[Jarrick Harris]

Hi, try this:
Apply keylight 1.2 to your footage layer
then, in the layer panel, twirl open Effects/keylight/compositing options and click the little + sign
it will then pop up a Mask Reference Point underneath – which you can chose to be the mask you drew.

I think that keylight should then just effect the mask

[Jarrick Harris]

tell him you want a ton more money to go and take more footage.

[Jarrick Harris]

I have tried that code and it certainly works but I am now trying to streamline it by doing away with the calculating so that it is a faster method than assigning nulls to each pin. Unfortunately, I just don’t know enough about how to code yet to make it work but what I figure is something like this:
pup1X=effect(“Puppet”).arap.mesh(“Mesh 1”).deform(“Puppet Pin 1”).position[0];
pup1Y=effect(“Puppet”).arap.mesh(“Mesh 1”).deform(“Puppet Pin 1”).position[1];
pup2X=effect(“Puppet”).arap.mesh(“Mesh 1”).deform(“Puppet Pin 2”).position[0];
pup2Y= effect(“Puppet”).arap.mesh(“Mesh 1”).deform(“Puppet Pin 2”).position[1];
pupRelativeX=Math(pup1X + (pup1X – pup2X);
pupRelativeY=Math(pup1Y + (pup1Y – pup2Y);
[pupRelativeX,pupRelativeY];

Where pup1X is puppet pin 1 X axis, pup2X is puppet pin 2 X axis – and similar for the Y axis.

Then I made up pupRelativeX – which should take the value of each axis of each pin and do the calculating and assign the output to pupRelativeX etc

And finally, it should give the pin coordinates relative to the first pin.

But it doesn’t work and I’m just guessing looking at other coding as to what to write. Can’t find any tutorials which explain how I’m supposed to arrange mathematical equations correctly.

[Jarrick Harris]

I just came accross this page:

https://www.macprovideo.com/hub/after-effects/animating-with-sound-in-after-effects-part-1

which, at a glance, seems to be what you might be looking for. In their example, they are linking opacity of one layer to audio amplitude of another but you could maybe just link your wiggle to it instead? or link your mouth movement to it and then add the wiggle to the result to give it the look you’re after.

[Jarrick Harris]

I think your answer is going to be in using expressions somehow.

There are animated effects in AE that work off of the volume of the sound track (though I’ve not used them yet), so there must be a way of linking that parameter to the wiggle effect.

[Jarrick Harris]

Doing it with an expression was the kind of thing I was thinking about, I just know absolutely zero about the code used in expressions – so I’m just starting to learn some of the basics.
But I recon, it should be possible to make that final line do the calculation of pin 2 X axis = pin 1 X axis value + (pin 1 X axis value minus pin 2 X axis value). And then do the same for the Y axis, so I don’t have to get the calculator out at all.

I’ll post up the result that works when I’ve had a good play with it and figured it out.

Another possibility, I’ve been trying, is to use the starch tool to stiffen up the area the pin effects (instead of using several pins and trying to link them with an expression) – but this is only works in some situations.

As for what to do if I want to have the pins move separately, further down the timeline – I haven’t tried yet but I think the answer to that could be to split the layer at the point you want the change and then delete or change the expressions.

I had a quick look at that video you suggested, Mark, and it looks like another really good workaround to the problem and definitely a time saver worth investing in as it’s relatively cheap.

[Jarrick Harris]

I can’t help you as I’m a novice but am interested in how you would use the wiggle expression for this.

How do you sync the movement to the sound?

Also, Mamo World do an auto lip sync plugin for AE that might be of interest, if you’ve not checked it out:
https://mamoworld.com/tools/auto-lip-sync

[Jarrick Harris]

I’m still using 2015 version but sometimes get mask updating problems or if I make a change to footage and then undo, it doesn’t seem to update the image.

For me, this is when I’ve been using the pc a while (just putting it to sleep instead of switching it off) and either reloading AE or rebooting my pc seems to help.

[Jarrick Harris]

Thanks for the advice – I’m going to move onto mocha once I’ve got the hang of other techniques.

It seems I was doing it all wrong. The way I found that works is to track the object in the footage layer, using scale, rotation and position. Set track type to Transform and Edit the Target as being the solid layer for the mask. That way the solid layer moves with the object being tracked and there was no need to copy and paste or delete any of the trackers after.

I’ve a lot of roto ahead of me so I’m just learning as many different techniques as I can – some work better in different situations.

Cheers!

[Jarrick Harris]

well, as no one else answered, I may as well tell you that, apart from your graphics card (mine’s a gtx 970), your current set up is better than mine and I’m doing fine with what I’ve got. So I expect that your new rig will be more than fine.

The only thing I would suggest, is that if you have any inclination to play games on your new system, I’d get a bigger SSD for your programs as 256 gig will be swallowed up if you load something like Doom 2016 onto it.