How to animate a mask to follow motion tracking...

ruester

ruester

Well-known member
I have a shot where a man drives by a woman (His POV) and her eyes flash red...

I was considering making masks for her eyes (with a magenta solid underneath) and then animating the masks in the shot to follow her eyes, but I don't know how to apply the motion tracker to my mask, unless there's a better, or easier way to do this... any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.
 
trypt0phan said:
track a null...then link the mask layer to the null layer.

that's the basics.
Click to expand...

exactly. what hes saying is to create a new null layer. which is a layer with null/nothing in it. then motion track that layer to the movement of her face/eyes, then take your layer(s) with masks for the eyes, and parent them to the null layer, this way, when the null layer is following the motion path from the motion tracking, the layers which it parents will also move with it . so the masks that are contained within the parented layers will automatically be moved along with the parented layers that contain them according to the motion tracked data. you can still keyframe the masked layers position to make up for any other small changes that they need to compensate for which would not be accounted for by the motion tracking data. so it allows you to have them globally follow the motion path, and then have thier own keyframed movement off of that motion path as well.

you could also do this without creating a null as well by motion tracking the actual masked layer to the eye, and then adjuting the layers attach point so that it is actually posiitioned wher you want it to be (you cant mess with its position when you do it this way because the position keyframes will be affected by the motion tracked path data keyframes, and you dont want to change them). this is a quick way to do things when you want an quick track for a simple setup, but it makes much more sense to use a null, and then use the mask layers actual position to denote where you want it to sit, because it is easily changed as well by simply dragging the layers position within the monitor window, or using its position properties instead of modifying the 2D (x,y) attach point properties to line it up where you want it.
 
Thank you Sooooooooo much Neil, and tryptOphan, that really rules! I've just spent hours in the meantime adjusting every frame (luckily only a 1.5 sec shot)! I could kiss you, in the non-homosexual-Borat-Way of course. LOL, It'll help on my next longer shot!

I've got another problem, just a few minutes though....
 
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I created a null layer, Then I went to my mask layer and motion tracked the eyes, I then parented the eye layer to the null layer (mask layer is parent of Null layer?), but the mask still won't move....
 
ruester said:
mask layer is parent of Null layer?
Click to expand...
I think Neil said to parent the mask layers to the null layer. The null layer is the parent of the mask layers. Try switching the parenting around to see what happens.
 
milksac said:
I think Neil said to parent the mask layers to the null layer. The null layer is the parent of the mask layers. Try switching the parenting around to see what happens.
Click to expand...

yeah.. thats what i was saying.. honestly, its just weird because its called "parenting" and you say "parent one layer to another" but what you mean is.. "make the layer a child of the other layer as a parent"

..i think that its stated that way because in the workflow order you access the parenting control within the layer that you are actually making the child, and then select the layer that you want to be the parent. ..generally with the pick whip. so you perform "parenting" from child to parent. ... when in actuality, you are "childing" it to another layer which you are designating as a parent.. ..anyway, sorry for the confusion. hope you have it working now. when the mask layers are children of the null which contains the motion track keyframes, they will follow the global position coordinates of the parent null layer according to the motion track data. :)
 
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