[Alan Tonn]

Hello All

add one more person to the list having this trouble.

Here are my specs:

AMD 64 X2 Dual Core 4400+ 2.3GHz
3GB RAM
ASUS M3N72-D with onboard hybrid video card
EVGA nVidia 8600GT with 256MB PCIE video card
OCZ 60GB SSD as my C Drive
1TB Seagate SATA2 drive as the project drive
1TB Seagate SATA2 drive as my documents drive
320GB Seagate SATA2 drive as another video project drive
Windows XP SR3
Samsung Syncmaster 226bw
LG L1970HR
Gateway 17″

i have the motherboard onboard video and the video card working in tandem and i am using them to run 3 monitors, i have sucessfully rendered the project many times before adding the third monitor, and at least once after, so i dont think that is it. additionally this project did crash under the latest nVidia drivers so i rolled back and the project works fine since, up until now. 🙁

if anyone has an idea as to where to start checking, please respond. thanks for any and all help.

[Alan Tonn]

oh wow.

simple.

darn. i have my method working. once i have the text set up with my sliders for x and y the ramp effect sticks.

with your method i would have to change transfer modes or mattes wouldnt i? even so your method still seems like an easier way to go.

thanks for the response!

[Alan Tonn]

Paul, i dont think he was talking about the camera flashes. the end of the clip does a Hiro manuver… from the TV show Heroes. stopping of time.

this is something that can be done in after effects, but the scene is probably filmed and then they choose a point where they want to freeze everything, then they get everyone into position and they all stop moving and the camera is moved through the crowd.

some of the stuff that is floating has either got wires, stands or something holding it up that is tracked and screened out after the scene is filmed. something that AE and Mocha do well together.

then it also looks like some objects were created either in a 3d program or could be after effects faking 3d.

all in all i think a scene like this can be pulled off without going to a total computer created scene, but it would take a lot of time and effort to do this good a job.

there are a few tutorials i have scene which would help create some of the effects that are scene here. check these out:

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/kramer_andrew/timeFreezeCow/video-tutorial.php

shows how to do a freeze time effect

https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/the_blue_planet_in_3d/

i think this would work for the floating basketball, or any other “roundish” objects.

https://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/simulated_lighting/

some of this would be able to create the flash of the photographers camera

i dont know if this helps, but i know that between creative cow and andrew kramer over at video copilot i have been able to extend my abilities in creating interesting effects far beyond what i thought i would ever be able to do.

sometimes it is worth it to sit down and just watch a tutorial for the heck of it. after watching your mind starts thinking, “hmmm. i could use that for…” and before you know it you are doing something that a few minutes ago you would have said “yeah, right…”

good luck with your project. let us know how it turns out.

[Alan Tonn]

well, i kinda figured out a way to do it.

i put an expression on the start point that uses the end point minus some sliders i put in for X and Y.

then i put in an expression on the end that looks at the anchor point, adds the position, then is tweaked by a slider for X and another for Y.

it isnt the simple elegant solution i was hoping for, but it works. 🙂

[Alan Tonn]

Hello Jason

Try these:

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/Mocha_Tut_1.php

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/zander_aaron/Mocha_pt_1.php

https://www.imagineersystems.com/support/mocha-AE/tutorials/

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/larsen_carl/simple25d_rig_removal.php

and to directly answer the question, yes, in Mocha when you export the tracking data you get a dialog with a drop down and you can choose to put it out as corner pin data or point data. I have used corner pin more than point, a ratio of 8 to 1 in the project I started using mocha for, and am curious as to what you are trying to accomplish. If you are trying to replace something in a moving shot with your own logo or picture, you are going to most likely want corner pin data, the default.

In fact the one shot that I used point data should have been using corner pin, but there was one corner that was to obscured and I went about the replacement a bit differently than I had originally intended.

Check these:

https://alanrtonn.spaces.live.com/default.aspx

[Alan Tonn]

Hello

Actually I retracked it and got the results I needed. It was also a combination of that and a mistake in the placement of the surface and a quirk between the interpretation of frame rates between Mocha and AE. I added a frame at the end of my comp before I pasted into AE and the tracking data hit the marks. It seems that 29.97 frames per second turns out differently between Mocha and AE. Somehow they look at it different, by adding an extra frame at the end of my comp it worked out. I did the same thing in some other shots I was having trouble in and have been doing that ever since and every track has worked on the first try.

Thanks for the help and suggestions.

[Alan Tonn]

ok, how about me?

i didnt format the drive that i stored my after effect projects on, and just finished reinstalling everything that i would need to get back to work on my ae project.

why am i getting this message?

[Alan Tonn]

Hello Bartek

Wow. Thanks. That first idea, the beginning and the end key frames and then work from the middle, hadn’t occurred to me.

Yeah, I have learned the same thing. Tutorials are always the “best case scenario”. I still think that some shots can happen better. This newspaper shouldn’t be this difficult. I had a better track on my actor’s hands in another scene.

I am still learning some of the in’s and out’s but I think that this should be a little easier now with your suggestion.

Thanks again.

[Alan Tonn]

Hello Pete

Yeah I tracked the whole plane. Question, does the amount of points on a spline matter? Additionally the footage as you can see isn’t terrible, but as it is zooming in there are frames where all the text of the newspaper is blurred into pixels and the edges of the picture “bleeds” into bars of pixels. I think this is due to the zoom and the frame rate it was shot at. I am wondering if this is what is throwing Mocha off.

It gets worse as the image zooms.

How would the adjust track tab differ from adjusting the corner pins in After Effects?

[Alan Tonn]

Hello Chris

Unfortunately there is no opportunity to reshoot the shot. The newspaper is long gone, the actor is gone, and the deadline is coming up quick. And to figure out how to script a average of the tracking data, and since I have really no knowledge of scripting (except maybe wiggle(5,5) 🙂 ), I dont think that is a good option.

I was thinking of drawing a path, and then making it a motion path for a null and then using the null anchor as the corner pin position. The only thing left would be to make the positions exact and then I might as well as go back to hand tracking. Better get cracking… 🙁

Thanks for the suggestions.