demon face warp

Transcribed by www.VideoTVFilm.com 1

Demon Face Warp By Andrew Kramer at VideoCoPilot.net

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial.html?id=11

Introduction This is an awesome tutorial created by Andrew Kramer and the folks at www.VideoCoPilot.net. I transcribed their tutorial after completing the tutorial for the first time. I wanted a step-by-step guide that I could reference without the need to view the original video again. I made this document to help myself others who will find it useful. I take no credit for the great presentation or content of the tutorial. The credit all goes to Andrew Kramer, www.VideoCoPilot.net and the folks at Adobe who created AfterEffects CS3. The original video is the best source and presentation of the material. This transcription as I call it is only a supplement to the original video tutorial. I tried to use the best sections of screen captures to demonstrate the steps that you will need to execute. You should watch the video at least once if not several prior to using this document Part 1 – Motion Tracking Key is to stabilize the face. This technique uses 2D tracking so the face has to be stable and not moving in 3D space.

1. Place main face clip into track. 2. Switch Workspace to Motion Track mode.

3. The Tracker Controls will appear. • Select Stabilize Motion with the footage selected. • Check Position


• Check Rotation

4. Reposition Track Point 1 and Track Point 2 on each eye. Resize the box to include the corner of the eye and part of the eye brows.

5. Click on Tracker Controls to Analyze Forward.

6. The track will play and analysis will show. If you have problems you can move thru the track with Tracker Controls and Analyze Backward and reset points.


7. Once track looks good then click on Apply.

8. .Click OK to apply to X and Y Dimensions.


9. If you Zoom Out now you will see that everything is stabilized around the persons face.

10. Click on Layer -> Precompose…

11. Give “New Composition Name” of PreCompFace for this tutorial. Select “Move all attributes into the new composition” and click OK.

12. This makes a new composition. You will see a new tab for the composition called PreCompFace that we just created.

We will use this new layer to increase the bounds of this composition so we don’t have the black border created from our stabilization.

13. Click on Composition -> Composition Settings… For this tutorial we are going to set the Width and Height to 1700 x 956. Click OK.


This will give the composition more room for this footage to move around.

14. Select the Main composition to reverse what we have done.


Part 2 – Rotation Fix

1. Now adjust both comps to show both on the screen.

2. Select PreCompFace composition and type U to get attributes.

3. On bottom Composition hit P, Shift+R, Shift+A.

P brings up the Position, R brings up the Rotation, A brings up the Anchor Point. Use SHIFT keys to keep the previous attributes listed. What we are going to do is use the tracking on the original data (top) and reverse what it has done to the footage.


4. Alt+Click on Position (to expand Position) and then Whip-Pick to the Anchor Point of the tracked footage.

All the Anchor Point data is then used for the position of the PreCompFace layer. Now lets work on the Rotation.

5. Alt+Click on Rotation (to expand Rotation) and then Whip-Pick to the Rotation of the tracked footage.


6. But this just adds rotation to something that already has rotation. So you have to place a *-1 to the end of formula so it inverts the rotation (use asterisk -1).

7. Alt+Click the Anchor Point and Whip-Pick the Position of the tracked footage.

The footage should now look better and not have a black border showing.


8. EXTRA: If you wanted to add sunglasses to this video you would need to track the glasses to the face.

You could do this by Whip-Pick the Sunglasses to be a child of the PreCompFace. That would set all the tracking information the Sunglasses would need.

Part 3 – Liquify Effect

1. Click on Effect -> Distort -> Liquify. The Liquify tool isn’t that effective with moving footage. Since our footage is now tracked the tool is very useful.

2. Under the Liquify effect select the Smudge Tool. Set Brush Size to 26 and Brush Pressure to 78. You can also hold the CTRL key in conjunction with mouse to resize tool. Now go ahead and make pointed eyebrows.


3. Smudge bridge of nose a little lower.


4. Select BLOAT tool (under the Smudge tool) to enlarge the nose.

5. Use Smudge again to adjust nostrils and move nose ups.

NOTE: Is best to modify face in the timeline where you want effects to take place.


6. If you make a mistake you can also use the Erase tool to erase you previous adjustments and start over.

7. Also make the mouth bigger.

8. Line up footage and point to just before your subject turns into a demon.


9. Turn the stop watch on for Distortion Percentage at 0%.

10. Move forward in the time line a few frames or a second and change the Distortion Percentage to 100%. Hit U on the keyboard to expand the Liquify settings. You will now see 2 key frames, one for the 0% and one for the 100%.


11. Now set two more key frames to end the effect. 3rd point should be at 100% and 4th point set to 0%.

Now that its key framed you can go back and change your distortion with the liquify tool.

Part 4 – Colorize the Face

1. Click Layer -> New -> Adjustment Layer.

2. Move to middle of timeline where the distortion takes place.

3. We are going to draw a mask using the pen tool.


4. Click M+M to bring up Mask properties for mask you just made.

5. Set the Mask Feather to 10 and 10 pixels.

6. Click on Effect -> Color Correction -> Hue/Saturation.

7. Click on Effects -> Color Correction -> Curves.

This will bring up the effects panel so you can make changes to the Adjustment layer.

8. Set Master Saturation to -69.


9. Scroll down to Curves in Effects panel and adjust the RGB Channel with two points shown below.

10. Adjust the RED Channel with points shown below.


11. Adjust the Blue Channel with point shown below.

12. Set the Mask Expansion to 5 pixels.

13. The Adjustment Layer now needs Parented to the PreCompFace so it tracks with the footage.

After you Whip-Pick you will see that the PreCompFace is now the Parent of the Adjustment


Layer.

14. The Opacity of the Adjustment Layer now needs set so the Colorization takes effect the same time the Key frame of PreCompFace kick off the other effects. ALT+Click on Opactiy of Adjustment Layer. Expand the properties of the Liquify effect of PreCompFace so you can see both in timeline. Then Whip-Pick the Adjustment Layer’s Opacity to the PreCompFace’s Liquify Distortion Percentage.


15. Minimize the Effects and just hit M of the Adjustment Layer. We are going to work on Key framing the Adjustment Layer.

16. Step through footage frame by frame and start to adjust the mask so it keeps close to the shape of the head. As you do this you will see Key Frames start filling up the timeline for the Mask Shape. Those are all your changes.

17. Create a 2nd Adjustment Layer by clicking on Layer -> New -> Adjustment Layer.

18. With the 2nd Adjustment Layer selected click Effects -> Color Correction -> Curves.


19. Bring the Darkness down by changing the RGB Channel in the Curve.

20. Use the Pen Tool and draw masks around the eyes and mouth.


21. Feather the masks by hitting F to show the Mask properties. Hold down the Shift Key and Select all 3 Masks (1,2 and 3) and then you can change the value on one of the masks and all three will change since they are all selected. Feather the 3 masks to value of 20.


22. Parent the 2nd Adjustment Layer to the PreCompFace layer.

23. Select 2nd Adjustment Layer and hit T to see Opacity.

24. Select PreCompFace and hit U to see all the Effects.

25. ALT+Click on the 2nd Adjustment Layers Opacity.

26. Whip-Pick the Expression Opacity to the PreCompFace’s Liquify Distortion Percentage.


27. You may not want the Opacity at 100% effectiveness so what you can do is add “/2” or divide by 2 at the end of the expression. This helps eliminate the need for more key frames and work and that your really don’t need to do.

28. Select a image file of a texture to import into the project. For the tutorial Andrew used some of the great images from www.VideoCoPilot.net. In the video he actually uses the Riot Gear collection. You can use any good picture of stone footage, preferably something with cracks and other textures.

29. Drag the picture into your composition.

30. A new layer will be added and hit T to see the opacity.


31. Change opacity to around 55%.

32. Hit F4 Key. Change the Mode to Overlay.


33. It creates a cool texture on the face. Move it around to fine the best part of the texture and your face.

34. Select the Pen Tool and create a mask around the face. Since some areas won’t look good with the texture on it draw masks around the eyes and the mouth also.


35. Type M+M to bring up all the Masks you just created in the previous step.

36. For Mask 2 & 3 (that would be the eyes and mouth) set them to Subtract (or Inverted). This will make the overlay not appear in them. Also set the Mask Feather option on all three masks to something like 13, 20, 16 respectively. This will give it a more natural feel.

37. Hit T to get just Opacity for textured layer.

38. Set Opacity to 50%.


39. Now parent the textured layer to the PreCompFace layer.

40. Click T on textured layer for Opactiy.

41. Click U on PreCompFace layer for Liquify settings.

42. Alt+Click on Opacity for textured Layer.

43. Whip-Pick the textured layer’s Expression Opacity to the PreCompFace’s Liquify Distortion Percentage.


44. Add to the Opacity Expression of the textured layer a “/2” or divided by 2

Part 5 – Color Correction

1. Click Layer -> New -> Adjustment Layer.

2. Click Effects -> Color Correction -> Curves.

3. Edit the Curve to darken the image.


4. Do a search for green in the Effects & Presets panel. (I believe the FMP_GreenEasy is from a plug-in Andrew Kramer had installed. Its not part of default effects in AfterEffects CS3).

5. Drag FMP_GreenEasy to the 3rd Adjustment Layer you just made.

6. Adjust the Start Luminance to also darken footage. Adjust the three Histogram sliders.

DONE!!!! Now you can go back if you want and select the PreCompFace layer and adjust the Liquify effect with its tools without effecting everything else that you just did. Just use the Liquify’s erase tool and re-adjust. Just with the other layers/effects you can see the face is pretty scary.


You can also import the Sunglasses from earlier and then parent the layer to the PreCompFace layer for the tracking.


If you like this tutorial I suggest you head over to www.videocopilot.net for the rest of their great tutorials and video content they have for sale. I always believe in supporting sites and other sources that provide such great content and information at reasonable prices. VideoCoPilot.net is one of those great sources.

demon face warp

Documents

2nd adjustment layer

anchor point

adjustment layer

pen tool

liquify settings

distortion percentage

rgb channel

color correction