How to Track Live Video to a Postcard

on Dec 16th 2010 with 41 comments
Tutorial Details
  • Requirements: After Effects
  • Difficulty: Intermediate
  • Run Time: 39:35min

Final Product What You'll Be Creating

Twice a month we revisit some of our reader’s favorite posts from back in the archives of Aetuts+. Today we’ll look at a rockin’ post from Mathias Möhl. This tutorial was originally published in Jan 2009… Enjoy!

In this tutorial we continue exploring how to create some high-end techniques easily by using scripts to facilitate our workflow. Mathias Möhl teaches us how to track moving video to a postcard that was shot handheld with help from some scripts that he authored and are freely available. He also shows how to recover highlights from the tracked footage and apply them back over the moving video for a very convincing effect.

Tutorial

Download Tutorial .mp4

File size 234MB

 
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By

Rollover to read this author's bio or click through to see a full list of posts by this author.

I run the website Mamoworld where you find useful tools and tutorials for After Effects. I like teaching and my goal is to develop tools that are both powerful and as easy and intuitive to use as possible.  

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  • http://synarchydesign.com Kevin Martin

    Awesome tut! I was recently wondering how to do this for a commercial I might make.

  • http://www.happyfolio.nl jul

    nice

  • Snorri3D

    nice 1 will try this one out :)

  • http://www.josephsocorro.com Joseph Socorro

    Awosome web site, thanks

    Regards from Venezuela

  • http://www,jradesign.eu jamiralaquaglia

    YOU ARE AWESOME!!!
    WEB SITE AND TUTORIALS ARE AMAZING

    thanx a lot

  • Yasser Khan

    Just pure brilliance!

  • :)

    Awsome tut and awsome accent
    thx alot mate

  • http://www.tutorialwow.com/ Josh Drake

    Pretty nice effect! Thanks for the HD tut – it really helps. ;)

  • DS

    USE MOCHA )

  • Wesley Prince

    Nice one..
    Final result looks a bit shaky and bumpy

  • http://motionsociety.com/ Ahmed Mohsen

    nice tutorial
    thanks a lot
    http://motionsociety.com/blog/

  • http://www.diegogagliardi.com Diego

    WOW. Man, I think this website is becoming the BEST After Effects training out there. Keep it up.

  • keys

    Wow awesome thank you

  • http://motionsociety.com Ahmed mohsen

    Very nice

  • Ben P

    Looks great! Will deffo give this a go..

  • http://www.uniexproductions.com Carlos

    Looks awesome! I’ll defiantly have to check it out soon.
    Thanks man.

  • http://www.hazystudio.com Patrick Rileu

    seems like there has to be an easier way but oh well.

    • kwaku

      I was wondering why he used the after effects corner pin instead of using mocha. Maybe someone can answer that for me.

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

        read the comments… this is an older post before Mocha

  • Rik

    lovely <3 !!

  • Pingback: How to Track Live Video to a Postcard - AETUTS | WebTuts

  • guest

    why does the tut have to so high res, I can’t wait it to buffer all day

  • Oli

    buffers fine for me

  • http://aembury.blogspot.com AndrewE

    Fantastic Tutorial!

    Great use of the colorama filter, one of which I use on a daily basis!

    Thank you for your time!

  • fantasmo

    GREAT Tutorial, thank you very much!!!

    Also nice song and good singer… but sounds a little bit, like shes singing not in tune with the music??!

  • http://www.sacnow.net Loay

    You know……
    I know many sites that is learning AE but this is special one
    I really impressed with contents.
    keep going this site is going to be #1.

  • Ty

    I might be missing something here but what is used for the actual postcards? Just black pieces of card? Great tutorial just one problem, I like to follow along with the tutorial as it plays through but it’s difficult as the lower res version makes it difficult to see and when in full screen I have to keep ‘escaping’ to get back to AE as expose doesn’t allow me to keep the full screen open, hmmm, keep up the good work;)

  • http://www.aextensions.blogspot.com/ Mathias Möhl
    Author

    @Ty: Yes, I just used some black paper and some transparent adhesive foil to make it more glossy. I think any glossy black surface should work.

  • Daniel

    Thanks Matias. Was great !!….
    ¡¡ Excelent !!

  • Pingback: Best Tutorials For Cinematic Visual Effects | Tutorials | Smashing Magazine

  • Kiloski

    is there any chance you can supply me with that footage of the door slamming?
    pleeeaaaasssseee lol
    great tut by the way
    message me over aim if that is possible it would be appreciated
    aim:
    o kiloski o

    • Kiloski

      not only the door slamming but the movement from card to card
      i have no footage to practice on :(

  • Pingback: Best Tutorials For Cinematic Visual Effects | Michael Clarkes Blog

  • fog

    using mocha for ae is much easier, but nice idea.
    thanks.

  • Joe M

    So this is what it use to be like before MOCHA…

    that being said… there are some very interesting aspects of the tutorial that bring to light some tweaks and tricks. For one thing… avoid shiney reflections in the original shoot… perhaps, use flat black cards?

    Appreciate the tut…nice work.

    • http://www.mamoworld.com Mathias Möhl
      Author

      Although the reflections make the tracking harder, in this shot I intentionally wanted to have them to use them in the final composite. If you don’t have them in the footage, it is much harder to add realistic reflections later.

  • http://blog.johnpercival.org John Percival

    Killer Work, Mathias! Thanks for the tips.

  • theo

    Great stuff, used mocha extremely well in my reel, please have a look and tell
    Me wat you think?

  • theo
  • kwaku

    the singer was absolutely awful. Great tutorial though. very nice job.

  • Aidon Champ

    i can’t download the video DAFAQ