ReelSmart Motion Blur (RSMB) After Effects Examples.
NOTE: You need RSMB 3.0 or later for these examples. You also need After Effects 7.0 or later.
This directory contains several projects to help explain features of RSMB.
Important: These tutorials assume you have read the manual that was put on your disk with the plugin upon installation.
Before opening the project examples, make sure to move the movies from the SourceMovies folder into this folder (make sure the movies are in the same directory with the After Effects projects, otherwise After Effects may not find them).
01_RegularRSMB
Simple example of applying RSMB to a piece of footage. Notice that the alpha of the source footage is blurred correctly. Also note that the footage itself is used for the tracking.
To do: Play with the motion blur amount to increase or decrease the amount of motion blur.
02_RegRSMBWithCorrection
There are two compositions in this example. The footage to be blurred is dark and does not track well. The comp labelled "Problem Shown" shows that motion blur is not added because the footage is too dark for RSMB's tracking to "see" properly. In "Problem Corrected" a brighter version of the footage is used for the RSMB's tracking. Note the difference in the motion blur added to the scene.
RSMB PRO examples
03_LayersExample
This sample project shows how, with RSMB Pro, you can use a matte to separate foreground and background for even better results when an object in front passes other objects. Compare the difference between regular RSMB (the "Problem Shown" comp) and using RSMB's foreground layer separation (the "WIth Layer Separation" comp). The matte movie used to separate the footage into foreground and background layers was rotoscoped by hand.
In particular, note how the motion of the hand affects the blurring of the neck in the Problem Shown comp. This inappropriate blurring is corrected in the "With Layer Separation" comp.
04_MBWithTrackHelp
This sample project shows how, with RSMB Pro, you can get better results by guiding RSMB the use of a few judicial Track Points or AE's rotosplines (masks).
The composition "Problem Shown" exhibits what happens with regular RSMB. Note that the motion blur does not follow the motion of the footage in the lower left corner on the first frame. The problem is really apparent on the second frame of the frootage.
The composition "Track Help with Points" shows how you can guide RSMB.. in this case with 8 tracking points.
For you to do and notice:
- Note that the Use menu for for RSMB's Track Points 1 through 8 have been set to "Main_BG"
- Note that the motion blur, especially on the second frame, has been corrected.
- To see the RSMB's track points, Draw Geom to All. To turn off, set Draw Geom to None.
- Because we've helped with tracking guidance, we've set the Motion Sensitivities to 100.
The composition "Track Help with Masks" shows how you can guide RSMB.. in this case with 4 splines.
For you to do and notice:
- Note that in Main_BG Settings, that the First Mask and Last Mask menus have been set to the masks on the layer. Also note that the masks have been created on the layer that RSMB has been applied.
- Note that by default, when the mask is assigned to a layer by setting the First Mask and Last Mask menu options for a layer, that the mask is used to help guide RSMB because the Mask Opacity (viewable in AE's timeline) for the mask is, by default, set to 100%.
- The masks have been animated to follow the salient features
- Note that the motion blur, especially on the second frame, has been corrected.
- To see which frames that RSMB's is using which masks for guidance help, Draw Geom to All. To turn off, set Draw Geom to None. Note also that RSMB must be have the Mask Opacity set to 100 for a mask at both the current frame and the frame used to track from (which is either the previous or next frame, depending on RSMB's settings).
- Because we've helped with tracking guidance, we've set the Motion Sensitivities to 100.
05_MBWithGeomOnly
This sample project show how, with RSMB Pro, you can add motion blur by simply using the movement of guiding geometries (either track points or splines). To illustrate this point, the motion blur in this example has been applied to a still image.
For you to do and notice:
- Note that RSMB's Image Track checkbox has been turned off.
- Note that the Motion Sensitivity is set to 50, limiting the extend of the applied motion blur. Turn the Motion Sensitivity to 100 and note that the motion blur is now applied to the entire image.
06_LayersAndSplines
This project shows a very complex example with 2 layers (1 foreground matte supplied) and several AE spline masks, used to help guide RSMB's tracking.
The composition "Problem Shown" exhibits what happens with RSMB Pro, even with layer separation. In particular, note that the stripes in the shirt in the 3rd frame get blurred inappropriately. You can view the difference between using and not using roto mask guidance in the "Compare" composition.
For you to do and notice in the comp named "RSMB Pro w/ layers and Masks":
- Note that AE has been set to calculate frames at Half resolution. This is so you can easily navigate the project. After you've explored the project and its settings, you might want to turn this to Full to see how much better the results are.
- Note that the motion blur has been corrected
- Because we've separated the image into layers, and because we've helped with tracking guidance, we've set all layers' Motion Sensitivities to 100.
- Note that in Main_BG Settings, that the First Mask and Last Mask menus have been set to the mask on the layer. Also note that the mask has been created on the layer that RSMB has been applied... in this case the Solid layer.
- Note that by default, when the mask is assigned to a layer by setting the First Mask and Last Mask menu options for a layer, that the mask is used to help guide RSMB because the Mask Opacity (viewable in AE's timeline) for the mask is, by default, set to 100%.
- Not all masks are used at all frame times to help guide RSMB. Note that we move the masks off the image when not needed.
- So that masks moved from off image to on image don't adversely affect the tracking, we animate the Mask Opacity value for the mask so that it is 0% when a mask not meant to be used (that is, when off the image) and 100% when it should be used. Also note that we use After Effects' Hold interpolation type for each Mask Opacity keyframe. In this way we can correct errors from only the source frames that are causing us problems. Remember, to be helpful in guiding RSMB, you must animate the mask (and have it active) on at least two source frames.
- Note that the mask 'Middle Stripe" is only aligned with image eatures for the first two frames. For the 3rd frame the "Middle Stripe" mask has been moved offscreen and AE's Mask Opacity for that mask has been set to zero (when Opacity is set to zero, then the mask is not used to help guide the tracking).
- To see which frames that RSMB's is using which masks for guidance help, Draw Geom to All. To turn off, set Draw Geom to None. Note also that RSMB must be have the Mask Opacity set to 100 for a mask at both the current frame and the frame used to track from (which is either the previous or next frame, depending on RSMB's settings).
- It is really important is to note that the masks used for guidance ofthen show RSMB where objects move as they are obscured or move on/off screen.
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