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UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT?
Hello,I’m a bit puzzled as in which way to go… A few weeks ago I asked about the best solution for learning how to Rotoscope. You all gave me brilliant advice to get SilhouetteFX Roto. It’s just a tad bit expensive though. So I have been blessed with a friends pc which has Combustion 4.
Would you say this is a good program to start learning about rotoscoping from. I thought that After Effect 7 would have included it as a major feature but I guess not??
I was also told that Digital Fusion 5 was good. Any help would be great.
Thanks
Alex. -
3 Replies
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learning how to roto is a technique, which can then be applied to multiple platforms.
i can’t speak about DFusion – but as far as AE and Combustion are concerned – roto is much more effecient on Combustion. The reason for this is that Combustion has splines which you can use to feather your mask at each control point – AE just has an overall feather for the entire mask.
The best way to learn roto is to get some footage and start cutting things out – it’s a technique you’ll learn more through trial and error than a chapter from a book.
If you do use combustion, make sure you use the Compare tool – a lot of people miss it, and it makes roto work a lot easier.
Good luck.
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Thanks for the advice. I’ll be giving combustion 4 a good going over then. I understand what you said about not learning from a book, as I am self taught when it comes to photoshop. However as the combustion interface is new to me. DO you know of any good resources to help me get started. I gather it is similar to making a path in photoshop…
Thanks.
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Hmmm i’m afraid i can’t help with the resources… i went over to combustion after AE…
But, yes, it is similiar to making a path in photoshop. The main difficulty people who are new to roto work have is that they struggle to decide which point they actually masking – and over the duration of their clip they will change their mind and as a result their mask shifts, and seems to have a life of its own. My advice is to always mask a few pixels within the line of whatever you are masking – this gives you a slight margin of error but will not effect the result.
The other advice i’d give is not to have too many control points. This is very common among new roto workers. If you’re masking a head and you’ve got 18 control points – then you’ve got too many. The more control points you have – the longer it’s going to take.
Also, experiment with tracking your mask – this can save you loads and loads of time. You can also track each control point, which can really help if your subject changes shape. This won’t be the answer for each mask – but it’s definately a time saving technique worth checking out.
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