Greenscreen + AE + Tracking + Me = NEWB

ryan brown

ryan brown

lOwEr CaSe Member
Alright... I know I'm asking a lot on this one, but I'm hoping I've got a little good karma coming my way from helping out others on this site ;)

I'm giving the "I Dig Incubus" video contest a shot, and I need your help.

I can handle the greenscreen, but I'm a total newb with after effects, and I don't know how to go about my workflow - - and the tracking in particular.

I'd like to pull them out, then set them in a realistic background. Sounds easy, huh? Well, I don't know how to track the markers to follow all the dolly shots. Every shot is a moving shot, and I want to shoot a seperate background and have it follow all the dolly shots.

Any chance someone could give me a fairly detailed description of how to go about this?

Here's a screenshot of what we have to work with (keep in mind it's a moving shot):

Incubus_screen_shot.jpg



I did some tests on it yesterday, and successfully keyed them out, so I'm good on that. But how to I track the markers for a moving shot, how do I create a background that'll move along with them (shoot a seperate background, and bring it into 3d?), and how do I then delete the marker points on the greensreen?

Like I said, I know I'm asking a lot on this one... but I really want to give this a try, and this is the only place I could think of for a decent "tutorial" if someone's willing to write it up.

-brown







.
 
Well you will need to 3D motion track the footage. Think synth eyes for a start.

3d motion tracking is not like 2d tracking because 3d tracking calculated paralaxes which are essentially when pixels close to the camera cross pixels further away, this way they can figure out the camera movements and generate a 3D comera to work with.

Assuming you wont need to put a garbage matte over your actors (because the 3d motion tracking software will see the people moving and make incorrect calculation based on there movement) you should be able to export a camera to any of your favorite 3d apps and go.

As for creating a realistic "set" well, you'll have to model one and light one but remember your actors aren't going to cast shadow so it may look hollow. You could make them cast shadows but believe me you don't even want to know how that would be done...

Sorry for the bad news.
 
3D tracking is an artform unto itself, even those with moderate AE experience might not be able to do a clean track. What complicates matters worse is that you probably have lots of footage to track, I would seek out some pro help.
 
Alright... thanks for the replies so far. I just sent an email off to a friend of mine who works closely with "the best 3D artist he's ever seen". Hopefully he'll dig it, and we can collaberate together.

If not, I'm still going to give it a shot myself... I just may have to come up with something more original where it doesn't need to look realistic.

Andrew, thanks for the tips.

-brown
 
tracking

tracking

I'm not sure if it will help, but you can check out http://www.videocopilot.net and look in the tutorials section. There is a tut there of a guy blowing off his head. In this tut Andrew uses the motion tracking in AE. Not sure if this is what you will need but it might be worth a look.

Cheers!
 
retaf99 said:
I'm not sure if it will help, but you can check out http://www.videocopilot.net and look in the tutorials section. There is a tut there of a guy blowing off his head. In this tut Andrew uses the motion tracking in AE. Not sure if this is what you will need but it might be worth a look.

Cheers!
Click to expand...

Thanks!

I do already know how to do that, though. Andrew was actually the first person to reply to this thread, and he had some very helpful hints. I've got a friend looking around for a 3D artist right now... but either way, I think I'll be able to pull something off with my limited skills in AE.
 
tracking

tracking

Cool, hope it all works out. If you could post any helpful stuff that ya learn, I'd be interested.

Good Luck!
 
i saw this contest too, and downloaded most of the clips, but i noticed a lot of spill onto the drumset and band members from the green screen...maybe THAT's the competition lol
 
inspire84 said:
i saw this contest too, and downloaded most of the clips, but i noticed a lot of spill onto the drumset and band members from the green screen...maybe THAT's the competition lol
Click to expand...

Yeah... there's definitely some spill, but after less than an hour of testing/keying, I got a pretty good key, and Color Corrected out the rest of the spill. Looks great.
 
Maybe a noob question. But these white points, I know they are useful for tracking, but how do you remove them? They are white, and if you are keying them too, all the white like the watch, the shirt, apart of skins, and any white color on the picture will disappear?
 
The dots will all need masking out as bigboss said, which is fine for large areas where there's no people passing infront. It will be a royal pain when the dots are halfway behind an actor or a piece of background to keep. You'll have to do some careful roto work [roto masking].

Maybe less tracking markers would have been handy, but there's a trade off where there's not enough markers vs too many.

In times like that tracker markers that are a different colour to what people are wearing are a good idea. but needs good planning.

Thanks,

MajorMorgan
 
Nik Manning said:
I am going to try this contest also where do you get the song from?
Click to expand...

You buy their new CD of course, jk, I don't know, but if you find out I'd like to take a stab at it as well, time permitting...
 
I use Boujou 4 to track , this software tracks your camera movement taking reference of your tracking point and your subject. Then export camera. which you can import in 3d application (3dmax, maya, cenema4d etc) . Creat 3d sets in 3d application, import camera and render the bg. Key your footage in AE using rendered bg.

This is the way it goes..... only application may be different.
 
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