am just asking for help to make the right decision.

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Lawrence Diggs] “I don’t have M5 yet. I still have cold feet. I know it is a very reasonably price piece of software. But my engine just blew and I am a bit short on money right now, so I am struggling to make sense of this purchase. However, the greatest cost for me is the learning curve, i.e. the time it will take me to learn M5. And if after the reasonable cost and expense of time I find out it is not designed to do what i want it to do, it won’t be a good value in my case.

So I am just asking for help to make the right decision.”

OK, so I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not the most fully featured graphics program the money can buy. On the other hand there is very little room for argument that it quite simply the best value graphics program you can buy by a very, very large margin 🙂

I find that there are tasks that I’m doing in Photoshop these days (not everything of course but quite a few) that I’d far rather be doing in Motion – which I think tells you just how good it actually is.

Simon Ubsdell
http://www.tokyo-uk.com