Tracking in Mocha

So far, I have produced two videos. One using the program 'mocha' but using the effect 'particular', which isn't really a look i want, and then one video not using mocha, but with an effect i'd want - the 3D stroke effect. This effect just creates a line - the rainbow videos that i have been making.

The program mocha is what allows me to track a particular object in my video. On the first video i made it was very difficult to track my finger as there was know defining interest in it, so it got confused with everything else that was going on and my other fingers. So, Matt in the a/v suite suggested i just re-record my fingers with a dot. So i then went on to record my fingers with small dots on them to have a point of interest for the tracking to follow. I did this using a HD camcorder. Last time i used a massive camera called X1. After filming with both, i definitely prefer the recording of the X1. The focus on it is a lot more defined and just looks a lot better. However, the camcorder still doesn't look too bad.

But anyway, back to mocha...

Opening up mocha and creating a new project

Pick the clip I want, or drag from an already open folder

 

Go to create x-spline layer tool to start creating the path. This creates a new layer every time you press it. You can also choose to use bezier too, which is the pen tool with the 'b' symbol.

Begin the tracking round the particular object you want to go around. The point on the finger will help the tracker to stay focused. Can adjust the point by moving the blue lines. If i were to want to start tracking the other finger then that would be possible on another layer, and to do this i would simply just press the x-spline tool again. They new layer would pop up on the left. Once i am done creating the shape, i press play on the tracking buttons that are underneath my video. I can choose to go frame by frame too by pressing the play button that are to the left. Then i just watch it play through my clip whilst tracking at the same time.

Once i stop the clip, or it comes to an end i then export the track, ready to take it to after effects. Once in export, i either get the option of 'clip corners' or something to do with corners, which is not what i want. I believe this is an option to save something as more of a rigid object that doesn't change too much, like a square or space on a bus which stays the same. The option i want for this particular clip is 'transform data' which allows more flexibility... i think. There are a lot of things that i am not quite understanding the full terms of and find it hard to re-explain, but once in after effects, i seem to remember all the right things to do, a bit. Anyway, i then save the export, which i think, think saves the text/data of my tracking, so i can just copy and paste it into after effects whenever. From here, i also saved the project too.

From here, i then go into after effects and begin the magic there...

I open up the clip that matches what i tracked in mocha. Create a new composition for this piece.

Make a new solid for the tracking data to be pasted onto and the 3D stroke effect to be applied to. I then draw a path using the pen tool, i make it any shape as it is just something to allow me to paste the track to. Once i have pasted to new track data the both with flip to the shape that was made in mocha, like a squiggly train track type thing.I do one more step before this though.

Before pasting the track, i go into effects and add the 3D stroke effect, which is to the right of the clip. This is where the whole animation side of things can be adjusted. I can play around keyframes, thickness, and colour or whatever in this part. Once applying this effect i can then begin with pasting my track.

When pasting the track, i end up pasting every little detail, when all i want is the position of the track, so i create a new 'null object' to paste all the data on to, and then copy the position details of that, then paste that onto my solid layer, which has my path on it. I do this to avoid having to reset all the settings that were changed from the data. Once finally copy and pasted i then delete the null object as i don't need it.

Once pasted, the path switches to this. I now have a path linked onto my clip which should hopefully follow my finger round the screen. The only trouble now is that i don't know where i began tracking on the clip. This should be ok though and can now just play around with the 3D stroke settings. For future experiments and animations, i should definitely know where i began tracking on the clip. This is a very stupid mistake. 

keyframing the 'end' setting in 3D stroke to 0, so no path/line shows up. I will then go to the end of my clip and set the end setting to 100. This means it will make a path following my finger and a line should be drawn.