Files

Before you start rotoscoping I’ll explain exactly what we’re doing. Have a look at the screenshot. What we’re doing is using the footage (After_Effects_Rotoscope_Tutorial_Footage.mov) as our background, but at the same time we’ll be using part of it (The cube) as our foreground (Roto Top). We then put the text between the two layers. Roto Top will reveal the text along with Roto Bottom, but because Roto Top and Bottom are duplicates of each other the only noticeable difference will be the text revealing. With this particular frame the area of interest is shown by the green box. As you can see there are areas of the mask (The yellow line) that are not following along the cube (EX: Bottom right), but because nothing is being revealed except for the area in the green box, it would just be extra work to trace the whole cube. Go ahead and watch the footage and finished movie if you haven’t already, so you get a better idea of what you’ll be doing.

1 . Start off by creating a new project (Ctrl+Alt+N) and importing Rotoscope_Tutorial_Footage.mov (Ctrl+I) which we’ll be using as our footage. After it’s imported drag it down to the “Create a new composition” button. By dragging the footage to the icon After Effects will create a new composition based on the settings of the clip.

2. You should now have a composition with 1 layer which is your footage. Duplicate your layer (Ctrl+D), and name the top layer “Roto Top” and the bottom layer “Roto Bottom”. You can rename a layer by selecting it and then pressing the return key.

3. Create a new type layer (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+T) or Ctrl+T and draw a text box. Pick a font and then choose a size that fills up the width of the composition. Click the “3D Layer” button so we can put our type in perspective.

4. Now we’ll rotate the text layer so it fits in better. You’ll probably need to play around with the orientations and the position. My settings are shown in the screenshot below. You can see my text is a little off since I wasn’t using the grid.jpg (Attached), if you want to make it perfect make a layer for the grid and turn down the transparency. It will be easy to match up your text with the lines on the floor. This step is optional, but it will look more interesting if your text has perspective.

5. Move your text layer so it’s between Roto Top and Bottom. Set Roto Top’s opacity to 75% and move the playhead forwards until you find where you need to start rotoscoping. There’s no reason to start until the cube starts to reveal the text. For my example it was not until 0:00:01:04 that the cube would start revealing my text. After you decide where you want to start rotoscoping put the opacity for Roto Top back to 100%. (If you want you can create a marker by pressing the* key on the num pad)

6. Select the Pen Tool (G) and select Roto Top. Your playhead should be at where every you decided to start in step 5. Draw your mask around the left side of the cube. Remember, you do not need to trace the right side of the cube, and may not need to go around the top left corner, but this depends on the font/size you chose. In my example I didn’t need to start tracing the corner of the cube until a few frames in. After you’ve drawn your mask turn on automatic keyframing by clicking the stop watch. This will make it so as you make changes to each frame a keyframe will automatically be made.

7. To jump to the next/previous frame you can use the Page Up / Down keys, or the Time Controls palette (Ctrl+3), I generally prefer using the keyboard. After you’ve gone to the next frame adjust your mask. You can do this by moving the whole mask or free transforming (Ctrl+T) or you can use the arrow keys and nudge the mask. If you want to move an individual point you can shift click it and then you will have that one point selected. If you want to select all the points again you can double click the edge of the mask, use Ctrl+A or click “Mask Path” in the timeline. You should see keyframes starting to accumulate as you make changes on each frame. If you need to zoom in on your timeline you can try Alt+Scrolling on the mouse, or the bar right above the numbers in the timeline. It’s easy to move your layer’s position instead of the mask especially when zoomed in. Your layer position will be 360.0, 243.00 (default and centered for NTSC). If you move the layer’s position every frame after it will be correct, but all the frames before will be off. Make sure your layer position does not get changed and check it every 5 or so frames.

8. Each time you go to a new keyframe you’ll need to realign your mask by moving the whole mask or point of your mask.

9. Remember that only a few points of your mask will be important and the rest will not have any effect. In this screenshot the 3 in red and 1 point at the bottom right (Off screen) area the only important points.

10. You’ll want to zoom back out to 100% and turn off the masks so you can see how it’s looking. The best way to do this is with the “Toggle Mask and Shape Path Visibility” button. Make sure to regularly check and play through your frames to avoid any developing issues.

11. Now go through all the frames, or as many are needed until your type is completely revealed. You can expect it to take at least an hour if not a couple. It may be hard to work on smaller monitors with low resolutions. If you need more space you can move the mouse over the Viewer and press the ~ key. This will make your viewer window take the whole screen. You can use the ~ key again to go back to normal, be sure to check the timeline every few frames to make sure everything looks alright. You can zoom in and out with the Magnifying glass tool (Z) or Ctrl+ +/-.
This is probably the simplest form of rotoscoping you’ll find. It’s an extremely commonly used technique and it’s important to have a grasp on how it works. Any comments, questions, etc are welcome. If you make it through the tutorial, submit a comment with a link to your finished movie file.

Notes:
My AEP file will have “Rotoscope Outlines” and it will be a shape layer instead of a type layer since most people don’t have the font I used.

There’s also a fade in/out and the text moves off the screen after it’s revealed, just like the Rotoscope_Tutorial_Finished.mov.

I also added some layer styles to my text (Gradient Overlay and Stroke) which are not part of the tutorial. You can add layer styles to your text by going to Layer > Layer Styles. You’ll see the change when looking at my type in step 5 vs step 10.

Files

1. Create a new composition with After_Effects_Motion_Tracking_Tutorial_Footage.mov. You can drag the footage to the new composition button to keep the settings of the clip.
2. Open up the tracker controls.

3. In the Tracker Control palette select the layer with the footage as the Motion Source:.

4. Create a new Null Object which will be used for your tracker data. You should always put the position data on a null so there will be more flexibility. Rename your null object to Tracker Data.

5. Click the Edit Target… button and then select the Tracker Data layer (Null Object).

6. Move your tracker point to the yellow ball. When you move the point you’ll see a box which will show you exactly where the point is being placed.

7. In the tracker control click the play button. You should be able to get a good amount of points before the tracker starts to loose the ball. When it does click the stop button and move the playhead back until you find the frame where the tracker lost the ball. Click the Analyze 1 frame forward button in the tracker controls. Then reposition the tracker back onto the ball. You may need to do this in the areas where the ball is at the bottom of the arc, on the lighter background. After you notice it’s able to keep track of the ball (going frame by frame) you can try clicking the play button again. It should be able to get another chunk of the footage before loosing the ball. Don’t use the rewind button when your tracker loses the ball or you’ll rewrite your previous points. Instead move the playhead or go back frame by frame.

8. Eventually you’ll have all your points (up to where the ball goes off screen). Once you’re happy with your points you can click the apply button and your points will be translated into position data on your Tracker Data layer.

9. After you click the apply button you’re Tracker Data should have many keyframes on the Position property.

10. Create a new solid, make it comp size. The color doesn’t matter.

11. With your solid selected go to Effect > Simulation > CC Particle Systems II.

12. In the timeline go to the CC Particle Systems II effect, then go to Producer. Alt click on the stopwatch button which will an add expression to the property.

13. Now that you have the expression you need to pick whip the Position under your effect to the Position keyframes on your Tracker Data layer.

14. Your done, now just play around with the effect settings for CC Particle Systems II until you find something you like.

Files

1. Start off by importing the footage and dragging it to the new composition icon. You can use the test footage I’ve provided or recreate what I have on screen.

2. Select the layer with your footage in the Timeline and then go to Layer > Time > Enable Time Remapping (Ctrl+Alt+T). The Time Remapping properties will appear.

3. You should have 2 keyframes on your Time Remap. One at the start of your footage and one at the end. Drag your keyframe from the end until it’s at 6 seconds or if you’re using your own footage, 50% of the composition duration. When playing back the video you will notice the 15 seconds of footage have been compacted into 6 seconds.

4. Undo your change so your last keyframe is back at the end of your video. Now we’ll use Time Remapping to create a freeze frame. Move your playhead to around 4 seconds. Right click Time Remap and create a new keyframe.

5. With the keyframe you made at 4 seconds selected, go to Edit > Copy, or Ctrl+C. Move the playhead to 6 seconds and then go to Edit > Paste, or Ctrl+V. When you playback your movie it should move from 0-4 seconds, then hold until 6 seconds, and then continue playing from 6 seconds to 15 seconds.

8. Lastly we’ll use the Graph Editor to make some more tweaks. First turn on the Graph Editor and enable it on your Time Remap layer.

9. Move your points around so it looks similar to what I have.

Here’s the breakdown of what this is doing:

From 0:00-0:04 seconds it will play my whole clip, which is 0:15 seconds long. This means it will be playing at around 400% speed.

From 0:04-0:08 seconds it will play my whole clip, which is 0:15 seconds long. EXCEPT it will now play it backwards. It will still be playing at around 400% speed.

From 0:08-0:15 seconds it will play my whole clip, which is 0:15 seconds long, but because it playing over a longer period of time it will playback at around 200%.

There’s many uses for Time Remapping, but there’s 2 uses which I’ve found to be most useful. One is using the freeze
frame use on logos/endtags etc. Sometimes you may realize the logo you’ve used is not holding on the screen long enough. You can create an extra 1 second hold using a freeze frame without changing the duration of your whole video. Although, other parts of the video will play slightly faster it most likely won’t be noticeable.

The other great use for Time Remapping is if you’re using any 3D applications or high end camera. Instead of rendering/shooting your video at 30fps you can try 60fps. This will give you the ability to manipulate your footage much more than when shooting at 30fps.

Two warning when doing Time Remapping…

One is, Time Remapping will effect audio so be careful that you’re only using it on video. Put your audio back once you’re finished.

The other warning is, Time Remapping isn’t going to solve all timing issues. There’s a limit to how much you can slow down footage. If you have footage shot at 30fps you can make it so it plays back at 1000% with no issues, since you’re simply throwing away frames/data. Going the other way isn’t as simple. If you have footage shot at 30fps you will be very limited to how much slower you can make the playback before it start to stutter, especially if there’s a lot of motion. This is why you may want to consider shooting at a higher framerate when possible.

2. Bring your audio into the composition then right click and go to Keyframe Assistant > Convert Audio to Keyframes.

3. A null called Audio Amplitude will automatically be created with your data. Under the effects you’ll see Left, Right, and Both channels. You can delete Left and Right since we won’t be using them for this tutorial. With scale selected on your shape layer go to Animation > Add Expression.

4. Use the pick whip and choose “Slider”.

5. Do a RAM Preview by pressing the 0 key on the numpad and you’ll notice the animation is rather unpleasant to watch since it’s so quick. Next we’ll change the expression so we can tweak the settings.

Paste this over your expression:
temp = linear(thisComp.layer(“Audio Amplitude”).effect(“Both Channels”)(“Slider”), 0, 40, 50, 100);
[temp, temp]

6. You’ll need to find the max value for your Slider data. Turn on the graph editor and then include the Slider in the graph editor. Move the playhead to where the audio peaks and then look at the corresponding value of the slider, it will probably be around 40-50.

In the expression there was 4 numbers: 0, 40, 50, 100.
To break this down in human terms, when the Slider value is 0 the scale of my circle will be 50%. When the slider value is 40 (my max), the circle will be 100%. Replace “40″ with your max value.

7. We’ll add a outer glow as a finishing touch.

8. Pick whip the Slider after making the Size of your outer glow an expression. RAM Preview your movie again to see the results.

The end result is nothing too interesting, but you can apply the same techniques to particle systems or more advanced effects to make nice graphics driven by your audio.

Also you may want to have a look at Trapcode Soundkeys which will allow you to do what we just did, but with a lot more control. You can target certain frequencies and more. You can see a demo here.

1. Generally when working in After Effects you’ll constantly be setting the work area start/end points (B key / N key) so you can preview only the part of your composition that you’re working on. Before you add your composition to the render queue you’ll need to reset this (assuming you want to render the whole composition).

2. Place the playhead at the start of your composition. You can drag, but pressing the home key is the easier and more reliable method.

3. Now that the playhead is in the right location press B to set the work area start location. Again, you could drag the bar below the playhead, but using the shortcut keys is easier, more efficient, and more reliable.

4. Now drag the playhead to the end of the composition or press the end key.

5. Press the N key and set your work area end location. Then add the composition to the render queue.

6. The Render Queue tab will appear in the timeline area. I’ll be leaving the name of my file and output location alone, but if you want to give your movie a filename to be saved as you would click on the “Comp1.mov” text and it would bring up the “Output Movie To” menu. The menu will also allow you to change the location of where your movie will be saved.

7. Before you render you’ll want to check your settings. Click the text (in red box) to bring up the Output Module Settings window. I can’t tell you what settings to use since it depends on your project and what you’ll be using it for, but I will mention that by default audio output is turned off in After Effects. If you want to export with audio then you’ll need to check off Audio Output at the bottom of the Output Module Settings. When you’re happy with your settings click OK.

8. Click the render button and that’s it. When your movie is done rendering go to the location you picked for the movie to be saved to and your file should be there.

Lastly, I’ll mention you can also export by going to File > Export, but you’ll loose the ability to set some settings and it’s generally not the preferred method for rendering. You should get in the habit of using the render queue if you don’t already.