Motion Vector:Create After Effects Examples.

NOTE: For these examples you need After Effects 5.0 or later.

This directory contains a project (named MVC_CreateVectors.aep) with several compositions to help explain features of Motion Vectors: Create.

Important: These tutorials assume you have read the manual that was put on your disk with the plugin upon installation.

Before opening the project examples, make sure to move the movies from the SourceMovies folder into this folder (make sure the movies are in the same directory with the After Effects projects, otherwise After Effects may not find them).

In all these examples we've set the Display setting to Debug. As is pointed out in the manual, when at frame 0 and you are calculating motion vectors to the previous frame you are really debugging the motion vectors calculated at frame 1. Of course before you would use the motion vectors you'd want to make sure that Display is set to Motion Vectors.

1) Simple Example

This sample project shows a simple example. In this example we've applied Motion Vectors:Create to a piece of footage. We've set the Display setting to Debug. As is pointed out in the manual, when at frame 0 and you are calculating motion vectors to the previous frame you are really debugging the motion vectors calculated at frame 1.

Try setting the Motion Sensitivity to 0 (to force minimal pixel movement, which creates a poor track for this sequence) and see what happens to the created Debug images. Notice that when Debug View Mode is Diff that when there is more white in the areas of difference between the source image and the image of the surrounding frame warped using the motion vetors (that is, poor tracking).

Play with other Debug View Modes and see what is displayed in both good tracking (Motion Sensitivity set to 70) and bad tracking (Motion Sensitivity set to 0).

2_LayersExample

This sample project shows how, with Motion Vectors:Create, you can use a matte to separate foreground and background for even better results when an object in front passes other objects.

Note the comparison between the No FG Mask Used comp (poor tracking) and FG Mask Used comp, the former has better tracking because the plugin can differentiate between foreground and background object movement based on the supplied matte.

3_TrackPointExample

This sample project show how, with Motion Vectors:Create, you can get better results by guiding Motion Vectors:Create the use of a few judicial Track Points.

The composition "Problem Shown" exhibits what happens with regular Motion Vectors:Create with no help guiding the tracking. Note that the object on the left is not tracked well in the Motion Vectors:Create Debug result.

The composition "WithTracking Pts" shows how you can guide Motion Vectors:Create... in this case with 3 tracking points.

For you to do and notice:

- Note that the Use menu for for Track Points 1, 2 and 3 have been set to "Main_BG"
- Note that the tracking is better in the comp using tracking points
- To see the Motion Vectors:Create's track points, set Display to Source or Debug. When in this mode you can see that Motion Vectors:Create draws all of the points being used. Make sure to animate Track Points when Display is set to Source or Debug.
- Because we've helped with tracking guidance, we've set the Motion Sensitivities to 100.

4_MaskGuidance

This sample project show how, with Motion Vectors:Create, you can get better results by guiding Twixtor the use of a After Effects' masks.

The composition "Problem Shown" exhibits what happens when Motion Vectors:Create is not supplied manual tracking help. Note that the result is very unsatisfactory.

The composition "With Mask Guides" shows how you can guide Motion Vectors:Create. in this case with an AE mask.

For you to do and notice:

- Note that the tracking is very much improved
- To see the splines Motion Vectors:Create is using to help guide the track, set Display to Source or Debug. When in this mode you can see that Motion Vectors:Create draws all of the points being used.
- Note that in Main_BG Settings, that the First Mask and Last Mask menus have been set to the mask on the layer. Also note that the mask has been created on the layer that Motion Vectors:Create has been applied... in this case the Solid layer.
- Note that by default, when the mask is assigned to a layer by setting the First Mask and Last Mask menu options for a layer, that the mask is used to help guide Motion Vectors:Create because the Mask Opacity (viewable in AE's timeline) for the mask is, by default, set to100%.

5_TrackPointsAndLayers

This sample project show how, with Motion Vectors:Create, you can get better results by guiding Motion Vectors:Create the use of a few judicial Track Points used in tandem with Motion Vectors:Create's layer separation feature.

The composition "Problem Shown" exhibits what happens with regular Motion Vectors:Create with no layer separation. Note that the result is very unsatisfactory.

The composition "Twixtor Pro w Tracking Pts" shows how you can guide Motion Vectors:Create. in this case with 1 tracking point per layer.

For you to do and notice:

- Note that the Use menu for for Track Point 1 is set to "Main_BG"
- Note that the Use menu for for Track Point 2 is set to "FG1"
- Note that the tracking has been improved
- To see (or animate) the Motion Vectors:Create's track points, set Display to Source or Debug. When in this mode you can see that Motion Vectors:Create draws the mask being used to guide Motion Vectors:Create.
- Because we've separated the image into layers, and because we've helped with tracking guidance, we've set all layers' Motion Sensitivities to 100.
- Is really important is to note the track point guiding the background: it guides the background movement while the foreground obscures it (particularly note where the track point is for the second source frame of the sequence). thus guiding the motion estimator through motion that is hidden.

6_SplinesAndLayers

This example shows a very complex example with 4 layers (3 foreground mattes supplied) and several masks, used on several layers, to guide Motion Vectors:Create's tracking.

The composition "Problem Shown" exhibits what happens with Motion Vectors:Create, even with layer separation. Note that the result is very unsatisfactory.

For you to do and notice in the comp named "Layers and Splines":

- Note that AE has been set to calculate frames at Half resolution. This is so you can easily navigate the project. After you've explored the project and its settings, you might want to turn this to Full to see how much better the results are.
- Note that the tracking is greatly improved
- Because we've separated the image into layers, and because we've helped with tracking guidance, we've set all layers' Motion Sensitivities to 100.
- Note that in Main_BG Settings, that the First Mask and Last Mask k menus have been set to the mask on the layer. Also note that the mask has been created on the layer that Motion Vectors:Create has been applied... in this case the Solid layer.
- Note that by default, when the mask is assigned to a layer by setting the First Mask and Last Mask menu options for a layer, that the mask is used to help guide Motion Vectors:Create because the Mask Opacity (viewable in AE's timeline) for the mask is, by default, set to100%.
- Note that common boundary between FG2 and FG3 is animated once and included in the masks for both FG2 and FG3.
- Not all masks are used at all frame times to help guide Motion Vectors:Create. Note that we move the masks off the image when not needed.
- So that masks moved from off image to on image don't adversely affect the tracking, we animate the Mask Opacity value for the mask so that it is 0% when a mask not meant to be used (that is, when off the image) and 100% when it should be used. Also note that we use After Effects' Hold interpolation type for each Mask Opacity keyframe. In this way we can correct errors from only the source frames that are causing us problems. Remember, to be helpful in guiding Motion Vectors:Create, you must animate the mask (and have it active) on at least two source frames.
- Note that the Mask Opacity and Mask Shapes should be animated when in "source time," that is, when Display is set to Source or Debug.
- To see what Motion Vectors:Create is using to guide the tracking, set Display to Source or Debug. Note that Motion Vectors:Create does not draw the masks unless they are active (via the Mask Opacity setting) AND the Display menu is set to Source or Debug. We are not able to retrieve each mask's color, so all masks are drawn in red.
- Is really important is to note that the masks used for guidance ofthen show Motion Vectors:Create where objects move as they are obscured or move on/off screen.

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