We got mail again from a happy client - and this time with some impressive VFX breakdowns attached.

Hi!

My name is Lars Wemmje and I work as Digital Artist at Slaughterhouse Visual Manufacturing GmbH in Hamburg. More precisely, I work as 3D- und 2D Generalist and work with Maya, VRay, ZBrush, Cinema 4D, AE, PS, Mocha Pro and of course MochaImport+ ;-)

Slaughterhouse is a German post production house for all visual media with a focus on commercials.
We have offices in Berlin and Hamburg.

You can find more infos about our work on our homepage, www.slgh.com. You can find some of my private work on my homepage, www.wemmje.info

Work with MochaImport+ for AE

MochaImport+ is a very important tool for me. It's as indispensable as my Wacom pen - I simply cannot work without it.

We make lots of retouching and often need to integrate 2D or 3D elements in a scene or do object removals. For me, MochaImport+ is by far the best tool available for this kind of work! It makes my work fast and effective.

This Breakdown Video shows some parts of my work done with MochaImport+ The last example in the video shows a Mercedes AMG for which I had to replace the rims.

This shot was one of the most complex I ever had to work on. I was not sure from the beginning whether the MochaImport+ workflow would do the trick here, but it did.

Here is a short explanation how I solved the shot:
I tracked the right side of the car in mocha Pro and created a stabilized precomp with MochaImport+ in AE. As the rim was not moving anymore in the precomp, I could easily replace and animate the rims with new ones which I rendered in a 3D program.

The tool already saved my day many times. It shows that you can do more than you think you could - you just have to try.

Sounds like a stupid saying, but its true ;-)

Kudos to Dr.-Ing. Mathias Möhl for developping this software. I hope he is coming up with some more tools in the future.

Cheers,

Lars

Thanks a lot for the letter Lars! Concerning the new tools in the future: I see something on the horizon - maybe coming in June :-)

Cheers, Mathias

Update - Online recording now available here.

Join us for a Webinar on April 24

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:
https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/615903606

Learn mocha AE - A Free Online Training Event!

Mastering Tracking for After Effects Users with Dr. Mathias Möhl

Attend this free training seminar to learn how to use the After Effects bundled, mocha AE to easily solve the most difficult tracking challenges. mocha's planar tracking can be intimidating to learn, but in this webinar Mathias will cover the basics of planar tracking.

• Starting a project and sending footage to mocha AE
• Basics of Planar Tracking
• Understanding Export Settings
• Understanding Shear & Perspective Motion
• How to apply tracking within After Effects
• Which workflow to use when
• How to use mochaImport+ tool to assist your After Effects workflow.

Door Prizes:

One lucky attendee will win a node locked license of mocha Pro - a $1,495 value.
Two attendees will win mochaImport+ : $39.99 value.

When: April 24th, 2013 at 1 pm EST
Where: online from any computer

About the Instructor:

Dr. Mathias Möhl is an accomplished programmer, script developer and After Effects Instructor. Mathias is also known for creating tutorials and popular tools for After Effects: MochaImport+ and iExpressions. For more information, visit www.mamoworld.com

Note: Webinar will be presented in "passive" mode. No audio input is required. We will be taking questions via live text message board and will try to answer all questions throughout the session.

Title: Learn mocha AE - Online Training Webinar. April 24, 2013
Date: Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Time: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM EDT

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

System Requirements

PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Mac®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.6 or newer

Mobile attendees
Required: iPhone®, iPad®, Android™ phone or Android tablet

This week we got mail from Eric D. Kirk, the winner of our Auto Lip-Sync Contest. Currently he is working on the VFX of the newest Michael Biehn film Treachery. With MochaImport+ he was able to finish his work so fast that he had even time left to prepare this making of clip and write this kind letter to us.

Dr Mathias Möhl of Mamoworld,

It is with great pleasure that I thank Mathias and Andra Möhl of Mamoworld.com for providing such exceptional tools for use in After Effects. More specifically, the Mocha Import + tool which serves as a critical interface between After Effects and the Mocha Planar Tracker.

I recently finished a project that included over 120 effects shots for the grindhouse movie Treachery, a Jennifer Blanc Biehn production starring Michael Biehn, Jennifer Blanc, Sarah Butler, Richard Gunn, Matthew Ziff, and Caitlin Keats to name a few.

The project called for dozens of internal house shots in which windows that were shot during daylight needed to be changed to night as well as adding rain. Many of the shots were complex in that they included not only camera movement but obstructions in the scene such as people crossing the path of vision over the shot. In addition, some of the shots because of the sheer brightness of the background curtain required a complete curtain replacement.

Having already become very familiar with Mamoworlds’ Mocha Import+ (MI+) tool from other projects, I needed something I knew how to use, could count on, and something that would reduce the time and effort of this tremendous number of scenes. MI+ was just the perfect tool for the job. Every single shot involved using MI+ to send to Mocha for tracking. In over 120+ shots the Mask to Mocha, Corner Pin, and Move features served instrumental in my ability to accomplish these shots. The ease of moving between After Effects CS6 and Mocha and back to AE were absolutely crucial. Mocha Import + is unmatched when it comes to a seamless workflow that made this a streamlined and efficient endeavor.

This quite simply could not have been done in this time-frame without MochaImport+.

Eric D. Kirk

Kirk Productions
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3351363/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
Perryville, MD USA

If you also want to know more about this project, on mettle.com you can learn more about how Eric used mettle ShapeShifter AE and FreeForm Pro in the same project.

New Features in Adobe After Effects Next

One of my favorites is definitely the new Refine Edge Tool that is a great new addition to the Roto Brush. Whereas the Roto Brush from CS6 can only create hard matte lines, the Refine Edge Tool of the next version of After Effects will allow you to create smooth transitions with semi-transparent regions to do tedious things like rotoscoping hair very fast and with high quality. As if this wasn't enough, the Refine Edges Tool does not only work in combination with the Roto Brush, but can also be combined with any other rotoscoping or keying technique.

Another highlight is the new Live 3D Pipeline with Cinema 4D. Similar to the dynamic link between Premiere and AE this allows to open Cinema 4D scenes in After Effects without the need to render first. Just drag the Cinema 4D file into your composition and the CINEWARE effect renders you scene as a layer in After Effects. Even individual C4D layers and render passes are directly accessible in After Effects.

You don't have Cinema 4D? No problem - a version called Cinema 4D Lite will be bundled with the next version of After Effects!

There are other amazing new features like improvements of the Warp Stabilizer and the Camera Tracker, but since videos say more than words just go ahead and watch our sneak peek tutorials about all these new features!

Sneak Peek Tutorial Series

Other Voices

• very detailed overview by Rich Young with links to many other sources.
• Official Reveal Infos
• Statement from Adobe After Effects Product Manager Steve Forde
• Todd Kopriva as usual has all details
• Chris and Trish Meyer at Adobe Video Coalition

In cooperation with Imagineer Systems, I am offering a free training webinar about mocha AE on April 24th at 1pm EST. You learn everything about using the version of mocha that is bundled with After Effects CS6.

Some questions I cover

• how to track position, rotation and scale
• how to track corner pin
• how to use MochaImport+
• using stabilized precomps
• understanding shear and perspective
• which workflow to use then

If you want to attend the live training online, you have to register here (free).

You can even win a license of mocha Pro or MochaImport+.

The session will also be recorded, but if you join live you can ask questions during the session.

Looking forward to see you there!

The new iExpressions can be used to animate wheels and cog wheels. Just animate the position of a wheel and it rotates automatically - even for curved motion paths and in 3D. For cog wheels, you just keyframe one cog and all other cogs in the gear move accordingly.

New Tutorials

For all new iExpressions we have new tutorials. Here you go.

Demo Video

Our beta tester Hans Jürgen Steidte created the following demo showcasing the new expressions.

To win the title "Beta Tester of the Year" Hans Jürgen even created the following info graphics to explain what is going on behind the scenes.

The first scene of the demo shows how to move wheels along a curved motion path. The rotation of the moving cogs is generated with the Rotating Wheel Curvaceous Motion expression - just move the wheel and it automatically rotates accordingly. The last part of the animation (shown red) uses the Throw 2D expression to generate the motion path.

All cog wheels in this scene (starting at 0:34) are animated with the Cog Wheels iExpression. The example shows how one of the smaller cogs is linked to the large internal gear.

This scene (starting at 1:16) shows how nicely the cog wheel iExpressions work in 3D space - in this example with the plugin Element 3D. The different parts of the gear are separate groups of the Element 3D object and the iExpression is directly applied to the group's rotation.

The car scene (starting at 2:00) shows the Rotating Wheels Linear Motion expression - again with Element 3D. The picture shows how the motion path of the body part is created using the Throw 2D expression after the car crash.

How to install the update

The new iExpressions are free of charge for anybody who owns a license of iExpressions. To install them, just download and install the most recent trial from aescripts.com. The trial will automatically detect any installed license and turn into the full version. After starting iExpressions the first time, you might need to run the online update (available in iExpressions settings) to get the most current iExpressions library.

If you already own some iExpressions bundle and think about getting the full tool, there is good news for you: When you buy the full tool, you get 80% of what you paid for your bundles as a discount.

Example

You bought an Audio Bundle for $44.99 and want to upgrade to iExpressions - Full Bundle (all iExpressions).

80% of $44.99 = $35.99
iExpressions Full Bundle regular price: $199.99
Your upgrade price: $199.99 - $ 35.99 = $164.00

How it works

If you own a single iExpressions bundle, simply login at aescripts.com with your customer account and the discount appears automatically at the product page. However, due to technical reasons, this automatic discount only considers one bundle at the time. If you already own more than one bundle, contact the aescripts team before you purchase, to ensure you get the full discount for all bundles you purchased so far.

New iExpressions

We will continue to add more iExpressions to the library. Here is what we added in December as part of our iExpressions Christmas Special:

• New Audio iExpressions

  • Beat Detector from bpm

• New Source Text iExpressions

  • Counter Numbers
  • Counter Time
  • Counter Date
  • Counter Date and Time
  • Evolution
  • Random Letter Wipe
  • Linear Wipe
  • Appear Disappear per Character
  • Scroll Text Terminal
  • Random Text Block Mutating
  • Random Text Mutating
  • Upper and Lower Case
  • Distribute Text to Layers

• New Movement Modifier iExpressions

  • Change at Marker 1D
  • Change at Marker 2D
  • Change at Marker 3D
  • Time Remap at Marker

Do you want to see more tutorials by guest hosts?
Leave a comment and let us know!

In the final part of our iExpressions Christmas Special we add some more Source Text iExpressions to the library. In total the library new comprises 103 iExpressions!

Random Texts

The random text iExpressions that have been in the library before have been optimized and are now about five times as fast as the previous versions! Also, we have a new Random Text Block Mutating. Learn all about the old and new random text iExpressions in this tutorial.

Text Modifier

We also have two new text modifier iExpressions. One to convert text to upper case, lower case or title case and one that splits a text such that you have one letter or one word per layer.