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Cobiwan1138
Participant
March 21, 2020
Question

Motion Tracker Not Tracking

  • March 21, 2020
  • 2 replies
  • 895 views

Hey, 

 

I'm trying to use motion tracker and it won't auto track or manually track. It let me set the boundaries of the tracker and it plays in the timeline and on the clip itself, it just won't budge on motion tracker. I've been stuck on this for like a month and found zero help online so if you can help me, I greatly appreciate it. 

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2 replies

Mylenium
Mylenium
Legend
March 22, 2020

You have not provided any info about your project, your footage, your system, your version of AE. Just saying that it doesn't work is not useful. Also screenshots can tell a lot....

 

Mylenium

C
Cobiwan1138Author
Participant
March 24, 2020

Sorry for the lack of detail, this is my first time on a editing forum. 

 

I'm trying to replicate the eye glow used in Bladerunner in a simple Close Up, not a ton of movement, I just need to track my actress' pupils. We tried it in camera but our reflective mirror wasn't working properly. 

 

 

I'm using 4K footage in the latest version of After Effects on a 13" Dell XPS. I've set the work area, set the parameters where I want it to track and it won't do it automatically or manually. Pressing the buttons for either one does nothing. 

 

Thanks for the help 

 

 

C
Cobiwan1138Author
Participant
March 24, 2020

"Not a ton of movement", a very tight close-up and barely any discernable contrast. There's your answer. There just isn't any pattern to detect. If at all this may be doable in a tool like mocha that has more advanced algorithms, but to be honest even if you pre-process the clip to improve contrast this may be unsalvagable and you may need to come to terms with the fact that you have to fully hand-animate all the necessary masks.

 

Mylenium


I've come to terms with manually doing it. It's short so that isn't a huge issue, my problem is when I try to manually do it frame by frame, nothing happens. My video just stands still. 

it plays when I'm not trying motion tracker though. Any clue why? 
I've tried deleting and reinstalling the app, clearing the cache, and restarting my computer in addition to a bunch of google searches. 

    R
    Community Expert
    Rick GerardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 22, 2020
    1. Make sure After Effects is up to date
    2. Add footage to a new comp
    3. Select the Motion Tracking workspace
    4. Select the footage layer and right-click or use Layer>Open Layer from the menu
    5. In the Layer Panel, you will see at least 1 tracking box with a + showing the Attach Point, an inner box that is called the Feature Region and an outside box that is called the Search Area when the footage layer is selected and displayed as the source
    6. Carefully observe the mouse icon and look for the changes as you hover over the areas of the tracking box and start dragging things around
    7. Make sure that the Feature Region is positioned over some area with a significant amount of detail that you want to track - most of the time the feature region is too small for a good track
    8. Verify that the search area is large enough to compensate for movement
    9. Choose your tracking options and begin tracking

    If that doesn't work then you are trying to track something that is not a movie or your system is fouled up. There are no reported motion tracker bugs with the current versions of any of the available versions of After Effects.

     

    If all else fails, please check the user guide tutorials: Learn AE

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