I was wondering if anyone might be able to do this for me. Hopefully it's easy. It's not for me, obviously, or I wouldn't be posting.
So, one of the VFX studios I work at has some proprietary scripts that I use both there and at home. I've been working with them for years, so they're pretty ingrained in me by now, for better or worse. The scripts are just a track averaging script and a rotation script. Occasionally I do video tutorials for After Effects, and obviously, I don't use these scripts in the tutorials because the viewer would not be able to do what I'm doing. I won't use anything in a tutorial that the viewer can't use, and because these scripts are proprietary, I respect that studio's work and won't use them.
I am aware that there is already an awesome track averaging script here written by Paul Tuersley:
http://www.aenhancers.com/viewtopic.php ... &sk=t&sd=a
And have even used it in a video tutorial already:
http://www.simplycg.net/viewtopic.php?t=2027
The request I'd like to make is just that the script work in a slightly different way. Right now, it works entirely under the Motion Trackers dropdown in the Timeline. I'm getting ready to do a series of video tutorials on removing things from footage (wires, rigs, crew people, reflections, pretty much anything), and I was wondering if someone here would be kind enough to make the script work on any layer with positional date. The way I've gotten used to working is with little solids. To check tracking, I make little 20x20 pixel solids and apply tracking data to that. Then I RAM preview it, and take the good ones and average them together to get rock solid tracks. Here's an example screenshot:
That's what I'm asking. Is there any way to reconfigure Paul's averaging script so that I can select 2 layers with position keyframes, run the script, and a new layer (a 20x20 pixel solid) appears, with the averaged positional keyframes? I would use it extensively in this next series of tutorials I'm going to do, and would certainly pimp it all over the internet whenever anyone asked about tracking in AE.
I'm guessing the math is exactly the same, it's just a matter of changing where it applies the data. Instead of making a new track under the motion trackers dropdown, could it just make a new small solid and apply it to that? I really, really have gotten used to being able to review tracks before committing to using them.If it's not too hard, the new averaged layer could be automatically set as a guide layer, in case anyone forgets to turn off the visibility before rendering!
This would be such an incredible help to me, since I've gotten very dependent on that proprietary averager!
Oh, the rotation thing I mentioned... the way that one works is this: Apply tracking data to 2 little 20x20 solids. Select both tracks and run the rotation script. A new 20x20 solid layer appears with the new data. The position data from the first track is copied into the position of the new solid, and the rotation is derived from the second track. For example, say you have footage of a flower swaying in the breeze, then a bumble bee comes into frame and flies around. You want a line to point from the flower to the bee as they are all moving. You track both - the flower's center is the first track, the bee is the second. Then you select them and run the script. The position of the new layer is the 1st track, and the rotation is calculated so that it follows the 2nd track (the bee). Make sense?
I'm not a scripting person, I can't even write expressions, but you guys have done absolutely astounding things here. I hope this is something someone is able to help me with! I'd be so grateful!!
Thanks!!!
Sean
ps - here's all my tutorials, you can see I've also done one using that awesome mask tracking script here at AEnhancers!
http://www.mackdadd.com/html/visualfx.html
) :
).
