Avid FX (Boris Red) Questions

Hi Barry,

1. From the title of this post it would appear as though you are tracking in Boris RED / Avid FX. There is a tutorial for that on our web site, which can be viewed here:

http://www.borisfx.com/tutorials/motiontracking.php

Here's the short of it:

• launch the RED / Avid FX interface
• import into the timeline the clip that you want to track
• click in the background of the timeline to deselect all tracks
• select Filters>Motion>Motion Tracker - this action adds a motion tracker filter to the timeline
• twirl down the motion tracker filter so that you see the Source sub-track
• drag the clip that you want to track onto the Source sub-track
• click on the main track of the motion tracker filter to bring the motion tracker controls into the controls window
• click on the TV monitor icon on the motion tracker filter - this action opens a new viewer window that displays the video to be tracked and with a red rectangle within a rectangle, which is the tracker search and target region.
• position the tracker over a group of pixels that you want to follow in the scene
• in the control window there is a small green button with a crosshair - this is the tracker analyze start button. click on this button to start tracking the pixel array that you selected with the tracker search / target rectangles.
• once tracking is complete you can close out the new tracker viewer
• all of the tracking information is now contained within the filter - simply drag the filter onto any track and click on the motion tracker filter to see the controls in the control window. Then go to the Apply tab and select the target for the tracking data (x/y position, pivot, camera etc.)

2. To offset the tracking data, you must follow these steps:

• go back to the viewer of the motion tracker filter. To do that, click on the TV monitor icon on the main tracker of the motion tracker filter
• observe that there are small red squares that follow the motion of the pixels that you tracked. With the arrow tool selected, drag over these red squares in the viewer window to select them.
• hold down the shift key and drag the selected red boxes to reposition them, thereby offsetting the motion tracker path.

3. To hold a clone stamp to a single frame, perform the clone operation as you would normally. Then drag the keyframe at the end of the clone paint track to set the duration, which in this case if you only want one frame set it to one frame after the start. The best part is that it's completely non-destructive so if you need to you can move it at any time, even if you close out the project.

I hope this helps.

Cheers,

Peter.

Hi Barry,

1. If you need to use the BCC / FEC filter integrated motion tracker then you'll have a different workflow than the RED tracker. Here's a link to a tutorial that shows how to track a BCC Lens Flare effect using the built-in BCC tracker in FCP:

http://www.borisfx.com/tutorials/LensFlare.php

2. If you need to offset a tracker as you describe, then you'll have to manually set keyframes for the tracker search and target regions.

3. Your suggestion for paint on a single frame is a god one and I'm adding it to the feature request list for RED 5.

I'm not exactly sure when the BCC Sparks for Smoke on Mac will be available but as soon as we have something I'll make sure that I get in touch with you so that you can check it out.

Cheers,

Peter.