[Mark Whitney]

That’s the normal method certainly.

FWIW though, I just finished a project, using DPX sequence, imported the folder, right clicked and end up with a normal single layer composition.

However, if I try that with a folder that has sub-folders, then the Requestor box may come up and even with selecting single comp and 1 frame per image, I get the same results your experiencing. Haven’t tried this with other file formats though.

[Mark Whitney]

Try importing the folder with the files instead, although it’s quite odd that the normal method is doing that.

[Mark Whitney]

It’s still good basic info though Walter and isn’t always easy to look up or remember, which is why I just made myself a note of it. Always running into this issue myself between AE & AI.

[Mark Whitney]

It appears you’ve stabilized your footage. In order for the image to remain smooth, the entire frame gets scaled & translated. In your case with what you have at present, you’ll need to scale the layer up quite a bit to lose the black edges. Of course having 180 deg. pans doesn’t help.

Take a look at some of the tutorials that Mathias has here:
https://mamoworld.com/tutorials/mochaimport-ae-mini-tutorial-4-stabilize

Perhaps even:
https://mamoworld.com/tutorials/how-use-orient-world-ae-mocha-camera-solver

Even if you don’t have MochaImport+, the principles of what’s going on are the same.

One feature of its Stabilization function though is that it gives you an option to create a comp that adds a number of expression controls so you can easily “dial in” & even key frame the amounts of movement & scale.

[Mark Whitney]

A bit hard to answer some things from just a still. I need to ask though if you’ve watched any of the tutorials at https://www.imagineersystems.com? There are many there on this very task.

One thing that is confusing: I see a number of splines but only two layers.

A vital habit to develop with Mocha is to meaningfully name splines, masks, etc. Also, the order of layers is important to understand with Mocha. Highest layer in the stack is considered to be the “closest to the camera”. That determines if something is being tracked or masked. Several of those tuts will go into detail.

[Mark Whitney]

My plan initially is just hi-con stuff for matte work. Probably set up some rig using the sun and an easy, simple means to replace the background. Basic stuff really.

[Mark Whitney]

I’ve been wanting to do somethings like this for awhile now. I’m sure it’s doable procedurally or with some time spent with various plug-ins, etc. as mentioned. But, that’s one reason I picked up a GoPro ; I’ll simply record my own on paper or cloth & build up a library. Be more organic certainly.

[Mark Whitney]

Wow. How frustrating.

I’m grasping at straws here too but perhaps try this:

From My Computer (unless you have a file manager utility you prefer), Open up the needed folder & try dragging the psd file directly into the Project window. Same issue or did it give you the options this time?

If still the same, have you possibly updated or installed something that “took over” the .PSD association?

I doubt if purging memory or the caches will help, but I believe there’s a way of restoring defaults if it comes to that. Someone else will need to point you in that direction; I’ve never needed to do that fortunately.

[Mark Whitney]

You don’t mention what bit rate you used. Take a look here for the guidelines:

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171
and
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6375112?hl=en&ref_topic=2888648

YouTube will ALWAYS re-encode no matter what you upload so there not sense in going overboard with the bit rate. You want to at least get it close to what they’re looking for to begin with. YouTube will eventually generate the other lower versions as well. My experiments led me to go with H.264 (MP4), and a bit rate between 2-3 Mbps for YouTube uploads.

I’ve never seen the anomaly in your example but you might check back in a day or so & see if the problem is still there. If so, remove it & try the above info.

You could get in touch with Youtube tech support I suppose, but when they did get back to you, they’ll of course refer you to their guidelines to start off.

Maybe a few other’s here have more insight.

[Mark Whitney]

You don’t mention which version of AE you have, but the later CC versions have a face tracker as part of the built in tracker. If that’s the case with you, you might just research using that.

There was a similar thread here a few weeks ago so you might dig down on the forum a bit and find that topic too.