New version of My Friend Paul. Technically, everything is here now. Each storyboard image has been tracked on, using Mocha in After Effects this time. I found that this was a much better solution than the native tracker in After Effects, which can be useful for a quick fix, but doesn't scale for anything larger. Using Mocha I am able to get a cleaner initial track, with manual adjustments and tracking done for the beginnings and ends of each shot (when the frame is taken out of the camera frame).
This was all made over the course of about 24 hours. This has been a really informative test, I have learned what is possible with suboptimal conditions (iPhone footage and autofocus, poor lighting conditions). This leaved me very confident that I can achieve very successful results in any condition. For instance, I would hope in production to shoot footage in 5K for 4K, or 4K for 1080p, to allow for reframing and cleaner tracking at the beginnings and ends of shots. Better, more consistent lighting will also resolve a lot of issues.
I have added some other small effects such as colour matching so that the images more closely match the background plate, and a refocusing effect to match the background plate at around the 1:26 timestamp.
By Emmett Redding
Email Emmett Redding
Published On: 08/04/2020