Absolute Videoeditor beginner question

[Gerl5FF3]

Hi guys, I’m new to video editing and I have a question.

All I want to do is have one video layer where I add pictures with faces to the video which should move accordingly to the characters in the video. What function do I need to use for my needs? Is there a tutorial for Adobe After Effect this?

I’m looking all day for a program which can do this task in the jungle of video editors.

It would be awesome if somebody could help me out 

[Michael Bullo]

Could you please explain in more detail what you mean by "add pictures with faces to the video which should move accordingly to the characters in the video". Cheers.

[OussK · Accepted solution]

I think you mean face tracking, so you want to track the face and replace it with some image or so, 

you can learn more about that here https://helpx.adobe.com/after-effects/how-to/face-tracker.html 

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

Face tracking or Mocha AE are probably the tools you want to use. Both require a pretty good understanding of the UI and standard workflows. There is no click this button and be done solution to your problem. 

To point you to the most efficient workflow we need to see the shot, or a similar shot from someplace like Adobe Stock which is searchable in your Library panel. Show us the shot and we can give you some specific suggestions. 

[Gerl5FF3]

Thanks for your reply. So far I successfully created an inverted Mask which follows the face of the character I wanna replace with a picture. But I don't know how to anchor that picture to the "anchor point". So the picture moves accordingly to the character in the video. If that's even the right technique. I watched Oussks tutorial but repeating the steps doesn't bring the same results. Maybe because the character doesn't have a human face? 
Another question I have is how do I limit how long the mask is applied in the video. After the character is gone from the screen I obviously don't wanna use the mask anymore. Do I use keyframes for this? I also added a picture of the project if that helps.

Thanks again for your help!

[Gerl5FF3]

Do I need to use several compositions for each mask I wanna use? That is the most burning question for me at the moment. How can I set for what frames the mask is applied to? In the first picture the motion tracking works fine but after the character disappeared the mask still remains in action? It is probably in the timeline but I can't get it to work.

[Rick Gerard]

First, in the future, please embed your screenshots instead of using the Drag and Drop area. It's buggy and inconvenient. Use the toolbar or drag them to the reply field and make them big so we can see them. 

Second, let's talk about workflow. Each of the shots that you want to track and replace a face should be a separate composition. All of your screenshots show a very long sequence with little bits of mask tracking data for a few seconds. 

It looks like you have just manually keyframed an ellopse (circle) mask. The masks do not look like you used face tracking. From what I'm guessing about the shots Feature Tracking or corner pin tracking in Mocha AE is going to be a lot easier than using face tracking. Manually keyframing masks then tryint to attach other layers to the mask position is going to be the most cumbersome workflow and you would just be better off manually keyframeing the position of the replacement faces. 

What is your experience level with After Effects? You'll need a good understanding of the UI and basic workflows to keep from wasting a bunch of time. If you plana to publish your work on YouTube or any social media you also are going to have to be careful about copyright infringement and make sure that your project falls under the fair use provisions of copyright law. I had a video blocked because it contained less than 4 seconds of a popular song by a popular artist.

Probably the best apaproach would be for you to pick one shot, create a comp that only includes that shot, then analyze the movement of the character that you want to track. Does the head turn from left to right. If the character faces left, then front, then right, you'll need 3 different face shots for replacement and you might need to track 3 times. If you want to try Face Tracking, then you'll need to look at a good tutorial on face tracking and follow the steps. I don't think face tracking is going to work on JarJar. 

You are also going to need to look at at least the basics of tracking in Mocha AE. Mocha AE tracking is the first thing I would try. Here's a link to Mocha Essentials free training. You can see everything you need to with the free training.

Here is a good introduction to AE's Face Tracking. 

When you have gone through some of the training let us know how you are doing. We will be glad to help as we can.

* The "Drag & Drop here..." area is buggy and should not be used to share images. Please use the toolbar or just drag your images to the reply field.

[Gerl5FF3]

Ok I made some good progress. Every shot is its own composition now. I use the motion tracker and link a null object to it to which I link the picture. This works pretty well so far. Not all steps ahead are clear atm but I think I can prolly find out most stuff with youtube or documentation. Thanks for your replies! Btw. this is only for a private group of friends and not to publish on a public platform. If I really can't find it in youtube or tutorial I'll come back here. Thanks again!

[Gerl5FF3]

Ok I have come across one more problem I'm not sure how to solve on my own. Sometimes after I finished motiontracking, I can't link the null object to the motion track. The function to edit target when I select the null object is greyed out and I have no Idea why this is the case sometimes and why not. I selected the layer and not the composition. 

[Gerl5FF3]

Ok if I set track type to transform in the motion tracker menu I can add the null object.