[Mike Clasby]

Tracking Tuts

Here’s all the Tracking Tuts I know of. And for a step by step on adjusting a track that goes bad (Tracks gone bad! the movie) see the 3rd part of Aharon’s series on turning video into cartoons, there he tracks an eye onto the character, starts at the 5 minute mark. It’s only a 1 point track but he shows you how to adjust frame by frame when the tracker gets cranky. Hope these help.

Track It

https://studio.adobe.com/us/tips/tip.jsp?p=1&id=100362&xml=ae65tttrack

Keep motion in perspective

https://studio.adobe.com/us/tips/tip.jsp?p=1&id=100241&xml=aft65cornerpin

Using the new Motion Tracker

https://studio.adobe.com/us/tips/tip.jsp?p=1&id=487&xml=aft6ttmotiontracker

Tracking obscured objects in video

https://studio.adobe.com/us/tips/tip.jsp?p=1&id=399&xml=aft6tracking

Aharon’s tut:

https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_page_wrapper.cgi?forumid=2&page=https://www.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/cartoon_look/index.html

movie here:

https://forums.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/cartoon_look/CC_LiveTrace_Pt_3CD.mov

Andrew has tracking for rotation in his Advanced Sky Replacement, at about the 4 minute mark, here:

https://www.videocopilot.net/videotutorials/advsky/index.htm

[Mike Clasby]

Dan’s Universal Up/Down Clock should do the trick:

https://www.motionscript.com/design-guide/up-down-clock.html

[Mike Clasby]

The only other way to get around over sizing a real shaky shot is to over-sample, shot HD for a final output of NTSC. Maybe IMAX for your shot (Sorry, I couldn’t resist), then just take the middle of the shot after stablized.

[Mike Clasby]

For difficult stuff many here like SynthEyes (only $400 and really for placing 3D object in scenes):

https://www.ssontech.com/synsumm.htm

https://www.ssontech.com/learning.htm

I like this one, unreal:

New! Traveling-shot image stabilization tutorial (camera windshield-mounted on a car)

https://www.ssontech.com/content/filstab.htm

If the shot is all over the place, any system will have to enlarge the shot that much. Like Ultimate Bart said, get a tripod or a cameraman that had less caffeine/speed.

When the tracking point ia about to leave the frame, press Alt/Option as you drag the track point to a new spot, it will keep the same relative starting point:

Tracking obscured objects in video

https://studio.adobe.com/us/tips/tip.jsp?p=1&id=399&xml=aft6tracking

Here’s an Aharon tut that covers adjusting track points frame-by-frame:

https://forums.creativecow.net/articles/rabinowitz_aharon/cartoon_look/CC_LiveTrace_Pt_3CD.mov

It’s at about the 5 minute mark, I think. It’s a one point track on an eye, but the principal is the same.

[Mike Clasby]

I’m not a C4D guy, but it sounds straighforward and good to me.

[Mike Clasby]

You might want to checkout CC Flo Motion, it’s under Distort in AE 6.5.

[Mike Clasby]

OK, stealing from Dan (what I do best) and then hacking away, this expression if put on your checkbox (Alt-click that Checkbox Stopwatch and Paste), should turn that checkbox on or off depending on those audio keyframes. That should be easier for you to use your existing setup.

threshold = 5.0;
level = thisComp.layer(“Audio Amplitude”).effect(“Both Channels”)(“Slider”);
control = effect(“Checkbox Control”)(“Checkbox”) ;

if (level > threshold){
control == 0
}else{
control == 1
}

If your setup has another layer reading that checkbox, this works.

But if the checkbox has an expression on it that drives the expression, no go.

[Mike Clasby]

Yikes, to slow again.

[Mike Clasby]

I don’t fully get how your checkbox triggers the animation, is it telling Time remapping to choose one frames or another?

Anyway, have you seen Aharon’s tut on using time remapping keyframes to match phonemes to different mouth shapes: it’s here:

Lip-Synching for Character Animation

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

You could use a similar setup to have the audio levels drive which mouthshape to use, especially in your limited open/closed setup.

If you download Aharon’s project file, open up the comp “Mouths”. Put you close mouth at frame zero, and your open mouth at frame1.

Open the “Mr. Face” comp. Take you audio layer and convert it to keyframes, Animation>Keyframe Assistant>Convert Audio to Keyframes.

In the new Audio Amplitude layer that appears, UU reveals the Sliders.

We’ll put an expression on the Mouths layer (it’s a precomp in that same Mr. Face comp) to have the audio drive the time remapping. So, select the [Mouths] layer, E reveals Time Remap, and Alt click the Time Remap stopwatch and Paste in the following expression (oh, yeah, you need to copy the expression below first):

AudioTrigger = 3 // amount of Audio Amplitude to trigger mouth open
if (thisComp.layer(“Audio Amplitude”).effect(“Both Channels”)(“Slider”) < AudioTrigger) 0 else 1/29 This just tells the Time Remap to use frame 0 if the Audio Amplitude in the Slider for Both Channels if less than 3, and to use frame 1 if it's 3 or more. Set that AudioTigger to a level that works for you. The 3 worked on Aharon's Mr. Face comp. It sound a little complicated but it makes that mouth open and close automatically.

[Mike Clasby]

Can you get a track on the four corners of the screen? If so try these:

Keep motion in perspective

https://studio.adobe.com/us/tips/tip.jsp?p=1&id=100241&xml=aft65cornerpin

Using the new Motion Tracker

https://studio.adobe.com/us/tips/tip.jsp?p=1&id=487&xml=aft6ttmotiontracker

If you can’t track it all the way (before it turns enough) then pick it up when you can and hand animate the replacement before that with Scale (click the “Constrain Proportion” knot/InfinitySign to separately animate X and Y) and/or Distort>Transform for Skews and suck and/or Distort>Corner Pin.

Once you get it right ou can still Alt-Drag footage from Project to Timeline to Swap in new video for the screen (if you use one size).