Track Motion - Can you drag for movement?

Teal-Griffeth wrote on 11/13/2018, 3:54 PM

Hello,

First time here in these forums, so here I go.

I'm making a video where I'll have multiple objects flying around the screen. Its an explosion of stars and I have a little star clipart that I have flying around the screen. I know how to use track motion and go a few frames, move the star, go a few more, move the star. It looks ok but is so tedious and even more so if I want the motion and speed to be extra smooth. Having an object go from one side of the screen to the other is easy but if I want it to swirl and spin and bounce around it becomes very tedious, and if that's just how it is, then so be it :)

Basically, I'm wondering if there is any way to drag an object around the screen in the route that I want it to go and have track motion recognize that and make it happen.

Please let me know if I can explain this better to help you help me.

Thanks for any advice :)

Comments

xberk wrote on 11/13/2018, 10:00 PM

>> Basically, I'm wondering if there is any way to drag an object around the screen in the route that I want it to go and have track motion recognize that and make it happen.

Nop. Apparently After Effects will do something like this:

klt wrote on 11/15/2018, 3:52 AM

Download Vegasaur and start a trial. It has a tweener in effects.

You just move your object roughly using a few keyframes - as few as possible.

Then apply the tweener, and the motion will be extra smooth.

You can also add easing to the motion if you wish :)

Still you have to do this for every single object...

j-v wrote on 11/15/2018, 5:58 AM

I think it is possible with the track motion function of VPro 16....... if you have video of an example with the same object movement that you can follow with your object.
It is in the new Bezier Mask FX.

Look here for a very quick and not so accurate test with a blue cookie cuttered solid color on the upper track that follows the movement of the yello cookie cuttered solid color on the lower track that has some movement through keyframes. It uses to follow that movement by the use of the "Copy MotionTrack to PiP"-script.

Teal-Griffeth wrote on 11/15/2018, 9:27 AM

Thank you all for your helpful comments! Each one offers something to try out and help. I really appreciate it :)

zdogg wrote on 11/17/2018, 12:08 AM

When you use picture in picture (best way to do what you'd want) you need to use the "Curves" window editor rather than "Lanes" (you have to clik on the 'animate over time' buttons (look like little clocks) to open your animation window, then select Curves, (Lanes is the default). With the Curves, you can select different options by right clicking on the animation point and choose one of several curve options e.g. below: Fast, Smooth, Sharp, Slow. You can manipulate these dots by dragging to approximate a move you'd like to see, much easier than trying to grab the picture-in-pic object itself. Get the main move started first, by dragging, and then use the Curves to refine what you've already got going.