Tracking an ocean plate

[Fernando Mol]

If you don’t want to go manual, you may ry to get another ocean shot. All I can see are the following options:

-They get you another shot
-Buy some stock footage
-Create it from a still

I animated a still of the ocean once using solids with fractal noise to create layers of distance in the waves and kind of worked out. The trick will be to match your frontal shot.

There are a series of podcast about Weather Replacement in the After Effects podcast section, here in the COW. Could be a good thing to watch them if you go for the still option.

I hope this helps.

[Michael Szalapski]

I cannot believe they thought that sort of shot was possible. Well, I guess I can believe it. And I suppose it is possible, but do they want to pay the money it would take to make it work?

Anyway, I agree with Fernando. You’re going to need another shot to work with, tracking open ocean with a handheld shot (taken from a boat?) is kinda ridiculous.

Have you thought about Psunami? It can be made to look spectacular. It is very realistic.
https://www.redgiantsoftware.com/products/categories/motion-graphics/psunami/

– 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.

[Mathias Möhl]

If your footage is such that the transition between ocean and sky is more or less static and not too much impacted by the moving waves, I would try to track an area around this transition with a planar tracker like Mocha for After Effects.
With a planar tracker the movements of the waves may cancel each other out to some extend.

[Joe Laude]

Preaching to the choir, Dave 😉 There are two compositors, myself and the VFX supe, and we were both hired after principle photography was completed. The other guy had been on set during most of the reshoots (not principle photography), but a few shots like this have fallen through the cracks and popped up at the last minute.

Thanks for all the tips, guys, I’ll see what I can pull off. I had heard of Psunami before, but here’s a good reason to give it a whirl.

[Stuart Elith]

Probably won’t work, but there’s a chance that you may be able to fudge this… if there aren’t really any elements that reveal the camera move, then there’s nothing to tell viewers that whatever you do isn’t right. Well, there still will be, but it may be less noticeable.

You could try just estimating a general motion for the tracking, and add your own buoyancy for the boat, and may be able to get a decent result, at least.

You may be able to ascertain in a short time whether this is worth pursuing, just by giving it a go.
I would definitely push for a reshoot or other option recommended by previous posters, however.

[Fernando Mol]

I made a local test and kind of worked

>placed the ocean footage into the comp
>color corrected so its high contrast
>tracked the rotation and here is the trick
i made the searching areas very horizontal covering almost half of the comp each one
>tracked them
and apply them to the footage

it was not perfectly stabilized but kind of

if other options are not available maybe this one can save you

i hope this helps

[Joe Laude]

I’m speechless. Mocha has failed me on several shots where I was certain I’d be able to use it, but then it always goes and does something like this. For the hell of it, I gave Mocha a go with this shot, since the water is distant, not too choppy, and the horizon is effectively straight. It drifts maybe a pixel or two over the 200 frames, but it’s in the direction of the water’s movement, so it’s actually a plus because it’ll add a bit of realistic drift to the boat.

Thanks for all the ideas, gentlemen. I just tried this out after toying with Psunami for a while. I was getting some really good results with it after maybe an hour of tweaking and learning what the settings did, but I just decided to see if Mocha would work and I’m really still surprised that it did. Psunami is a really cool plug-in by the way. Might have to pick it up down the road when it’s needed for more than just a single shot.

Thanks again, everyone.

[Michael Szalapski]

Awesome! I’m so glad it worked out for you. Next time hire someone to punch the director in the face. 🙂

– 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.