Rotoscoping dark footage

Forum|Forum|7 months ago
August 28, 2025
2 replies
260 views

Just curious, how would you pros rotoscope something like this? The blacks in this stock footage is 100% black, no amount of color correcting can bring up any kind of contrast between the background and the subject. I'm honestly surprised how after effects even found some kind of edge to grab on to. But obviously, the mask is all over the place.

Is my only option hand masking this? This is a super slow motion shot so I feel like im in for a long night...

How to

Correct answer Rick Gerard

That shot is a job for Mocha AE, unless you have a third-party app like Siholuette. You can use a little motion tracking on individual elements, such as each arm, the hands, and fingers, and so on. Rotobrush will not be able to do the job automatically.

There is a tutorial in a series from the Boris FX Training website that demonstrates the workflow you'll need to follow. Start with 9A:

Title: 09a - Getting Started with Rotoscoping

Runtime: 14:29

Quicklinks: 01:10 Analysing the shot 04:37 Creating simple shapes 10:30 Connecting mask layers to track layers 11:29 Where to add keyframes?

R

Rick Gerard

Correct answer

Community Expert

That shot is a job for Mocha AE, unless you have a third-party app like Siholuette. You can use a little motion tracking on individual elements, such as each arm, the hands, and fingers, and so on. Rotobrush will not be able to do the job automatically.

There is a tutorial in a series from the Boris FX Training website that demonstrates the workflow you'll need to follow. Start with 9A:

Title: 09a - Getting Started with Rotoscoping

Runtime: 14:29

Quicklinks: 01:10 Analysing the shot 04:37 Creating simple shapes 10:30 Connecting mask layers to track layers 11:29 Where to add keyframes?

Spamtastic4Author

Participating Frequently

Thank you so much for this Rick - I've been in the industry for 10 years and I am so embarrased to say that i dont know mocha 🙊

I was up against a deadline so heres my quick and dirty result. Definitely not the best but rotoscoping/masking it did what it needed to do. (and this took forever!!)

I will definitely take some time to dive in to the course you shared. Appreciate your expertise and insight!!

Spamtastic4Author

Participating Frequently

my current approach is to roto whatever i can in parts (arms, legs, basket, etc), then just keyframe the dark parts. Open to any suggestions though!

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded