over the shoulder muzzle flashes in AE
- Thread starter Brett
- Start date
dory_breaux
Todd Wannabe
Using masks and rotoscoping.
Richard J. Johnson
Joystick Member
videocopilot.net if you have not been there already.
Brett
Well-known member
oh yes of course ive been to videocopilot. i love Kramers tutorials. but unfortunately watching his tutorials is the only way I know what Im doing in AE. Ive had AE for awhile and use it when doing muzzles and simulating lighting but when it comes to rotoscoping and masks, im clueless.. and btw filthrich I didnt see a tutorial on videocopilot doing what im trying to do.. thanks for the suggestions guys.
grahamdunn
Active member
You need to duplicate your main video layer, and then on that new layer, use the pen tool to mask out the person's shape. Draw points around the key areas (shoulders, etc.) to cut those parts out. Use new shapes for each important body part, use as few points as possible, and key frame the shapes over time. If you solo the layer or turn off the background layer, you can see what you're doing and what parts are being cut out. Now you can sandwich the flash between the main footage and the new layer with the rotoed parts on it and the flash will be behind the person. Hope that's helpful...
oneinfiniteloop
Veteran
This is the long way of doing it...too much unnecessary work unless the flash will take up the entire space behind the actor in front. Just create an adjustment layer and draw your mask with the pen tool on that. Make the mask slightly larger than the region the muzzle flash should take up. Also, since a muzzle flash is only a few frames long, you only need to keyframe those frames. You can then use your adjustment layer as a track matte for your muzzle flash layer. This keeps your comp leaner and more efficient since you don't have dupes of the footage. Conversely you can draw the mask directly on your muzzle flash layer, both ways have their benefits. Keep in mind the light wrap around the edges of the shoulder from the flash.
When doing roto, do the least amount possible for the desired results. In this case you wouldn't need to cut out the entire person unless whatever you're putting behind him is that large where it will be visible at all edges. In the case of a muzzle flash, that would have to be a pretty big gun to have the flash viewable at all edges...I mean a cannon sized gun.