Rotoscoping in After Effects

[Tony Luke]

what? did you even read my question?

all im asking is would I be able to accomplish this seamlessly using After Effects.

[Mike Clasby]

1) Click on the “Sticky Posts” at the top of the main page:

COMMON AFTER EFFECTS QUESTIONS !!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE LOOK HERE FIRST by Joel Hooton on Oct 10, 2006 at 3:20:09 pm

and scroll down to:
Rotoscoping / Masking / Greenscreen

2) In this post is a link to a great tut on Roto, especially how to create masks for different body parts, one for the swinging arm, one for the torso, one for a leg, etc.

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/917680

Then when you change mask shape from frame to frame, actually choose points where there is a major change, then often you can just rotate the mask for the leg or arm as it swings (double click the mask to get a transform box like in PhotoShop). The tut is for combustion but the principals are the same for AE.

3) If you can use track points to track an object, this script will attach a mask to trackpoints, more useful for nonhuman regular shapes.

https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/2/916507

4) There is also the painting method to paint out the background, go to the Cow AE Tutorials Page (the link is down for me at this moment) and search with your web browser for “roto” and “paint”.

5) Anyway you do it it’s tedious stuff, and you can see why greenscreening was invented.

[Jimmy Brunger]

You can accomplish most roto needs in After Effects with enough time, but if you want really good mattes with variable feathering then AE is not great as you can only soften the whole mask at a time, either in X axis or Y or both.

Combustion has b-splines with variable feathering per point in the mask, or there’s programs like Avid’s now deceased Elastic Reality – which has b-splines which you may be able to pick up cheap these days.

For cheap plugins for AE to make your life easier/give you better results try PF Feather by Re:Vision, or Roto by Silouette FX. Or for really powerful integrated tracking/roto apps that will speed things up considerably look at Imagineer Systems Mocha or Motor. They are quite a bit more money though. They’re the best you can get though. Depends how often you’re going to be doing this…

*Production Studio Premium CS2 / *Combustion 3 / Mocha v1
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[Bob Bonniol]

Maku,

You have to admit you answered rather tartly… Remember, these forums are here to dispense help and knowledge.

On to your methodology. Frame by frame rotoscopy is prone to problematic mask jitter, even with advanced variable Matte softening techniques, none of which are inherent in AE.

Actually there ARE short cuts, and they benefit the art of rotoscopy in general, by allowing the user to define critical positional points in footage, and allowing the intervening frames to be mathematically calculated and tweened by the plug or app. As already described below, Roto from Silhouette FX and Motor/Mocha are both great solutions for this.

Realistically you still have to go back and revisit every 7th or 8th frame some times, in kinetic shots, but it really reduces jitter, and achieves great smooth solid mattes.

I’ve used Motor (when it was Alpha version) and it’s big brother Mokey to Rotoscope vast amounts of old Sinatra footage for the Live in London show mounted 2 years ago. Motor literally allowed that production to happen on time and on budget. We also used Silhouette on that show with great results.

SO know there are better ways… Finding true, zen infused roto Artistes these days is getting tough.

-Bob Bonniol

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