Rotoscoping using After Effects and Photoshop

Use the selection and painting tools in Photoshop to efficiently rotoscope. Exchange
files between Photoshop and After Effects.

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Requirements
Mark Christiansen
To complete the tasks demonstrated in this tutorial, you need the following software
christiansen.com
and files:
Adobe Photoshop CS4
Try (www.adobe.com/go/tryphotoshop)
Buy (www.adobe.com/go/buyphotohsop)

Adobe After Effects CS4

Try (www.adobe.com/go/tryaftereffects)
Buy (www.adobe.com/go/buyaftereffects)
Learn Photoshop CS4
Sample files
lrvid4107_xp.zip (www.adobe.comhttp://download.macromedia.com
/pub/designcenter/cs4_en_tutorial_files/lrvid4107_xp.zip) (ZIP, 317MB)
(www.adobe.comhttp://www.addthis.com
Prerequisite knowledge
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Intermediate knowledge of painting and masking inside Photoshop and After Effects.
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Rotoscoping using After Effects and Photoshop
(1 Rating)
Both Adobe® Photoshop® and Adobe After Effects® allow you to rotoscope footage.
(www.adobe.com#ionComHeading)
Rotoscoping is the art of altering footage frame-by-frame. In this tutorial, you will
learn the art of rotoscoping using animated paint tools in Photoshop and animated
Created: masks in After Effects.

15 Oct 2008
Rotoscoping in Photoshop using the Clone Stamp tool
User Level:
The Clone Stamp tool in Photoshop allows you to paint over unwanted elements in
Intermediate, Advanced your footage by copying or cloning from other parts of the frame. To use the Clone
Stamp tool:
Products: 1. Open a movie file in Photoshop. Choose Window > Animation. You will see a
layered timeline in the Animation (Timeline) panel at the bottom of the
Photoshop CS4 or later Photoshop window.
After Effects CS4 or later
2. To focus on a specific portion of the animation, move the current-time indicator
Creative Suite Production Premium CS4 to a point in the Timeline.
or later
3. Move the Work Area Start slider to the beginning of the focus area and the
Word Area End slider to the end.
4. To view a looped preview of the selected work area, click the Play button at the
bottom of the Animation panel.
Copyright © 2010 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.

Figure 1: Playing a looped preview

5. Use the Zoom tool to enlarge the portion of footage you are working on.
6. Choose the Clone Stamp tool from the toolbox.

Figure 2: The Clone Stamp tool

7. Choose Window > Clone Stamp to open the Clone Source panel. Select Show
Overlay to display a transparent image of the source point while you are
painting with the Clone Stamp tool.
8. Look for an area of your footage to sample for the source point. Use an area of
the footage that does not contain the element you want to remove, but that will
match the area you will be painting over. Press Option/Alt-click to set your
source point.
9. Line up the source point with the footage you want to remove. Click to set the
position relative to the source point.
10. Once you have set your position, paint over the areas of the frame that you
want to remove. Move the current-time indicator backwards and forwards
through the frames and continue painting to remove all traces of the element.
Tip: Use the Select Next/Previous Frame buttons at the bottom of the
Animation panel to ensure that you have reviewed every frame and painted
over every aspect of the element being removed from the footage.
 Figure 3: Reviewing footage
11. Change the brush size and brush type as needed to complete the cloning
process. You can change the brush diameter and hardness using the Brush
Preset picker in the Options bar when the Clone Stamp tool is selected.

Figure 4: Changing the brush diameter and hardness

12. You can review your changes in the Clone Source panel. Click the Toggle The
Clone Source Panel icon in the upper-right corner of the Options bar to open
and close the panel.

Figure 5: The Clone Source panel

Using animated masks in After Effects

Creating animated masks from imported Photoshop documents is another way to

disguise unwanted elements in your footage. The advantage of animated masks is
that you don't have to paint frame-by-frame to remove an element from a scene. To
create an animated mask:
Importing a document from Photoshop
To create a mask, you first need to import a Photoshop document into After Effects.
To import the document:

1. In Photoshop, choose File > Save As to save the movie you were working with
in the previous section as a .psd file. When the Save As dialog box opens,
select Photoshop as the format and click Save.
2. In After Effects, choose File > Import. When the Import File dialog box opens,
select All Acceptable File Types from the Enable menu, select the .psd file you
saved in Step 1 and click OK. Note that the Import File dialog box resembles
 the native OS window, either Finder (Mac OS) or Windows Explorer (Windows).
Metadata about the file you selected is displayed in Column or Detail view,
including file size, kind, and created and modified dates.

Figure 6: The Layer Options dialog box

3. Once you click OK, the Layer Options dialog box opens. Choose Footage from
the Import Kind menu and make sure the Merged Layers radio button is
selected under Layer Options. Click OK. The file appears in the Project panel of
After Effects.

Figure 7: Import File dialog box

4. Drag the imported file to the New Composition icon in the Project panel. You
have successfully created a new After Effects composition that has the same
length, frame rate, and size of the source file.
 Figure 8: Creating a new composition

Creating a mask
Creating an animated mask in After Effects is an excellent way to rotoscope footage.
To create a mask:

1. Press Command/Ctrl+D to duplicate the composition on a new layer. You'll

make your adjustments to this layer, so you don't alter the original footage.
2. Move the current-time indicator to the point at which the element that you
would like to mask appears. Use the Zoom tool as needed to get a precise view
of the element.
3. Trim the layer so that only those frames containing the element are included,
by dragging the In and Out points to the correct start and end points in the
Timeline.

Figure 9: Expanding to full-screen view

4. Press the tilde key to view the frame in full-screen view. Select Fit Up To 100%
from the Magnification Ratio menu in the lower-left corner of the After Effects
window to get the maximum screen size possible.
5. Choose the Pen tool from the toolbox.

Figure 10: Selecting the Pen tool

6. Begin drawing around the part of the footage that contains the element you
want to mask. Note that your drawing here does not have to be precise. A
simple outline around the element will do.
7. Add a second mask (Mask 2) that separates the set from the elements you
want to keep in your footage. Make sure you do not include any points from the
first mask when drawing the second mask.
 Figure 11: Drawing animated masks
8. Use the tilde key to get out of the full-screen view so you start to add
keyframes and animate the second mask layer.
Tip: You can use the arrow-shaped Pointer tool from the toolbox to drag the
anchor points of the second mask's outline and adjust its position.

Animating the mask

Because you are working with moving footage, the masks you create in your
composition also have to move. To animate a mask:

1. Click the colored square icon next to one of the masks. A Mask Color dialog
box opens.

Figure 12: Changing the color of a mask

2. Select a color that differs from that of the other mask and click OK. You will
now see the two mask outlines in two different colors in the Composition panel.
3. Click the triangle next to Mask 2, the mask you are going to use to hide
another footage element, to reveal the mask properties. The property you will
be animating is the Mask Path.
4. Move the current-time indicator to the beginning of the trimmed piece of
footage and click to add a keyframe to the layer in the Timeline representing
the Mask 2 Mask Path property. Then move the current-time indicator to the
Out point of the trimmed layer and click again to set a second keyframe.
5. Make sure the second Mask Path keyframe is selected, zoom out and
double-click the mask. Drag it to move it to the right, outside the footage area
 into pasteboard. You have just animated the mask. Scrub the current-time
indicator to see Mask 2 move.
6. To ensure that this mask moves at the same rate as the rest of the elements in
the footage, you can add an ease. To add an ease, choose Animation >
Keyframe Assistant > Easy Ease Out.

Figure 13: Adding an Ease

7. Adjust the starting and ending keyframes as needed to ensure that Mask 2
stays in line with the elements it contains.
8. Set the mask mode of Mask 2 to Subtract by clicking the menu next to the
mask's name in the Timeline panel.
9. Collapse the Timeline so that only the layer names are showing. Select the
layer containing the masks.
10. To remove the element in Mask 1 from the footage, hover the cursor over the
layer outside of the trimmed portion. A double-ended arrow allows you to slide
the timing of the layer. Slide the layer such that the element in Mask 1 is
entirely removed from the trimmed section of the footage.
11. Scrub the Timeline to ensure that the element is no longer included in your
footage. You may need to nudge some keyframes to ensure the correct
position of the masks.
12. To reduce the harshness of the masking effect even further, reveal the Mask
Feather property for Mask 2 by clicking the arrow next to the mask name.

Figure 14: Revealing Mask properties

13. Adjust the Feather value to 25 pixels.
 Figure 15: Adjusting the feather value

Exporting an After Effects composition to Photoshop

In some cases, you may need to export an After Effects file back to Photoshop for
further modifications. To export your composition:

1. Choose Composition > Make Movie.

2. Choose a lossless render option that does not add any compression and that is
compatible with Photoshop. The default Lossless setting meets these criteria.
3. You can now transfer compositions seamlessly between After Effects and
Photoshop as many times as necessary.

Where to go from here

Photoshop CS4 Help and Support (www.adobe.com/go

/photoshop_community_help)
Learn Photoshop CS4 (www.adobe.com/go/lrcs4_ps_atvpgm)
Introducing Photoshop CS4 (www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4001_ps) , by Deke
McClelland
Introducing After Effects CS4 (www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4064_ae) , by Chad
Perkins
Exporting from After Effects to Flash (www.adobe.com/go/lrvid4105_xp) , by
Todd Perkins
Lynda.com

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-

Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License

About the authors

Mark Christiansen is the author of After Effects Studio Techniques (Adobe

Press) and the founder of Flowseeker LLC. He has created visual effects and
animations for feature films including Pirates of the Caribbean 3, The Day After
Tomorrow and films by Robert Rodriguez. Past clients include Adobe, Sony,
Cisco, Sun, Cadence, Seagate, Intel and Medtronic, and broadcast work has
appeared on HBO and the History Channel. Mark's roles have included
producing, directing, designing and effects supervision, and his solo work has
appeared at film festivals including L.A. Shorts Fest. A new version of his book
on creating visual effects using After Effects will appear later this year.
Comments (1)
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GunslingerIvoApril 14, 2009

Brilliant, thank you very much for the helpfull tutorial, everything is explained
perfectly : ) Thanks again

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