Thursday, March 06, 2008

The Difference Between the “m” Words

Chris Meyer | 03/06- 06:59 AM

Imagineer explains the difference between mokey, monet, mocha, and motor.

As Imagineer is fond of one-word names that all start with “mo...”, it can be hard to know or remember which tool does what. Below is some text I lifted out of an email by Ross Shain (VP of Sales, Eastern Region) to an After Effects list explaining the differences, with links to a comparison chart. It is particularly relevant as Imagineer Systems has been offering some deep discounts on some of their highly-touted tracking and rotoscoping tools; I just posted a News item on them extending some of these discounts until the end of March (click here to view).

In short all our products use a unique 2.5D planar tracking technology that allows you to motion track objects with blur, noise and go offscreen. Simply, the planar tracking technology is hands down more powerful than any point tracking system out there. The technology is then implemented into the products in various ways.

• mokey - removal tool - automates complex compositing techniques to remove unwanted elements from screen. Great for rig, scratch removal, stabilization etc....
• monet - placement station - compositing tool to track and insert elements with luminance passes, mesh warper and lens distortion correction.
• mocha - tracking and roto utility. Motin track and roto. Export the data or mattes to almost any app including AE, Flame, Smoke, DS, Shake, Fusion (adding Nuke soon), etc.
• motor - same as mocha but limited to rotoscoping
• mocha-AE - not a plug-in but a stand alone tracking utility that exports tracking data as AE keyframes. Corner pin with perspective or transform, scale, rotation. Copy and paste to AE layers. Increases AE’s capability as a vfx compositor!

There is some overlap between products but many users have found that with mokey and mocha their bases are very covered. Here is a link to a product comparison chart.

For more questions, please contact us off the list.

US eastern region:  rosss @ imagineersystems.com
US western region: billyw @ imagineersystems.com
Europe/Asia and others: pjc @ imagineersystems.com

If you need more information, here is a link to tutorials on their products.

Friday, February 29, 2008

Final Effects Complete version 5: Why?

Chris Meyer | 02/29- 07:00 AM

Boris FX has updated FEC for After Effects. Don’t laugh.

Final Effects was pretty much the original third-party plug-in set available for After Effects. It was created by a gang in Sweden now known as Cycore, who passed it on to MetaCreations, who passed it on to ICE, who passed it on to Media 100, who passed it on to Boris, who is now selling it for $895. Meanwhile, the Cycore gang exploited a loophole in their contract, rewrote and re-released it as Cycore FX, licensed it to Adobe to give away free as CC Effects with each copy of After Effects, and sell an upgrade to it for $299 - more on that below. (By the way, we’ve reposted an old column on CC Effects in the archives; read it here for more background.)

So when the press release first came around from Boris FX that they had updated Final Effects Complete, excuse us, but we laughed. However, once we thought about it, there are some reasons why you might consider it. Namely:

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

HPA Tech Retreat - Day 1

Adam Wilt | 02/20- 08:34 PM

3D, AudioScope, CES, and the Analog Shutdown

On this, the first “real” day of the HPA Tech Retreat, we were treated to 3D cinema demos and discussions, a CES review, a phased-array mic for sports recording, and more.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

HPA Tech Retreat - Day 0

Adam Wilt | 02/19- 08:35 PM

LCDs, Radiosity, and the AMPAS IIF

This 3M film is used in the diffuser of a 23” LCD panel

“Day 0” of the 2008 HPA Tech Retreat in Palm Springs offered four sessions; I attended three: Euredjian on LCDs, Poynton on Radiosity, and AMPAS on the Image Interchange Format.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Non-Square Strategies

Chris Meyer | 02/18- 02:00 PM

Suggested workflows when dealing with non-square pixels and anamorphic formats.

No matter which workflow you choose, always make sure your source footage has been tagged with its true pixel aspect ratio - this is the only way your software will know what to do with it in order to keep you out of trouble.

For a variety of arcane technical reasons (trying to record NTSC and PAL on the same tape, cutting corner on data throughput, being compromised by camera sensor technology of yesteryear, etc.), virtually all digital video formats have non-square pixels. This means they must be projected in a way that stretches or squashes them on playback to properly fill the television screen. Unfortunately, a side effect of this is that they will also look odd on a computer screen. When all you do is send the digital signal from camera to tape deck to switcher to monitor, this is neatly hidden from you. But when you start working with digital video inside a computer, you have to deal with these misshapen pixels.

As a result, a common question is what is the best way to work with these pixels: Stretch them back out to being square? Or leave them in their native format? The answer depends on what your primary goal is in life: preserving maximum image quality, or preserving your own sanity.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Toolfarm Sales and New Releases

Chris Meyer | 02/17- 10:00 AM

A great deal on Mocha AE, plus other new releases

ToolfarmIs a handy one-stop shop for anyone looking to buy plug-ins for After Effects, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Shake, Motion, Cinema 4D, Avid, or Autodesk products. They also sell the host applications themselves, upgrades, stock footage, and training. It is worth getting on their mailing list, as they regularly have special offers, plus inform you about product updates.

Below is an example of some of their current deals and promotions (if not visible, click on the “more” link):

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