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Naturally, using an automatically-created mask has a lot of appeal, rather than doing detailed mouse work to create animated roto-masks. Like using the big AUTO button for 3-D tracking, using the Auto-Mask feature is a tool, one that can be very useful on some shots, and not at all on others. We describe it first mainly because users will be drawn to it anyway.
The basic idea is simple: SynthEyes compares the reference frame to the immediately prior frame, and generates a mask (the auto-mask) for the parts that are different. Tracking for the current frame then ignores the masked-out portions, as if they were off-screen or covered by a garbage mask.
For this to work:
there must be an unobstructed reference frame with decent resolution,
there must not be substantial lighting changes compared to the reference frame, and
the occluding object must not have moved too much since the prior frame where the auto-mask was generated.
The following sections describe the auto-mask controls. The enable is on the main planar control panel; the other controls are in a special section of the Planar Options control panel.
While we aim to have the default values apply to as broad a selection of shots as possible, if you are using auto-mask you should be familiar enough with the controls to be able to recognize when they need adjustment.
©2023 Boris FX, Inc. — UNOFFICIAL — Converted from original PDF.