Rotoscoping Movie Files in After Effects

And moonz, it says I am FORBIDDEN from entering the site for the roto clip

 

Can someone explain what the black layer is for?

Also I can't get the coloring to work (I change the colors but the saber stays white) someone help plz.

You just answered your own question, bud.

Without the black underlayer, the color balance command won't work on the nested composition.

Why? Doesn't matter. Just know that it won't.

M. Scott

 

Hehe sorry. I'm one of those people that likes to know why not just what.

 

I am one of those posters that wants to rotoscope movies but can not figure out after effects for the life of me!

I am so close, I can do pictures very well, now if I can only figure out what my problem is with the movies.

 

Whispering, You hit the stopwatch while your on the first frame not the second. And leave it on, once you have turned it on dont touch the stop watch. Turning it on in frame 2 sets your first keyframe to frame 2. It has to be frame 1.

 

Okay, this might help, here are the steps that I am doing in order

1) create the solid
2) poke out the eye
3) use the pen and bezier tools to make the saber
4) bring the eye back to show the saber
5) hit the stopwatch next to 'mask shape'
6) move timeline slider to next frame
7) move the saber, which is now in the wrong place to where the dowel rod currently is.

But after I do step 7 and then go back to the first frame it shows the saber in the new frame 2 position, not the origional frame 1 position.

 

There is a little box to the left of the stopwatch, check it each time you are making a new keyframe.

 

K... Um it sounds right but here is what i would suggest.

1: Import Footage and set up composition with correct resolution and time for clip.

2: Drop your footage onto the time line.

(were going to skip some recommended steps here and im going to tell you my way of doing it which may or may not be easier for you.)

3: Double click your footage to open it in a new window.

4: In the new window make sure you are on frame one and draw your first mask.

5: Go down to your timeline and open up the mask under your footage (you should have no other layers besides your footage) Make sure the mask is set to SUBTRACT. As well this is when you would click the stopwatch on. Now once the stopwatch is on dont touch it again.

6: Go to Composition>Background Color and set it to something nice and obvious like bright green.

7: Now if you look back in the main composition/render window you should see Your footage with a flat green saber/mask.

8: Now go back to the second window we opened for rotoscoping in and and move a frame forward. Now adjust your mask by grabbing the points and moving them back over the saber which has moved. Dont forget to adjust the angles of your bezier curves or they may get wonky later. Rince and Repeate

9: Now in theory you have rotoscoped your whole clip, it looks awesome and there are no flaws. Here comes the fun part where we get back into the normal method.

10: Create a new layer solid white over your footage, make sure it has the same comp settings as your footage.

11: Go back to your original footage, open up the mask and make sure you see little diamonds and not dots representing your key frames. Make sure your frame marker is positioned on frame one when you do this. Select all the keyframes for your sabers Mask Shape. Now (On PC CTL-C or on mac APPLE-C) copy the keyframes. NOW go click on your new while layer and click CTL-V or APPLE-V respectivly. This should copy ALL the keyframes you made in the original footage to the new layer.

12: If all went well you should now have a WHITE saber over your footage, be sure to click high quality on this layer,(the little toggleable slash mark)

13: Now go back to your main footage layer and under the mask type set it to NONE (it should have been on subtract).

14: Do a preview to make sure your new saber layer is lined up properly with the footage. If it is then hit the eye on your footage.

15: Ok now we go back to ryans method with duplicating the layer and adding fuzz and nesting the composition and all that.


This may look more complicated but trust me its not. You will be much better off working on the secondary window on your main footage than you would in the main comp. A lot of times in the main comp window you can accidently grab another layer or move something without noticing it. if you work in the isolated window just for the footage you can see THROUGH your mask, IE you wont have color blocking your view in that window so you can see exactly where you mask is in relation to the saber. And youll run into less hangups in this window.

 

Now, I am moving the solid layer around right? Click and drag, move the points that kind of thing. I just wish I could isolate the problem.

 

In response to NXTB,

As long as you have clicked the stop watch on you do NOT want to click that box since it will have the adverse effect of completley @$()_! your keyframes later on. If you did things correctly and made sure the stopwatch is on and says on (IE YOU DO NOT TOUCH IT AFTER ITS BEEN TURNED ON) then it will generate new keyframes for you when ever you move the mask, AND if you want to skip a few frames it will then TWEEN the seperated keyframes doing work for you. If you were to go through and click the box for every frame you would not be able to do any tweening.

 

No you shouldnt be moving the solid. Read through the extensive instructions I posted and give it a try. It should work for you. Once you are in that isolated window you wont have a problem with moving solids, Youll only have to deal with masks.

 

Hmmm well this thread got very quiet so either what i said helped or scared everyone to death. Id like to know if it was helpfull in any way.

 

Excellent post up there. I had one like it a while ago that I refer people to, but now it's been pruned I guess. Good that this is around.

 

oh... Shawn we posted at the same time, I put the footage aside for a day, now I am going back to it. I will post tomorrow to see if everything works now And it is nice to see the great Ryan_W is watching this thread