[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Bleh! I’m not getting it. 🙁

Me thinks there should be a groupIndex (or thisGroup) thingy that works analogously to index.

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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

It’ll be good if you showed your tracking splines.

The indenture on the box has resulted in the top of the box having two planes. Thus, ensure that your spline is placed on the plane, within the area that you want to track. There is no co-planar region to track.

Do not forget to observe standard mocha tracking procedures to deal with the occlusion. You may also want to generate an optimized version of the tracking plate so that the contrast is enhanced, to better allow the tracking algorithm to pick out its tracking targets.

Alternative tracking solutions are AE’s 2D tracker and 3D camera tracker.

Lastly, Rotobrush is a good solution for the few frames where the insert image is partially occluded.

HTH
RoRK

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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

On this video ->https://www.broadcastgems.com/showreel/RoRK_Tracking_Particles_Rotoscoping_Composite2.mp4, I used AE’s 2D Tracker and mochaPro for the different tracking tasks and of course Plexus2.

You can get 2D arrays (for position or effect points) to follow a 3D layer’s position or a 3D layer’s position or an effect’s XYZ array to follow a 2D layer’s position with the following scrip –

Track_MG = thisComp.layer("TrackPoint_Mudguard");
Track_MG.toComp([0,0,0])

In your specific case, you will apply the Expression script to an aptly named (for easy management of your layers) 3D Null’s position.
You will need four Nulls, one for each of the CP points.

The script for linking a 3D Null to a 2D layer’s CP’s Upper Right corner property, the script reads as such –

3DTrackPoint_UR=thisComp.layer("CP_Track_Mudguard");
3DTrackPoint_UR.toComp([thisComp.layer("CP_Track_Mudguard").effect("Corner Pin")("Upper Right")[0],thisComp.layer("CP_Track_Mudguard").effect("Corner Pin")("Upper Right")[1],0])

You will now have to repeat and rinse for each of the other three points – three more 3D Nulls and remember to change the name for the appropriate CP corner property in the script, ie Upper Left etc.

Take note that mochaPro is able to export 3D Nulls after a successful camera solve. Unfortunately, mochaAE does not offer 3D camera solves.

If you want to export Transform tracking data from mocha, take note that the center of the Planar Surface is where the position property is when you paste the data into an AE layer.

Further, once you have a successful track in mocha, you can move the Planar Surface within the tracked plane to gather other position properties. You can of course do these offsets in AE using the Anchor Point. Another important thing to remember once you’ve exported Transform tracking data to E is to delete all the Anchor Point KFs and to reset the Anchor Point value.

Lastly, whether you can or should use AE”s built-on 3D tracker depends on your footage. If you do want to post a video then upload it to the COW and embed the URL in your post.

HTH
RoRK

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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Check your Preferences->Import settings to ensure that the default Sequence Footage fps is set to appropriately. Ideally, this the fps should be set to the fps that you most commonly use – hence it is a setting for a default.

You can override this setting in the Interpret Footage dialog for individual footage in the Project Panel.

HTH
RoRK

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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

The screen recording you provided shows that the active layer in the Layer Panel is the “video” layer AND NOT the Adjustment Layer. You can clearly see the active layer as its name appears in the top left of the Layer Panel.

You should double-click the Adjustment Layer in the Timeline Panel to open the Layer Panel and make it the active in said panel. Alternatively, the drop-menu in the Layer Panel may allow you to select the Adjustment Layer to make it the active layer.

HTH
RoRK

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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Perhaps the layer you pasted to had changes made to the Transform properties.

If your original mask and layer has been created and it does the job of matting/masking the window then leave it as it is – simply use it as a Track Matte for a new and larger layer.

HTH
RoRK

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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Parametric Shapes are drawn when you use any of the Quick Mask Tools. To draw path-based shapes, you depress the ALT/Option key as you draw with one of the QMTs.

For specifics on your issue, you already have a path property. You will need to drawn an Ellipse with the appropriate QMT, with the ALT/Option key depressed. Voila! You now have two SHapes within the COntent prop.

Create a keyframe for the custom path and then move the Timeline Indicator to where the Ellipse should come into play. Copy the Path property of the Ellipse shape then select the custom path property and paste. You should now have two keyframes for the custom path with an ellipse path as the second keyframe. Switch off the visibility of the ellipse shape so that you have no redundancies.

It’s sort of a long way to get things done but it works and I don’t know of a faster way. FWIW, with masks on solids, one could use the Layer Panel to add (via pasting or drawing) additional mask paths to create shape morphs – off course the Mask Target menu had to be set appropriately. This procedures obviously saves a few steps but Shape Layers are Continuously Rasterized and that precludes opening them in a Layer Panel.

HTH
RoRK

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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Joe’s provided good solutions. I’d like to add the built-in Text Tool which allows you to cycle fonts (and other attributes available via the Character Panel, albeit manually, using the Source Text property.

HTH
RoRK

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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

It’s difficult to see what the issue is. You seem to have set CC Sphere’s Render prop to Outside which looks to be the right thing to do. I am however curious of the Track Matte you’ve set up and wonder if that is causing the issue.

I suggest you commit to the same setup, one step at a time, to see at which step the composite goes awry. This should allow you to find the problem step and then to troubleshoot the issue.

Cheers
RoRK

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[Roland R. kahlenberg]

CamStudio is an Open Source screen recording app. Use it to capture your screen activity if you need more concise answers to your issues.

HTH
RoRK

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