Mocha is an advanced motion-tracking plugin for Adobe After Effects that is conveniently bundled with AE for free. I've done most of my motion tracking in After Effects using its native tracking abilities, but Mocha offers more advanced controls. So here's a tutorial of how to use Mocha -- in this case, to properly track a wall in a moving shot, and to add some graffiti in post to said wall. This is an excerpt of a After Effects training course at Lynda.com by Chris Meyer and Trish Meyer:
Chris is demonstrating a basic tracking technique of starting with the out point, running the tracker in reverse, and then refining the tracker by jumping to the mid point between the two points, tweaking it as often as is necessary. Next would come the rotoscoping process -- but that's part of the paid course. I will say that Lynda offers some of the best and cheapest training around -- it's $25/month for unlimited courses, which is an offer that I took advantage of years ago to fake my way into MTV as a graphic designer (money well spent). For a practical application of tracking, check out Gareth Edwards' Monsters, which even in the trailer features plenty of tracking:
More details about Gareth's effects workflow here.
Link: After Effects CS5 New Creative Techniques - Lynda.com
[via ProVideo Coalition]
