Here are several great tutorials by John Rofrano:

Another vote for BCC's plugins. I also use AE heavily, but recently I reached for BCC's motion tracker to use within my Vegas project. Quick and easy. The results look fantastic. I don't think I'd consider BCC more intuitive than AE (it may be a personal preference), but it is nice to work within and never leave Vegas to pull off effects like motion tracking.

-Steve

There are a few training videos using motion tracking for titles and effects using BCC and Vegas on the Boris site. Have a look at some them - not that difficult at all.

A number of the BCC effects have motion tracking options as part of the effects.

Edit: Damn, beaten by two posts while typing.

Willem.

"Well after a few tutorials I found myself challenged by simple things mostly related to the timeline interface. Like setting the length of an event - dumb stuff the tutorials think you already know how to do. Maybe it's my Vegas upbringing but I lost interest."

I wouldn't say it's the Vegas upbringing, going from any NLE to any compositor is a challenge and AE is probably the easiest one to transition to, at least it's got a timeline.

You really do need to spend a fair amount of time with the "basics" tutorials and get them down pat or you just keep getting triped up. I'd actually say the same for Vegas except the impact of not doing so is lower but you can easily never realise just how capable Vegas is or spend a lot of time doing things that could have been done much quicker.

I have to confess I'm guilty of exactly the same thing. I still have problems remembering how to trim a clip in AE, an expression generally no problem. One thing I oftenly do is just ignore the problem of how long the clip is and either render out the whole timeline or setup the renderer to only render the part I want.

I think its worth repeating that when you go into any new venture, get the basics down pat first. Try to get your head around the "space" you've entered. It took me a long time to really understand Sound Forge because I kept my head in the Vegas space and I was using it solely when I had to do something.

Bob.

Ooooo-oh, I like this alot -- thanks for tutorials, watched them all.

But even sold as a unit, Motion Tracker is too pricey for me (one of my two monitors just died and so I'll be replacing both of them, ergo expenses). B&H Boris Continuum Motion Tracker - USD $199. The whole Continuum pack is obviously far more B&H Boris Continuum Complete for Vegas Pro 10 - USD $594

Great recommendations (and tutorials) - thanks. Now to buy the full package or just the motion plugins.... Hmmm, would be nice to have that optical stabilizer too... I almost hit the buy button...came real close but I should think about it first...unlike my urget to buy AE. Quick, some one sell me on the full package! LOL...

I trust this works well with V11?

I'm guessing one of the motion tracking tools would allow me to do face replacements on live video? i.e. moving subject and moving face with background keyed out? Can I also combine vegas masks and pin corners? I'm just trying to think of all the possibilities...

What are the differences between Boris Red and some of the other products that seem to have same or similar features. Is Continuum a collection of them all?

The last I knew, the BCC7 optical stabilizer was not certified for Vegas 11. I do see that John Rofrano is going to be doing a webinar on BCC8 for Vegas, but I have not seen an announcement that version 8 is available, or what the upgrade path will be.

Just spoke with BCC and they advised that V7 is compatible with Sony Vegas V11 and that V8 is going to be released shortly (within a month?) and that there will be a free upgrade from V7. So that's all great news. My trigger finger is hovering over the buy button right now.

"I'm guessing one of the motion tracking tools would allow me to do face replacements on live video? i.e. moving subject and moving face with background keyed out? Can I also combine vegas masks and pin corners? I'm just trying to think of all the possibilities..."

Good luck doing that with anything.
Sorry to be blunt here but I fear you're setting yourself up for a big disappointment.
Motion tracking only works when the software has something it can reliably track. It's pretty common to add markers during a shoot so the software can get a reliable track. Tracking a face is done using a choice of different rather complex hardware based systems. Generally this is referred to as "performance capture". The data from the capture performance is then sent to the CGI guys so they can create a "face" that matches the one being replaced using full 3D CGI.

If you simply want to generate a mask of a face I think Adobe's Roto Brush tool is going to be your best shot. This is not really a tracking tool though and outside of Adob'e demos in the real world you'll likely find yourself doing a lot of manual tweaking.

Bob.

Jim, have you installed the trial version of BCC? If not, do yourself a favour and install it and see what you can do. The tutorials does provide a lot of help.

You can use it for 30 days and check to see if it meets expectations.

Willem.

Farss, thanks for the warning, but I'm not trying to create anything convincing... just using it as an example. The tutorials I've seen only show replacing signs with still images. I'm wondering and thinking that I could replace the still with a video of a face (for example) that I've cut out using vegas masks and pin it as an overlay. Further, could I motion track a mask (of a face for example) stabilize it and then motion track that face onto another video. And will BCC's backlight wrap work on the edges of a masked (or keyed) overlay? Probably not the right forum for this depth of questioning...

Just downloaded the 14 day trial.

Do not have time to try all your "Corner Pinning" and "Motion Tracking" questions. However the Backlight Wrap works fine on a track mask or even the Cookie Cutter.

Willem.

Thanks Willem, what I heard you say was I should be able to cut out an object from a video event using vegas mask, skip the mask feathering, and let BCC's backlight wrap do the blending? I also assume this would work on a transparent png or prekeyed video with alpha channel turned on?

I just checked and yes to the mask and well as the PNG with transparency.

I do not think Light Wrap is a replacement for feather. It is a much more subtle effect. It leaves the edges unchanged, which could be sharp and well delineated, and just add a touch of the background, from a different layer, colors to bleed across the edges. Works very well in making a chroma keyed image look "in place".

You really must play with the demo a bit.

Hope that helps

Willem.

"The tutorials I've seen only show replacing signs with still images.."

A "sign" itself should be a piece of cake because it is a 2D planar object and it has sharp corners so it's very easy to track. So long as you have at least three corners then that's going to provide enough data to track the 2D object in a virtual 3D space.

" I'm wondering and thinking that I could replace the still with a video of a face (for example) that I've cut out using vegas masks and pin it as an overlay"

I long ago simply gave up trying to do complex compositing in Vegas. Too many bugs and the entire "engine" in Vegas and the way it works makes for very slow updates of the workspace compared to AE.

That out of the way I can see no reason why you couldn't, you are replacing one planer object with another. The only adjustment required to the replacement object is for skew. How I would handle this in Vegas or AE is to do the masking in one project / composition and bring that as planar object into the project / composition that is doing the tracking.

"Further, could I motion track a mask (of a face for example) stabilize it and then motion track that face onto another video."

This is getting into the area where AE leaves Vegas in the dust.
AE's "expressions" mean that anything can be connected to anything else, even across compositions. Add to that AE's "real" camera and once you get over the hurdle AE becomes so much easier to live with.

AE is NOT a Vegas or any other NLE replacement though.
Your original post mentioned the difficulties of trimming a clip in AE.
After racking my age addled brain I still cannot think of one instance of trimming something in AE, I know you can do it, I've just never have had to and TBH I'd have to delve into the help to find out how to do it.

Bob.

Don't know if there is going to be tracking for Vegas but check out http://www.blender.org which is a free 3d package that has 2d, 3d and object tracking built in to it.

-Brian

Hitfilm Ultimate is pretty amazing at motion tracking, and way easier to get one's head around.