09a Basics of Roto - Getting Started [Mocha Essentials]

Identifying what you need to roto is the most important part of the task. In this exercise, you will learn strategies to identify the types of movement going on in a scene. Plan and track key objects that will help to rotoscope the rest of the scene.
Vital to this is learning what not to focus on. This is the number one tip, which we will use throughout the rest of the roto exercises.
You will learn about how to do the minimum amount of work necessary to complete your shot. You will also see the importance of creating simple shapes. Plus how to separate tracking and mask data, and what is ""good enough"" without compromising quality.
Chapter List
00:00 Start
01:10 Analyzing the shot
04:37 Creating simple shapes
10:30 Connecting mask layers to track layers
11:29 Where to add keyframes?

[@alideep9656]

Thank you

[@alancarroll835]

These are extremely helpful tutorials thank you👌

[@rezajahangard6471]

Thank you so much 🙏

[@borisfxlearn]

You're welcome 😊 Thanks for joining us.

[@threeminutesfix]

thanks for this wonderful tutorial its essential and useful

[@borisfxlearn]

You are most welcome. Glad you found it useful.

[@bobbihansel]

Excellent tutorial

[@borisfxlearn]

Thanks so much. Hope you enjoy the rest of the course.

[@rahuldeshpande3516]

Note that at 11:00 when he says the hand's mask is breaking down a bit but its okay - its because in that (and frames after), the hand is within the overall boundary of the subject. So when you mask her out (or roto her out) completely, the hand would already be within and so it won't matter

[@borisfxlearn]

Absolutely correct.

[@rahuldeshpande3516]

@@borisfxlearn thank you!

[@rahuldeshpande3516]

Hello. Skew is the slant, and in Skew, the relationship between the corner points of a surface have to be maintained, whereas they don't have to be for Perspective. Isn't it possible for a shape on human body to rotate or move such that a fixed relationship between surface points would not make sense? Meaning, isn't it possible for someone to move their hand etc such that perspective is more appropriate than skew?

[@borisfxlearn]

Yes. If that shape made no movements other than the main motion, it could be better with perspective. Let's take your hand example. If just the hand moves around, then you can the best results with perspective. If she grips something or moves her fingers, then the shape of the hand changes. This type of change usually gives more consistent results with Skew or Shear.

[@rahuldeshpande3516]

@@borisfxlearn thank you! Admire the work you are all doing!

[@ssjenforcer191191191]

Mocha pro won't let me link a mask to a track. If I do the cog wheel won't ever enable. Only after unlinking the mask to my track will I be able to turn on the cog wheel for my mask. Why is that? I tracked the track shape and I cannot do what you were able to do with linking my mask.

[@borisfxlearn]

If you link a layer to *another* layer, then the cog wheel will be disabled because Mocha thinks you want to use the tracking from another layer to drive the shape. If you link the layer to *its own layer* then you can turn on the cog, track normally and change the shape up to fit properly. Basically, if you want to use the tracking data from another layer, you don't need the cog to be on. Does that help?

[@ssjenforcer191191191]

@@borisfxlearn No, I'm saying that when I tried exactly what you were doing--with a different video--when I disable the cog for my track layer and then try to link my mask layer to the track layer, the cog for my mask layer ALSO disappears, and mocha pro does not let me do any tracking at all with it linked.

[@borisfxlearn]

Yes. That's by design. If you have linked a layer to another one, you are saying "Please use the tracking data from this other layer". Get the tracking data in place first *_then_* link you new shape layer to it. Just as we do in this video. You will see the timeline on the new shape layer turn blue to let you know there is tracking data feeding to it.

[@ShaunRoot]

It would be super helpful if you showed the goal of the shot before you started explaining everything.

[@borisfxlearn]

Thanks for the comment. We will definitely keep it in mind for the future.