Related tutorials

The CopyMask2Layer Tool

Notes

CopyMask2Layer does work with manual bezier masks but not with rotobezier masks.

Other voices

Brilliant script! Love it.

                                                                Eran Stern, sternfx.com

It is always frustrating when I paste a mask and it has scaled or done some other unanticipated change. I’ll look forward to seeing how it will impact my workflow.

                                                                Jeff Petersen during his beta tests.

I love this script. At first I didn’t think it was going to be all that useful but once I used it for awhile I have to say it’s one I don’t know how I lived without this tool up to now.

                                                                Jack Tunnicliffe, Java Post Production

The user interface

Some facts

• define start and end times for expressions
• fade expressions in and out smoothly
• create smooth transitions from one expressions to another one
• works with arbitrary expressions
• allows to combine arbitrarily many expressions

More infos and a tutorial can be found on mamoworld.com

Example 1

From the beginning until frame 50 use the keyframed values and after frame 50 use a wiggle expression.

Example 2

Smoothly transition from one expression to another. The first expression is active from frame 0 to 50, the second expression from frame 50 until the end. The smooth transition between the two expressions is 10 frames long and hence lasts from frame 45 to frame 54. With the expressions in this example, the layer first follows another layer (expression 1) until frame 45. Then until frame 54 it smoothly travels back to its own position and simultaneously starts to wiggle (expression 2).

More tutorials:

MamoWorld tutorial that uses ExpressionTimeline with Plexus to create a logo animation.

• 1.2 – Fixed issue with loading expressions from effects in CS5 (Feb 2011)
• 1.11 – Fixed upgrade url (Feb 2011)
• 1.1 – Made CS3 compatible, fixed Tab ui crashing bug (Feb 2011)
• 1.0 – Initial release (Jan 2011)

MochaImport Corner Pin Tutorial

MochaImport allows to import Mocha tracking data in After Effects and use it in whatever way you want.

With the script the following tasks can be done as one click operations:
• create corner pin
• create CC power pin
• create Red Giant Warp corner pin (Red Giant Warp plugin required)
• create AE trackpoints from Mocha track
• stabilize footage
• move layers according to track
• create a precomp in which the footage is stabilized (and even undistorted) while maintaining the movement in the original composition. All changes you make in the precomp occur automatically also in the original composition (appropriately moved)

MochaImport works with all versions of Mocha including MochaPro.

Tutorials:
Cyborg arm tutorial

There are 7 tutorials about MochaImport available on mamoworld.com

MochaImport works with all versions of Mocha for After Effects, Mocha
and Mocha Pro.

Version History

• 3.03 – Improved import of corner pin data for interleaced footage – Feb 2011

Furthermore, with KeyTweak you cannot only modify masks but any other keyframed property. You can for example also use it to correct a drifting track or quickly refine the keyframed movement of a layer.

Quick Tip: Modifying Keyframes with KeyTweak

Full Tutorial

Note: The tutorial describes an old version of KeyTweak. The new version has a much simpler user interface and powerful new features.

Version History:

• 2.1 – Feb 2011
  • In local mode, several properties can now be modified simultaneously (if the property is not a mask)
  • global mode works now also with 1d-properties
  • images are embedded now in script source
• 2.0 – added local mode – Nov 2010
• 1.0 – initial release

The workflow is as follows:
1. track a few points (something between one and four points is reasonable, even for complex mask shapes) that represent the basic movement of the object which you want to draw a mask around
2. keyframe the mask by hand in the first and last frame
3. use the script to predict keyframes in between (the script uses the tracker information for this prediction which is hence much better than the simple interpolation done by after effects itself)

The third step can be interleaved with manual corrections which leads to a quite fast, assisted rotoscoping workflow.

Tutorial

In this first tutorial I show how to rotoscope the shape of a moving car based on only four trackpoints, for simpler shapes often one trackpoint is sufficient.

More tutorials and infos about Tracker2Mask on mamoworld.com

Version History:

• 3.0 Updated interface, automatic update check, improved function of |><| button – Dec 2010
• 2.3 Made CS5 compatible and minor bug fix – Jun 2010
• 2.2 Bug fix that made AE freeze in some very rare occasions – Mar 2010
• 2.1 Initial release on aescripts.com – Aug 2009

Features:

• Develop your motion graphics based on some Adobe kuler color theme and once you are finished see how it looks with a different one. Simply load a new color theme and your entire composition updates automatically.
• Do color correction based on Adobe kuler color themes by pushing highlights, midtones and shadows towards different colors of your color theme.
• Your projects still work on machines where the script is not installed.

Tutorial:

You can watch a tutorial explaining Chameleon on aetuts+.

How does it work?

Chameleon allows you to conveniently work with color themes from Adobe kuler in 3 steps.

1. Load color themes in After Effects either from color themes downloaded at the kuler website or via cut and paste from the kuler desktop application
2. Apply any loaded color theme to your comp with just one click
3. Dynamically link any color property within your comp to a color theme color. Once you load a new color theme, all linked color properties in your comp update accordingly.

Version History:

• 2.0 Updated interface, automatic update check, ability to link to themes of other comps, support of large color themes, ability to load set of default color themes on start-up, reset for brightness slider – December 2010
• 1.0 Initial release on aescripts.com – October 2009