Roto

-MD · Post by **-MD** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 7:56 am

I want to do alittle rotoscoping for my distant futer vid...umm how do I go about that? o.0 The reason I want to rotoscope...keying isn't working for this one....

CrackTheSky · Post by **CrackTheSky** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 10:56 am

What program are you editing in?

You can always use something like Photoshop or, for a free alternative, The GIMP or Paint.NET and use the pen tool to mask out the characters/objects onto a transparent background and import a bunch of still images.

-MD · Post by **-MD** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 11:12 am

Premiere

Bakadeshi · Post by **Bakadeshi** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 12:51 pm

Premiere has horid builtin masking tools, you'll have to do it in an external application and assemble it in Premiere.

You have 2 generally accepted options. THe first one is what CrackTheSky suggested, using an external image application to edit each frame by hand to remove the backgrounds and assemble them in Premiere using the alpha channel int he PSD files to keep the removed backgrounds transparent. The other option is to just draw white over the images you want to keep and use the Track Matte effect in Premiere to use those white "masks" as a mask to tell it to only show the footage that that white area covers. There is excellent documentation on all the Adobe tools on the adobe website, just search for Track Matte for examples on how to use the tool on their site.

The other method, If you have a copy of or can get your hands on After Effects, That has a much better bezier masking tool in it than what is offered in Premiere, which will allow you to mask aswell without having to do it frame by frame with images.

Both can be just as time consuming to get looking good, and is usually just a matter of personal preference which is better.

Bauzi · Post by **Bauzi** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 4:23 pm

I recommend the pen tool:
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/PenToolGuide.pdf
You can find it in software like After Effects, Photoshop, Gimp or Sony Vegas.

If you want to do real complex and complicated effects with paths and vectors, there is no way around the pen tool.

-MD · Post by **-MD** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 10:41 pm

Wow, choices o.O Thanks alot for all of the suggestions. I'll try most of them and see what happens. I have to learn this stuff while I have the chance (school coming up). Again much thanks for all of the suggestions

MD

ZephyrStar · Post by **ZephyrStar** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 8:28 am

I find frame by frame in photoshop to be the fastest way, of course, this might be because I've gotten really fast with photoshop. It's all in the shortcut keys...learn them, learn them well. Usually what I'll do is make a .tga sequence of my video, load up the sequence in photoshop's browser (so I can see all my frames I'm working with at one time) open the one I'm needing to edit, use quickmask to "paint out" what I want to delete, exit quickmask, delete, save, rinse, repeat. Then I use AE to load my .tga sequence with transparency.

-MD · Post by **-MD** » Tue Aug 21, 2007 10:31 am

Yea, I'm going with the frame by frame deal. It take alot of time 0.o but I'm pretty sure it will be worth it in the end

Bauzi · Post by **Bauzi** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 5:30 am

I think best way is to keyframe your vector mask in AE and just change the position of the anchors with every new frame. Works really good.

Of course if there is a huge change of motion in it, you might have to split the video layer and work with a different vector mask.

AE for the win.

Kitsuner · Post by **Kitsuner** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 9:32 am