Shaky motion tracking in After Effects

[Khanh32674585851a]

Hi folks,

I have a video that I’m trying to stick a white solid to the null using motion track.

So I manually motion tracked because the video filmed with my Iphone is blurry, then I applied the track data to a Null, then placed the white solid into the video by parenting it to the Null. Made the Null and the solid layer into 3D (I made them 3D because I need to rotate the solid layer at some point). Then the solid gets shaky while playing back. I’ve tried applying Smoother to the Null, it helped just a bit, not much. I dont know what I’ve done wrong here.

For the context, my footage was 23.997 fps, I interpreted it to 24fps. Because the footage is blurry and out of focus, I manually motion tracked frame by frame. I attached 2 videos (the original footage and the one with the shaky solid) and a screenshot below.

The original footage: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XI7W4Biesn1azmU-KgEEDDpyXlEEPzAT/view?usp=sharing

The shaky solid: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lbRXaFb4X71F-nt2Mi18WjSjdYN3ovWb/view?usp=sharing

Any response would be appreciated!!!!

[Rick Gerard]

You will have much better results if you track the footage in Mocha AE—just track position, scale, and rotation. It will take some track adjustments. You can also create the necessary masks in Mocha AE.

I'm showing a shortened workflow and sharing a couple of project files. It needs a little more work to be perfect, but that's the approach I would take.

[Khanh32674585851a]

Thank you for your response! I've tried Mocha track but based on the result, I'm not sure I followed what you suggested. In Mocha, I tracked Translation, Scale and Rotation and made some adjustment. Then I applied the tracking data (corner pin) to the white solid (the card). The white solid follows the track but in a weird way, especially I doesn't rotate at all. Do I need to rotate it manually? I tried doing it but it just made the solid floating around, messing with the track data.

[MyerPj]

'You will have much better results if you track the footage in Mocha AE'

Rick, is there some rule or guideline to know when it's best to use Mocha AE vx the AE tracker?

[Rick Gerard]

The AE tracker is a tracker that looks at a small area of pixels and tries to figure out where they move. There must be some significant small retail inside the inner square (the detail area) that does not move outside the search area between frames. The attach point has nothing to do with the detail area or the search area. 

Moha AE is a Planer tracker. It looks at a much larger area on the same plane and can analyze much more subtle changes in the plane's position. Most tracking jobs work better if you use mocha. Mocha will also analyze Position, Rotation, Scale, Skew, and Perspective. A single AE tracker can analyze only position. It takes two to get position, rotation, and Scale. The only time I use AE's motion tracker on a shot is when there is one significant detail in the shot that moves very simply. Anything with perspective shifts or anything with more than one detail on the same plane will work much better if you use Moxha.

I hope this helps. 

[MyerPj]

Thanks very much Rick, I'll start trying that more. I just watched this Tutorial and it seemed pretty good. 

Mocha Pro - Moviola.Com - Mocha Survival Guide 

Feel free to pass on any other tutorials, I've been using Linked-in for some good tutorials there.

🙂