09c Basics of Roto - Hands [Mocha Essentials]

Hands are notoriously tough to roto. We discuss why that is and the strategies available to us for this shot.
This exercise continues our ""Simplify"" techniques for speedy roto and demonstrates the limitations of complex objects. It also introduces some keyboard shortcuts that are vital to a clear rotoscoping workflow. We learn how to look at movement to create clean animation.
When we are finished, you will know ways to rotoscope complex edges and how to keep the animation clean and true to life.
Chapter List
00:00 Start
01:18 Finding the right start frame
04:43 Remove distracting movement
07:26 Manipulating the shape with keyboard shortcuts
12:01 Are we adding too many keyframes?
13:26 What to do when there is no track data
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#borisfx #mocha #motiontracking

[@alancarroll835]

My Rotos up till now have been tedious and messy, too many individual points moved and too many keyframes. I'm taking notes , things should improve from here! 🙂 Thank you 👏.

[@DhananjayPathak-wo5ym]

love you sir for this kind of details tutorials and course.😍🤩❤

[@borisfxlearn]

Thank you so much 😀 I'm really glad you're working through this course.

[@rahuldeshpande3516]

We want simple shapes because when the matte moves, keyframing is a lot simpler, and there are less spline points we have to worry about regarding interpolation. A complex shape has a lot of spline points - but since the movement is simple, mask interpolation will bring about barely any changes if at all, so we don't have to deal much with adjusting points etc as we adjust the matte and add key frames

[@rahuldeshpande3516]

Also this kind of contradicts the user manual documentation which simply says 'Try to start your shape at its most complex point in time, where it will need the most control points.' I guess, I could combine this advice with yours (keep shape simple if lots of movement, and complex if less movement)

[@borisfxlearn]

This is correct. Keep the shapes as simple as possible. Sometimes "simple as possible" can still mean an intricate shape if it barely changes shape. What you don't want to do is be chasing lots of control points that all move at different times. You'll spend more time on the shot than you need to.

[@borisfxlearn]

You're right on your second comment too. "Try to start your shape at its most complex point in time, where it will need the most control points" is to stop people from starting at the first frame, then realising halfway through that they need to add more control points for increased complexity. Then one would have to redo a ton of work checking and adjusting those new points.

[@rahuldeshpande3516]

@@borisfxlearn I GOT THIS MAN!!!!! THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@ronydey2696]

Great tutorial sir these is really a much helpful but how to seeing the alpha matte over mocha rotoscoping sir kindly replying sir any cool tips and suggestions hi myself Rony an VFX student from India

[@borisfxlearn]

Turn on Show Layer Mattes (Alt+1). If you are in the Classic workspace, there is a dropdown that lets you choose which mattes you see (selected mattes, all mattes, selected track mattes). You can turn those controls on in Essentials mode too. Go to View > View Controls and turn it on there. We do that in a later video.

[@rahuldeshpande3516]

And by point to point matching, you mean that when you go from one position to the next, as you keyframe and adjust the spline/mask, you ensure that the point on the previous keyframe is at the respective/corresponding/logical place in the next keyframe right? (so if the control point is at the tip of my thumb, then in the next keyframe (which could be even 30 frames after), if adjusting the spline here, you'd ensure that control point was once again at the tip of the thumb right?

[@rahuldeshpande3516]

and of course we would try to keep this true for all the other points of the mask/spline

[@borisfxlearn]

This is 100% right. If you don't take care with point to point matching, you can find points slipping around the shape. Often you will have to add more keyframes than necessary to get these in the correct place between the keyframes you've already added. Paying attention to details = less work = faster to finish the shot. In my early days of roto, I would sometimes not have spent an appropriate amount of time analysing the movement and flow of an object. This could mean sinking more time into a shot, when the real solution would be to scrap it and do it differently. The temptation to "just keep going until it's done" is strong, but thinking about it and doing it right is actually easier in the long run.

[@rahuldeshpande3516]

@@borisfxlearn Very helpful! Thank you!

[@woolenwoods665]

god， such tedious work........ can't AI help??

[@borisfxlearn]

Yes, depending on how you're going to use your matte, AI solutions can definitely help with roto. If you need a quick and dirty mask for color correction, there are solutions for that. For fine edges with consistent movement, there's always manual roto :D