Simple Principles To Make Rotoscoping Less Crappy

Simple Principles To Make Rotoscoping Less Crappy

on Aug 31st 2011 with 27 comments
This entry is part 15 of 20 in the Keying and Rotoscoping Session
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Today I just wanted share a few principles that have helped me keep my sanity as I approach rotoscoping work. There are many different types of situations that might require you to do roto work, but in general these tips should help your workflow over time.

Tutorial

Download Tutorial .mov

File size: 232.6 MB

Adam Everett Miller is everettoptions on Videohive
 
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I am the editor of Aetuts+. I also run Hello Studios as my 9-5 job. I'd love any feedback about Aetuts+ so don't hesitate to drop me a line. ae@tutsplus.com  

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  • Andrew

    Great tips, I don’t do much roto work but I fell a little better prepared when that day comes(ughhh).

  • Lijah

    Good stuff…nice to see some tips to make this technique less stressful. Also, couldn’t be happier that it was football as the subject. That 80% of what I do and other football (new media/video coordinator) guys I know watch AETUTS everyday to do what we do. Keep it up, and thanks!

  • Brad

    Good Tips! I’m not a pro rotoscoper, but I am surprised you’d do everything by hand, instead of using Mocha. Masking seams like it’d make sense on simple objects and simple movements, but with this video example I would have jumped into Mocha. But that’s just me. I do appreciate the tips!

  • http://www.YouTube.com/JeremiahJW Jeremiah Warren

    I do the roto on a solid color, then use it as a mask. You can also track the solid to parts of the body, e.g. the head of the football player to make the roto more precise.

  • makeithappen

    thats the point of the tut…making it less harder…giving tips. but for the real stuff…use mocha pro…
    thanks annyway

  • josh

    why didnt you use the rotobrush tool?

    • Tatum

      He answers that at the end… grenade vs sniper rifle

  • illd

    nice tutorial. But since its freewith AE – use mocha, fool!

    • http://www.vimeo.com/everettoptions Adam Everett Miller
      Author

      Mocha does work great for roto work, but for some shots where the subject is changing quite a lot, it’s actually faster to do the roto by hand…. There are a lot of tutorials on using mocha to roto… this was just intended to offer some helpers as you do roto work by hand if the shot merits it.

    • Tatum

      Fool? He’s sharing and you name call?! and what’s more… he doesn’t bit back…
      Thanks for the tut… really well explained.

  • http://www.wrenthereaper.com Wren Weichman

    haha, Adam you crack me up. You should make more tutorials.

    • http://www.vimeo.com/everettoptions Adam Everett Miller
      Author

      :)

  • http://www.mechanicalwhispers.com Robert

    Yeah, there are some good tips here, but having done roto work for many years, and studied various techniques, I can say without a doubt that the BEST method is to use a combination of tracking and masking onto tracked solids. FIRST assess your shot… that will help you decide which way to attack the roto most efficiently. I’m glad Adam touched on this, but it probably could have been emphasized better. No two shots will be approached in the same way. Every shot will require a slightly different approach. THEN track the major motion ON the object you want to roto. In human subjects, you shouldn’t need more than 8-10 masks… one for each body part that moves (head, torso, upper and lower arms, upper and lower legs). Sometimes you might need hands and feet separately, but again that depends on the shot. Mocha is a great tool for getting tracking data, but for quickness on a simple shot, it might be overkill. You’ll still have to tweak individual path points, so take the quickest route that gets you the motion data. If tracking, you’ll want to track transformation, rotation, and scale… again, depending on your shot. Then apply that tracking data to a solid, draw a mask on the first frame, set your keyframe, and then move to the end of the shot and adjust the points. THEN, scrub through the timeline and adjust the mask at the points where it has strayed the most… usually near the middle of your previous two keyframes… but not always. Also, if you are masking onto solids, you can turn the solid off, then RAM preview your entire clip, and be able to scrub MUCH faster without waiting for the computer to preview anything. It’s all already buffered, and will stay that way since nothing needs to update. I hope these additional tips help. I wish I had time to make a tutorial on this, as I could probably save you guys a TON of time. It’s true that there are a million ways to do any one task in AE, but there are definitely some ways that save more time than others.

    • http://blogs.adobe.com/toddkopriva Todd Kopriva

      Good suggestions, Robert.

    • http://www.vimeo.com/everettoptions Adam Everett Miller
      Author

      Thanks Robert!

    • Valstorm

      I’d love to see your techniques applied to a video tutorial Robert.

  • David

    Great tutorial Adam, thanks for the tips! Robert, if you’re ever so inspired, please feel free to make an in depth rotoscoping tutorial. It would be awesome to hear from someone whose doing this kind of thing day in, day out (or has). I’m new to motion graphics for video, and have not yet done roto work nor do I have much interest in it, but I’m hearing more and more how it is a right of passage for many new motion graphics people, that I should be prepared to do it, and it would be great to be well armed when the situation rears its head!

  • http://www.cgmotionbox.com CGMOTIONOBOX

    Thanks for this nice Tutorial !

  • T Scott

    This may be an over simplistic question, but I don’t quite understand the concept of “cutting away” the stuff around the object vs. masking the actual object. When you are done with the work of creating all these inverse masks, don’t you have an inverse of what you were trying to mask in the first place? I’m sure the answer is obvious but I don’t quite see it. Is there one more step to invert the masks via a precomp or something? Thanks-

    • http://www.vimeo.com/everettoptions Adam Everett Miller
      Author

      No, it’s a good question…. both will give you the same results… here’s why I choose to cut the area around the subject with subtraction masks rather then cut out the actual subject with a additive mask, If you’re taking working around the outside, you don’t ever have the subject being covered by mask paths… just their perimeter. I usually at trying to isolate a single subject so if I can cut away everything around it little by little.. it seems more intuitive on larger, more detailed subjects then just trying to just solo it from the start. Does that make any sense? I is a little confusing, you’re right.

      • http://www.facebook.com/playplaynirmal Nagesh Kandel

        thanks T Scott…for the question..
        Just got some sense in my mind

  • http://www.e11world.com e11world

    Very helpful tip!

  • Leon

    Adam..thank you for a fantastic and entertaining tut! I’ve been doing some root work on a small budget project, and your tips, as well as Robert’s incredibly insightful advice, is a blessing. I do have one question that you slightly touched on…why the aversion towards the Roto Brush, comparing it to a grenade as opposed to a sniper rifle. I know that there may be a lot of tweaking involved…but the tracking seems to be incredibly helpful…thoughts?

    • http://www.vimeo.com/everettoptions Adam Everett Miller
      Author

      I gotta be honest… I’m working on a spot right now and ended up actually using Roto Brush for a section of it to save time… I used it a a section of the actresses head that was in front of a blank wall. This is where it really shines and can save a TON of time. Same as the clip I used here: http://ae.tutsplus.com/tutorials/workflow/welcome-cs5-an-intro-to-the-new-roto-brush/… where there is a nice simple background, Rotobrush works great. When it comes to isolating a subject from a cluttered background, rotobrush can be way more frustrating then just using the good ol pen tool. :)

  • http://www.clipapic.com Emma Davis

    I can’t get enough of these tutorials!!

  • http://www.clipapic.com Clipping Path

    I feel sometimes these tutorials would be better served in video. Great effort though. Thanks

  • http://n/a Dave

    My wrist thanks you :)