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mask a moving object?

Hi all,


I actually managed to do this a few weeks back on a project but I have a feeling I went the LOOOONG way round. I had an actor with an iPhone and added a video clip to the iPhone and tracked it by transforming the video file every single frame.


What I was wondering is if there is a way to mask the colour etc of the iPhone screen so that a video clip could be added on top and I can avoided having to manually transform each frame?

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Posted on Jul 30, 2015 10:03 AM

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Posted on Jul 30, 2015 1:21 PM

There may be some third party tracking plugins for FCPX, dunno. Do you have Motion? It's only $50.


The best motion tracking requires planning when you shoot. Putting colored dots in the corners of the iPhone screen (and better lighting) will help tremendously. Tweaking a good motion tracked effect requires a bit of extra work. For instance, a reflection layer can just have a light streak on in it or it can reflect images in the surrounding environment.


If you get Motion, you will want to experiment with the motion tracking behaviors before committing to the shoot. It's relatively easy and the results are fabulous but it's not a no-brainer.



From the Motion Help System:


Motion tracking overview

Motion tracking is a method of recording the movement of an element (a shape or reference point in a movie clip) in the Canvas, then applying that recorded movement data to another element in the Canvas. For example, you can use motion tracking techniques to:

  • “Pin” a post-production graphic to the side of a moving bus
  • “Track” a blurry circle to a person’s face to preserve an innocent bystander’s anonymity
  • Stabilize a ridiculously shaky camera to vastly improve a “found-footage” thriller
  • “Replace” a daring stuntman’s head with the mug of a lazy leading actor

There are six tracking behaviors available in Motion. You apply a tracking behavior to an object in your project—typically a movie clip—to record and analyze its movement. The result of this analysis is a track—recorded movement data—that can be applied to any other object in the project, transferring the motion of a source object to a destination object.

4 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Jul 30, 2015 1:21 PM in response to KippMajors78

There may be some third party tracking plugins for FCPX, dunno. Do you have Motion? It's only $50.


The best motion tracking requires planning when you shoot. Putting colored dots in the corners of the iPhone screen (and better lighting) will help tremendously. Tweaking a good motion tracked effect requires a bit of extra work. For instance, a reflection layer can just have a light streak on in it or it can reflect images in the surrounding environment.


If you get Motion, you will want to experiment with the motion tracking behaviors before committing to the shoot. It's relatively easy and the results are fabulous but it's not a no-brainer.



From the Motion Help System:


Motion tracking overview

Motion tracking is a method of recording the movement of an element (a shape or reference point in a movie clip) in the Canvas, then applying that recorded movement data to another element in the Canvas. For example, you can use motion tracking techniques to:

  • “Pin” a post-production graphic to the side of a moving bus
  • “Track” a blurry circle to a person’s face to preserve an innocent bystander’s anonymity
  • Stabilize a ridiculously shaky camera to vastly improve a “found-footage” thriller
  • “Replace” a daring stuntman’s head with the mug of a lazy leading actor

There are six tracking behaviors available in Motion. You apply a tracking behavior to an object in your project—typically a movie clip—to record and analyze its movement. The result of this analysis is a track—recorded movement data—that can be applied to any other object in the project, transferring the motion of a source object to a destination object.

Jul 31, 2015 7:00 PM in response to KippMajors78

For something this simple, you shouldn't need anything more than Motion. Motion's trackers are really quite good. It would help if you changed your iPhone's wallpaper to something that will create a high contrast with your iPhone's body color. This video shows you the basics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZk0UqX6HP8 (and how to handle the problems you might run into). Hope it helps.

mask a moving object?

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