Newbie looking for help with rotobrush at DVinfo.net

Per Farny · June 7th, 2010, 10:04 AM

Hi All,
New to After Effects / Premier Pro. Have been using Vegas Pro for a year or so prior. I'm a hobbyist looking to learn.

With that said, here's what I want to accomplish. For this example, I have some video footage of my 6 year old riding his bike. Within this footage there's a moment where he's stationary as I ask him a few questions. From here, I'd like to roll a few frames of that footage of just him without the original background, then freeze the video (still with black/gray background only), 'move' him to the left side of the frame, and add some text to the right side...hold that for 2 seconds or so, then get back to the normal footage, original background and all.

What I've done: I started with the rotobrush and am able to select what I want and advance that over several frames. How do I now take a particular frame in this sequence and freeze it for several seconds so that I can 1) add text, and 2) manipulate the foreground i.e. move / resize to left side of frame, and 3) perhaps copy that to different places in the timeline?

Lots more questions on this, but this is hopefully a good place to start. I've watched more than a handful of tutorials on this from Adobe TV to what I could find on youtube, but none that I have found so far focus on 'what to do / what you can do AFTER you have your foreground selected with the rotobrush'...I'm sure it's because that part is assumed knowledge, but for a newbie like me, well...I'm looking for help :)

TIA,
Per

Hannu Korpinen · June 7th, 2010, 11:26 AM

Try Lynda.com.
Tutorial: After Effects CS5 New Creative Techniques

Kevin Currie · June 7th, 2010, 11:38 PM

Check out Video Copilot's Basic Training (then move on to their more advanced tutorials). Best AE site around! They also have a bunch of free presets and more.
After Effects Basic Training

Per Farny · June 8th, 2010, 12:36 AM

Thanks all. Making my way through those! Having taken a peek in the specific sections, though, I still haven't found info on how to take the foreground that's selected via the rotobrush, and create a still or freeze frame for it for several seconds prior to continuing the video footage (and place the freeze frame/still in other places within the composition and add text to it...but I can worry about those pieces later).

Any specific pointers there?

TIA,
Per

Galen Young · June 8th, 2010, 06:32 AM

Try Composition --> Save Frame As --> Photoshop layers. Then re-import the layer you used the RotoBrush on (the mask/transparency made by it will be preserved in the Photoshop file) and use that to make your still frame. You can adjust its duration, position, scale, etc, whatever you need to do.

Per Farny · June 8th, 2010, 09:48 AM

Great! Thank you! That's what I was looking for.
Any particular options I should choose/not choose when doing so? I tried it once and used defaults and it seemed to be OK, just want to double check.

Galen Young · June 8th, 2010, 12:01 PM

You're welcome! If you want to work with a file other than a PSD, choose the save frame as "File" option instead -- it sends the current time indicator frame to the render queue where you can choose whatever format options you need. You probably figured out by now saving a Photoshop layers file saves the entire comp with all the layers at the comp's resolution -- pretty handy function that I happen to use a lot.

June 7th, 2010, 10:04 AM	#1
Per Farny New Boot Join Date: May 2009 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 10	Newbie looking for help with rotobrush Hi All, New to After Effects / Premier Pro. Have been using Vegas Pro for a year or so prior. I'm a hobbyist looking to learn. With that said, here's what I want to accomplish. For this example, I have some video footage of my 6 year old riding his bike. Within this footage there's a moment where he's stationary as I ask him a few questions. From here, I'd like to roll a few frames of that footage of just him without the original background, then freeze the video (still with black/gray background only), 'move' him to the left side of the frame, and add some text to the right side...hold that for 2 seconds or so, then get back to the normal footage, original background and all. What I've done: I started with the rotobrush and am able to select what I want and advance that over several frames. How do I now take a particular frame in this sequence and freeze it for several seconds so that I can 1) add text, and 2) manipulate the foreground i.e. move / resize to left side of frame, and 3) perhaps copy that to different places in the timeline? Lots more questions on this, but this is hopefully a good place to start. I've watched more than a handful of tutorials on this from Adobe TV to what I could find on youtube, but none that I have found so far focus on 'what to do / what you can do AFTER you have your foreground selected with the rotobrush'...I'm sure it's because that part is assumed knowledge, but for a newbie like me, well...I'm looking for help :) TIA, Per

June 7th, 2010, 11:26 AM	#2
Hannu Korpinen Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Keuruu, Finland Posts: 67	Try Lynda.com. Tutorial: After Effects CS5 New Creative Techniques

June 7th, 2010, 11:38 PM	#3
Kevin Currie Regular Crew Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Calgary, Canada Posts: 85	Check out Video Copilot's Basic Training (then move on to their more advanced tutorials). Best AE site around! They also have a bunch of free presets and more. After Effects Basic Training

June 8th, 2010, 12:36 AM	#4
Per Farny New Boot Join Date: May 2009 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 10	Thanks all. Making my way through those! Having taken a peek in the specific sections, though, I still haven't found info on how to take the foreground that's selected via the rotobrush, and create a still or freeze frame for it for several seconds prior to continuing the video footage (and place the freeze frame/still in other places within the composition and add text to it...but I can worry about those pieces later). Any specific pointers there? TIA, Per

June 8th, 2010, 06:32 AM	#5
Galen Young New Boot Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Seattle Posts: 11	Try Composition --> Save Frame As --> Photoshop layers. Then re-import the layer you used the RotoBrush on (the mask/transparency made by it will be preserved in the Photoshop file) and use that to make your still frame. You can adjust its duration, position, scale, etc, whatever you need to do.

June 8th, 2010, 09:48 AM	#6
Per Farny New Boot Join Date: May 2009 Location: Seattle, WA Posts: 10	Great! Thank you! That's what I was looking for. Any particular options I should choose/not choose when doing so? I tried it once and used defaults and it seemed to be OK, just want to double check.

June 8th, 2010, 12:01 PM	#7
Galen Young New Boot Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Seattle Posts: 11	You're welcome! If you want to work with a file other than a PSD, choose the save frame as "File" option instead -- it sends the current time indicator frame to the render queue where you can choose whatever format options you need. You probably figured out by now saving a Photoshop layers file saves the entire comp with all the layers at the comp's resolution -- pretty handy function that I happen to use a lot.