The first workshop was about 2d tracking or 2d motion tracking. I have some experience with After Effects but never in a way that it was fun and it worked. That changed now. This workshop finally gave me a good feeling about AE.
What did I learn?
Before we started working with After Effects, we first defined what 2d motion tracking is. We defined what I can and cannot do:
- It can track the x and y coordinates and follows a small cluster of pixels.
- It can track if there is enough contrast.
- If something is in front of the pixels it stops tracking.
- If there’s too much motion blur it stops tracking.
- If there isn’t enough contrast the layer doesn’t stay in place.
It is very interesting to see that when there is enough contrast or there are obvious tracking points the layer with the object stays in place. It doesn’t slide of, it is stuck to the tracking points. When there is too much motion blur or the tracking points go off screen, the object will “let go” and floats around in space or it disappears. After defining 2d motion tracking we could work on some exercises.
2D Motion tracking Basics
What worked/didn’t work and why?
The first exercise was to track a box. If I followed the steps it worked. But something went wrong with my object. When I wanted to check if my object was stuck it turned all of the sudden. So the angle wasn’t the angle of the box anymore. That happened because I didn’t went to the first frame to use the right angle. So during playing the video, it went in the opposite direction. It got fixed to create the angle again but on the first frame.
The second exercise was sky replacement. Again if I followed the steps that were provided, it worked. But here I had some trouble with feathering the sky. It didn’t work for some reason and I still do not know why. I had to put the sky back in again and it worked after that. It could’ve been a problem with the graphic card of the computer. I also did the before and after in Premiere pro. I had some help from the Jon and it worked. I love the result.
2D Tracking and Simple Sky Replacement
How can I apply this in the future?
I’m not sure if I, personally, could apply this in the future. This is not something I would like to do in a company. It comes in handy to have the knowledge that is a company have a similar assignment I’ll be prepared. But other than that I prefer graphic and web design over Moving images.
How can I use this in my convergence project?
I could use this technique to show designs I made or those inspiring me on the walls behind me when I talk to the camera. To give an impression on how my work looks or who inspires. The issue here is that there can’t be any blur. So the background of the video has to be as sharp as me.