Animation Relaxation 

Week 11 : Lauren Patrick Compositor from Jam Media 

 

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Lauren has been at Jam media for over a year now and works and focuses on tracking and retroscoping using after effects and Moca. She works on short films  and children's animated TV shows.

She finishes and Comps scenes so they look consistent in style and aesthetics for the visuals of the work.

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The Basics of after affects:

Create a matte for the legs, arms and eyes due to tracking areas and pin these for the reflection for areas of the eyes so they resized and for reflectivity.

The matte isolates and creates layers for CG'ing aspects in a scene or in a specific area that you have grouped and pinned to begin retroscoping.

Retroscoping is for keying footage and inside it is a matte which is then created and peeled out. Depending on what is in the shot and what needs done will determine the amount of retroscoping that will be needed in the scene or video.

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What to do :

Name Compositions , check the size of the file , frame rate is set to 24 , composition what is in the shot eg. layers and matte's , resolution of the file HD 1080p and video recording aspects 1920x1080.

Use naming conventions in folders and files that are logical and easily organised and unambiguous names for these folders make sure they are all labelled. Keep comps clean and tidy as you go along don't let it get messy or you will get lose and it will impact your workflow.

Double click to see masks and the hierarchy and use colour coding conventions for characters parts and body mattes. 

Create a mask. Tracking is used to make a jpeg sequence which can then be made into a video file using premiere pro . Click select go to Animation. Apply mask will automatically move the shape , select track and exporting after effects transforms to clipboard from Moca and back into after effects when that is done.

Create new solid area for each matte area. Colour code everything and set to overlay collect shape , circle highlight and adjust points to areas you want to record or adjust in the scene.

Then create a null layer which will hold all the tracking information and paste to null node.

Click symbol and drag to pair.

Go to shape layer and create some deviants for the turning of the eyes for the different areas they will be at.

Moca is set up for 2D tracking only.

To adjust go to mask path then go to port it doesn't follow select it to set key frames so it won't alter the shapes and so that the key frames won't change. 

Key your key frames for better results and less jerkiness by using inbetweens. The more you adjust the more problems you will run into. Adjustments and shapes should be changed in Moca and then pasted onto your shape layer in after affects from the clipboard.

It is best to move the entire shape instead of points to retain the same dimensions of the group / matte. 

Export the shapes data from Moca to after effects. Go to layers create a solid layer and change the colour and name the layers as you go along with the proper naming conventions as not to get lost and so everything is easy to find. This is also how the industry does this and this is what they want to see when hiring. 

Go to edit paste from Moca's graphs make sure it is starting from the first key frame. Refine the edges in mask plain and feather edges or do it in after effects and go to preset roughen edges if you need to do the opposite to blend the shots seamlessly with the background and the scene. Change the volume and the sharpness until it looks right. Rotoscope is the layer of footage that involves isolating parts of the footage to alter or edit.

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Look at Nuke for compositing 

https://www.foundry.com/products/nuke

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Reflection:

I found that this was very cool as i had never understood this side of animation as i have little to no experience in this area in this stage of post production. I had only hear of tracking in passing  and  had never understood what it was or meant. But learning about her work at Jam media on the project "Becca's Bunch" i found that there was another side to animation where by it doesn't need to be all pre production and problem solving in a 3d workflow there are alternative ways to animate in this case for 2D workflow from a video format where the editing was done in post production to make it work and to save some time and money so they wouldn't have to do re shoots. I found it difficult to follow at the start but by the end of the lecture i feel like i had a grasp of what it would be working as a compositor and has a basic understanding of the role and the different methods to do it. Along with the software you would use if i you were going to do it in the future. I plan on trying to get more into this later in the year and in my free time when editing my own videos and such but as of yet i do not need it. I learnt how to use the software more effectively and to help organise my workflow and taught me how to properly label and sort my files and folders to be more productive.