Last week noticed an exciting announcement from BorisFX – a merger with Syntheyes, the 3D tracker created by Russ Andersson. As Boris already make Mocha, the planar tracker that’s bundled with After Effects, this looks as if a great match.
Inspired by the information, I believed I’d exhibit how I exploit Syntheyes and After Effects collectively, for superior display replacements. I’ve owned a duplicate of Syntheyes for nearly 20 years, and whereas I’m hardly an skilled matchmover, it’s proved itself a beneficial instrument, time and time once more.
There are already a great deal of display substitute tutorials on the market, and I assume this is only one extra. However I’m sharing the method that I’ve give you that works effectively for me, and as I haven’t seen anybody else method display replacements in precisely the identical method, I believed it was price demonstrating right here. This just isn’t a finely polished, step-by-step tutorial, however extra of an overview of the processes that I exploit.
I make it clear within the video that working with Syntheyes for display replacements is my very own private desire, and that the identical shot is also solved utilizing Mocha. Here’s a tutorial on the BorisFX YouTube channel that exhibits how you’ll cope with related occlusion issues in Mocha.
Because the video is outlining the general workflow I exploit, it doesn’t do a deep-dive into the precise compositing processes that is likely to be wanted. Once I’ve a flattened, comparatively static plate to work with, then integrating the brand new display will be performed identical to some other composite. There’s a variety of parts that should be thought-about to completely combine the brand new display onto the prevailing footage. Often, a very powerful are matching the blur / depth of subject of the footage, which could change all through the shot. Matching the colour of the brand new factor can also be very important – particularly the black & white factors. Reflections and lighting adjustments should be added – on this video, the inexperienced display makes it comparatively simple, however this may be difficult in case your footage has different content material already on the display. Any elements of the foreground that occlude the display would possibly have to have edge blurs and lightwraps utilized. Finally, the re-pinned composite would possibly want extra movement blur, utilizing a plugin like RSMB. Because the unpinning course of demonstrated right here scales the background plate up soo a lot, it’s regular to must cope with giant noise & grain as effectively. And in lots of circumstances, you’ll must spend appreciable time eradicating monitoring markers that had been put there throughout the shoot!
The video mentions a number of different assets, so let me record them right here:
- Firstly, if you happen to’re searching for a extra conventional sequence of tutorials for Syntheyes, then take a look at the TrackVFX YouTube channel.
- BorisFX are repeatedly releasing glorious coaching movies for Mocha and their different merchandise
- The Syntheyes website is right here
- Neat video, one of the best denoiser for After Effects, can be found here
- …and BorisFX can be holding a dwell Q&A on September the thirteenth
The merger with Syntheyes has solely simply been introduced and so it’s too early to know what the long run holds… but it surely’s not too optimistic to hope that in the future we would even see Syntheyes built-in & bundled with After Effects, identical to Mocha is!
One final thing… In the video, I make clear that not all photographs are appropriate for 3D digicam monitoring, and in these circumstances a extra conventional resolve utilizing Mocha can be utilized. However even when I exploit Mocha to do the monitoring, I nonetheless use the identical un-pin and re-pin course of outlined within the video. But as an alternative of utilizing nulls with expressions for the CC Power Pin impact, I’ll simply use the nook pin information that the Mocha AE plugin can produce. Once the observe is completed, I’m nonetheless utilizing the nook pin info to un-pin the supply footage, after which re-pin it to the background plate after the compositing has been performed.
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