Mocha Pro 2020 Refines Planar Tracking Tools and VFX Colour-Management
Boris FX Mocha Pro 2020 planar tracking software has new updates for visual effects artists, finishing artists, editors and colourists, including a module called Mega Plate that generates a stitched panorama effects plate from video footage. A new Area Brush tool gives users the option to use various types of brush strokes to define large search areas, and then convert the strokes to splines. OpenColorIO is supported now as well so that artists can set up custom colour-managed workflows for more consistent image display across all of a facility’s post production pipelines.
The Mega Plate module results from further development of Mocha Pro’s planar tracking engine, and is based on the software’s primary functionality - planar tracking and temporal frame analysis. The planar tracker tracks the camera motion, and the module extracts a continuous, full-sized raster image from moving camera footage.
Inside the stitched, extended frame, artists can work on VFX tasks including set extensions, clean-ups, removing unwanted objects and repositioning footage within the environment, applying these changes across multiple frames. It is similar to the remove module but can work with a single layer - separate foreground and background layers are not necessary.
The Area Brush gives Mocha functionality that works in a way similar to paint packages. It gives users the ability to define large search areas for Mocha to track or avoid with a quick gestural stroke instead of clicking and dragging spline points. The added and subtracted paint strokes then convert to vector splines to speed up tracking and masking tasks. It has a Quick Mask mode, and edge snapping is also automated for speed.
As well as the regular planar motion tracking search areas for rotoscoping, another practical application for Area Brush is garbage masks for colour correction, plus signage replacement and witness protection. You can scale the brush stroke thickness manually or, if you are working on a Wacom tablet, use its built-in pressure sensitivity. Converting the painted mask to a Mocha spline happens automatically when the Area Brush is switched off. Multiple search areas can be added to a single layer.
OpenColorIO (OCIO) support means that Mocha users can control the consistency and predictability of how colour displays across different workflows and pipelines. Compatible with ACES, the Academy Color Encoding Specification, it allows you to set up colour-managed workflows with regular post and VFX applications like Boris FX Silhouette, Foundry Nuke, Autodesk Flame and Avid Media Composer. You can apply colour look-up transforms within the viewer, and preferences such as colour spaces can be added from a drop down list. The working space may also be linearised for After Effects users.
Honouring Mocha Pro Developers
Mocha Pro works both as a standalone application and as a plug-in for Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, Media Composer, Flame, Foundry Nuke and other post applications. The Mocha development team was recognised by the Academy of Motion Pictures in 2013 with a Scientific and Engineering Academy Award and will be honoured next with an Engineering Emmy Award from the Television Academy on 23 October 2019. borisfx.com
