Masking/Compositing in AE

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Kira_Douji
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Post by Kira_Douji » Tue Nov 22, 2005 7:46 pm

Ashyukun wrote::shock:

Wow. That's quite a write up, E-ko. You should (if you haven't already) write that up as a guide.

When I do rotoscoping of characters into other series and such (WLtFO, Samurai Windu) I tend to do it entirely in After Effects using its internal masking capabilities. This has both its advantages and its disadvantages. Disclaimer: I'm writing this up from memory, I don't have a computer with AE in front of me, so hopefully I won't screw things up too badly. Also note the keys I talk about are the PC shortcut keys... I imagine they're similiar on a Mac, but I don't know for sure ... I'd also advise reading through all of this before trying it...
So yeah... I think you have an older version of After Effects? I've been trying to step through this and you lose me at about "changing the color of the mask". >>; What you say should be there (the menu for changing the colors) simply isn't. I'm running After Effects 6.5.1 Pro... is your version different? If so, do you know how to continue on after you've made the mask in 6.5.1 pro?

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Kira_Douji
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Post by Kira_Douji » Tue Nov 22, 2005 8:40 pm

Well, nevermind, I figured it out. Thanks for the walk through explaining the basic concepts, though, it certainly helped :)
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Gepetto
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Post by Gepetto » Thu Dec 29, 2005 1:51 pm

You can call me thick or stupid, but I didn't get E-Ko's explanation... is there a guide or something on doing this without Photoshop?
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Perfect-Blue
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Post by Perfect-Blue » Fri Dec 30, 2005 5:20 pm

forget about photoshop - its waste of time,and the result is the same ,if u make masking only with AE.But is more faster2.

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DriftRoot
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Post by DriftRoot » Sun Jan 08, 2006 11:58 am

Don't eat me, please help me. You have to understand that this masking stuff is going to doom my AMV to be unless I get it to work.

I need to mask out the background of a certain scene so that only the character is "visible." Simple, huh? He will be placed against a new background, eventually. I slapped a mask on him in AE, but it took forever using that dratted pen tool, so I figured I'd export the frame to PS, create a mask a la alpha channel goodness, and import it back into AE.

Maybe this is where I'm going wrong. Maybe I can't do this at all (the alpha channel masking in PS for use in AE). Maybe I need to export every frame to PS, cut out what I don't want, and import it. But this just doesn't seem logical. If I've got to mask out the background of a static character whose eyes/mouth is moving, this just won't work and this is what masks are designed to handle.

The problem is that I cannot create an alpha channel mask in PS. I cannot get my alpha channels to stick. No, not even stick, apply themselves! What's worse, it used to work for me. Once upon a time, using E-ko's method, I actually created an alpha channel mask that worked like it was supposed to in Premier. Now, suddenly, for no apparent reason, It. Does. Not. Work. For. Me. I've referred to other, quite similar methods for mask creation, and THEY do not work for me.

I think something's bonkers with my PS program. Up until the point at which I hit "apply layer mask" everything looks decent (alpha channel exists, with correct transparency). However, applying the mask to my target layer deletes the entire contents of that layer, and of course takes my carefully constructed alpha channel mask with it! PS never did this to me before...

Maybe my ideas about alpha channel masks are messed up...maybe that's the problem. :? Maybe what I thought I did when it *worked* was something else completely? I have no idea. But I'd love to figure out what's wrong.

p.s. I can cheat a little using alternative blending modes in Premiere/AE for B&W images used as masks, but it's not ideal. I also can cheat a bit using track mattes, but again, it's not ideal. Alpha masks are such a simple thing to create, and yet I can't seem to do it. Any advice (including reinstalling my PS program, which is what will happen if it doesn't start cooperating) is much appreciated!

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Scintilla
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Post by Scintilla » Sun Jan 08, 2006 12:16 pm

If you use Photoshop's Pen tool to create a path, you can just copy it onto the other frames that have that character in the same spot.
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DriftRoot
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Post by DriftRoot » Sun Jan 08, 2006 4:29 pm

Mmm, yes, but I was trying to get out of using paths unless I absolutely have to, it would be nice to have an alpha channel mask work. Hehe, are you saying I have to?

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ShadowNOS
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Post by ShadowNOS » Sun Jan 08, 2006 8:55 pm

Ok I have one small question I knwo I could go through those tuts but simply all I need to know is when your done with it what do you save it as to get it to be transparent.

I keep saving it and importing it into premiere elements and it still has a background. I mean the real one is gone but the black one is still there.

Sorry if it seems like I am being difficult but its the first AE video I have done.
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ShadowNOS
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Post by ShadowNOS » Mon Jan 09, 2006 1:47 am

Sorry to double post but never mind I got it but my way is going to take a while but I beilive its the only way.
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Scintilla
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Post by Scintilla » Mon Jan 09, 2006 2:03 am

DriftRoot wrote:Mmm, yes, but I was trying to get out of using paths unless I absolutely have to, it would be nice to have an alpha channel mask work. Hehe, are you saying I have to?
Well, you could make an alpha channel mask <i>with</i> paths... I don't think I've ever tried doing it any other way (with the possible exception of the Polygonal Lasso, which I do not recommend), so I don't know what other techniques people have for it.
ShadowNOS wrote:Ok I have one small question I knwo I could go through those tuts but simply all I need to know is when your done with it what do you save it as to get it to be transparent.

I keep saving it and importing it into premiere elements and it still has a background. I mean the real one is gone but the black one is still there.
You could try saving as a sequence of TIFF images with transparencies (or even GIFs), or as a video with a codec that supports RGB32 (RGBA, or RGB with an alpha channel)...
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