[Roland R. kahlenberg]

I’m with John on this – as a general rule of thumb, use as few keyframes as is required for anything that you animate/keyframe.

Two other tips I’d like to add –
1) Use the value graph editor as well as the speed graph editor. oftentimes, the value graph is overlooked BUT it can solve a lot of kinks in an animation which the speed graph can’t/doesn’t

2) You can change the influence handles of more than one property such the selected keyframes for those properties share the same influence handles. To select keyframes for multiple properties, ensure that their keyframes are viewed in the Graph Editor – use the eyeball menu at the bottom of the Graph Editor to choose which property keyframes are shown in the Graph Editor.

Then either CTRL+ALT+A to select all viewable keyframes OR marquee/lasso select the set of keyframes. Then drag the influence handles to suit your needs.

There may however be limitations to the efficacy of this procedure in cases where the speed graphs of the two properties are vastly different – but it’s still a worthwhile trick to know.

HTH
RoRK

Intensive mocha & AE Training in Singapore and Other Dangerous Locations

Imagineer Systems (mocha) Certified Instructor
& Adobe After Effects CS6 ACE/ACI

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

[Dennis Fries] “Which works great for referencing the original position when the checkbox is on, but it doesn’t really reset the value.”

I don’t understand this. Is your layer a child layer?

I suggest you post your Q at the
COW’s Expressions Forum and provide as much details as you have.

HTH
RoRK

Intensive mocha & AE Training in Singapore and Other Dangerous Locations

Imagineer Systems (mocha) Certified Instructor
& Adobe After Effects CS6 ACE/ACI

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

YES!

RoRK

Intensive mocha & AE Training in Singapore and Other Dangerous Locations

Imagineer Systems (mocha) Certified Instructor
& Adobe After Effects CS6 ACE/ACI

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

NO! 😉

You can however create an Expression Checkbox to set Transform props to specific values.

HTH
RoRK

Intensive mocha & AE Training in Singapore and Other Dangerous Locations

Imagineer Systems (mocha) Certified Instructor
& Adobe After Effects CS6 ACE/ACI

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

[John Harron] “This is a pretty simple track but ultimately I’d like to get this to the point where I can track a character from facing front to profile and utilize element 3D to give the effect dimension…”

You’re pushing it if you go for a full-on side profile. Some perspective change should be fine – but not too much.

You should want some camera movement – otherwise it’s not a camera solve. I suggest you re-try the experiment with some camera movement. Allow the camera to capture Parallax as it’s important to the camera solve. Place a tracking thingy on the background so that there are at least two planes for the tracking engine to calculate parallax for the camera solve.

Google “Grimm mocha” for examples of face tracking.

In your specific example, you may have tracked the eyes etc but results really depend on your tracking splines – where you’ve placed them. I’m not too keen on the eyes cos it has a lot of movement that is contrary to the head movement.

Checkout these great tutorials for examples –
https://provideocoalition.com/pvcexclusive/video/face_replacement_part_1_basic

https://provideocoalition.com/pvcexclusive/story/face_replacement_part_2_advanced

HTH
RoRK

Intensive mocha & AE Training in Singapore and Other Dangerous Locations

Imagineer Systems (mocha) Certified Instructor
& Adobe After Effects CS6 ACE/ACI

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

For mocha’s 3D Camera Solve, you will want at least 2 planar surfaces to be successfully tracked. A face can be broken down into different planar surfaces. See if this info helps.

HTH
RoRK

Intensive mocha & AE Training in Singapore and Other Dangerous Locations

Imagineer Systems (mocha) Certified Instructor
& Adobe After Effects CS6 ACE/ACI

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Hi Bosco, in mochaPro’s Prefs dialog, within the Clip Tab are Format settings for Log, Float etc. Use one of these.

HTH
RoRK

Intensive mocha & AE Training in Singapore and Other Dangerous Locations

Imagineer Systems (mocha) Certified Instructor
& Adobe After Effects CS6 ACE/ACI

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Hi Bosco, I understand what you’re trying to do. The real question is; in which app are you intending to remove the markers? If it’s not in mocha, then it doesn’t matter which version of the footage you use in mocha as long as the pixels to be tracked are in the same location across both versions – the original and the one you use in mocha.

IOW, if all you need is tracking data form mocha then don’t fuss too much about the file format, CODECs etc of the footage you bring into mocha. In fact, it is good practice (especially for tricky tracks)to use a high-contrast version of the original footage for tracking in mocha.

HTH
RoRK

Intensive mocha & AE Training in Singapore and Other Dangerous Locations

Imagineer Systems (mocha) Certified Instructor
& Adobe After Effects CS6 ACE/ACI

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

I’m not certain what the issue is with your TIFFs in mocha BUT for now, you should track using another image sequence format without floating point support. You should already know that the footage you use for tracking in mocha does not have to be the same footage you use for compositing UNLESS you are compositing in mochaPro.

Lastly, you will want to get in touch with Imagineer Systems’ support here – https://www.imagineersystems.com/contact_form

HTH
RoRK

Intensive mocha & AE Training in Singapore and Other Dangerous Locations

Imagineer Systems (mocha) Certified Instructor
& Adobe After Effects CS6 ACE/ACI

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

[Andreas Zerr] “For tracking purposes of the green – what’s your suggestion of how to mark the background? We’ve done some tests with a couple x’s (plain dark green crosses with a black spot in the middle), and they worked fine for the point-trackers in AE. Will those crosses also be sufficient for mocha, or shall we glue some other tracking-points (like square shapes) onto the background wall?”

For tracking/keyable tapes, take a look at this thread – https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/1044615.

When tracking, use a high-contrast version of the footage to obtain your tracking data. Then use the ‘normal’ footage for your compositing workflow.

Having said that, you only really need keyable markers if your talent crosses over the markers. Otherwise, a garbage matte plus keying will be sufficient. Thus, you can use anything as a tracking marker if there is no cross over issue. A picture mounted on the wall or magazine pages will do fine – just ensure that there is sufficient detail around the edges of the marker and you get plus points if there is sufficient detail within the marker.

You will want to look at the following tutorial (https://www.imagineersystems.com/videos/steve-wright-basic-tracking-techniques/view)to appreciate various tracking techniques that you should want to apply for a task such as yours. Especially useful are the pointers on keyframing the tracking spline before and/or during tracking (to give the tracking engine as much information as possible) and possibly co-planar tracking, which explains a lot of how mocha thinks and solves planar tracking tasks.

I forsee possible issues with your insert being cutoff after applying the Corner Pin tracking data. If you can’t solve the issue then look at purchasing Matthias’ mochaImport+ tool which provides an elegant way to solve such issues as well as ensure for a more comfortable ride for prepping tracking data for use in AE.

HTH
RoRK

Intensive mocha & AE Training in Singapore and Other Dangerous Locations

Imagineer Systems (mocha) Certified Instructor
& Adobe After Effects CS6 ACE/ACI