Hello, this is Mocha product manager Martin Brennand from Boris FX.
In this video, I will cover new features and improvements in the Mocha Pro 2020.5 release.
This release focuses heavily on core functionality and support over flashy new features, but
we are sure that both seasoned users and newcomers will appreciate the update… so lets get
into it…
Tracking accuracy First up, We have made some great improvements
in planar tracking… specifically the handling of the surface and shape data when tracking
deep, wide-ranging perspective shots.
In earlier versions of Mocha it was possible to lose your surface or matte when the original
tracking plane went too far past the camera.
Now Mocha will adapt to the long distortion and is much more flexible in a wider range
of scenarios.
[Show examples of wide tracking not working vs working]
(maybe a split screen with 2020 vs 2020.5 very clearly marked)
FILE: Long perspective tracking in Mocha 2020.5 examples
Motion Blur Performance One of Mocha’s powerful features is rendering
out roto mattes with natural motion blur, however in the past, the performance was not
incredibly fast.
You can turn on motion blur in the Edge properties panel and adjust the amount of blur, the phase
and the quality settings to help it fit the motion of your shot.
In Mocha 2020.5 we are happy to say that rendering of mattes with Motion blur has been sped up
immensely, showing as much as 4 times the speed of previous versions.
For example, in this shot the motion blurred matte of the coat used to take over 1 minute
to render, and now it takes under 20 seconds, with no loss in quality.
Keep in mind of course that as always render speeds will vary according to your hardware
and system setup.
[Video of woman walking past camera rotoscoped out plus timing for v7.0.4 vs v7.5.0]
File: Mocha 2020.5 Examples.aep
Flame support
We’ve also added more roto support for Autodesk Flame artists in the form of the popular Gmask
tracer node format and new tracking data support via the Flame Axis nodes.
You can access the new shape and tracking exports in Flame via the Mocha Pro OFX plugin
or export data to Flame separately in the Mocha Pro standalone application.
Here inside Flame, we’ve set up a Mocha Pro OFX node and tracked and keyframed a dress
in the Mocha GUI.
Now we can export it as Gmask Tracer data to disk.
You can then import the data into a new gmask tracer node inside Flame and composite the
output.
In this case, we tweak the colour of the dress and the new roto data holds out the result.
The Tracer format splits apart into animated gmasks and separated tracking data on the
axis node, making it much easier to tweak your masks after you’ve imported them.
[Footage of the mask format masking a couple of shots plus the tracer schematic]
The separate axis export converts Mocha’s planar tracking data to 3d axis data.
This also comes into Flame as a Gmask tracer node ready for attaching.
Area Brush improvements We’ve added a number of improvements to
the Area Brush: For starters can now adjust the brush size by holding the CMD or Ctrl
key and dragging the mouse for quick shape creation.
(Light house example Mocha 2020.5 Examples.aep) Additionally, the Area Brush now has an option
to fill missed gaps in painted area so you don’t have to paint over every little part.
You can adjust the gap size in the “fill gaps” field to close even the largest gaps.
(Lighthouse example Mocha 2020.5 Examples.aep)
Roto snap For general roto, the magnetic edge snapping
has been improved.
Drag-snapping has been updated to snap multiple points at a time, rather than the first point
you selected.
Interlaced for Avid For customers using Media Composer in broadcast
post-production, interlacing files are still a necessary delivery format.
We’ve updated the support in the Mocha Pro plugin so that interlaced frames are correctly
interpreted as upper or lower and can be read and tracked per field.
Rendering output from modules like Insert, Stabilize and Remove is then blended correctly
back to the timeline.
Updated OCIO support OCIO color management was introduced in Mocha
2020 and Mocha 2020.5 expands that support by providing much deeper control over your
color configuration.
You can adjust your project settings for specific configurations of bit depth and clip type
OR save them as defaults by going to the color tab inside preferences.
[footage showing all the new preferences and customisation options]
For example here the working color space inside Nuke is scene linear but the view is REC 709.
Inside the Mocha Pro plugin we can adopt the linear color transform and then display the
footage as rec709 as well to match Nuke for easier viewing.
You can also load an existing configuration, such as the nuke default config or the ACES
config to match your workflow exactly.
Renders and Clean plates are also stored in proper colour formatting for better editing
and import.
For example here we can render and create a Remove clean plate and import it into Nuke
and the colour will remain matched in the view.
[basic workflow for color]
Media Support Next up, we’ve overhauled Media file reading
support in the Mocha Pro standalone application, so you no longer have to rely on QuickTime
to import clips from disk.
Now the standalone application can import more movie file types and codecs that used
to have to be converted.
The new support includes many standard container formats and codecs and this also means for
the first time, we can support reading clip formats on Linux.
If you are running Mocha Pro standalone, you can find this new option in preferences, but
if you are running a plug-in version of Mocha the host media engine is used by default.
Additionally, R3D support has also been updated to 7.2 meaning you can bring in data from
more recent RED hardware.
[B-roll of importing clips: Not particularly interesting]
Smaller updates Beyond these new features and updates, we
have also added a few more improvements based on customer feedback.
[Small video sections for each]
* If you have ever been frustrated seeing a blank view when you have an unrendered frame,
you now have the option to display the original source frame instead to keep things coherent.
This can be toggled in preferences (Night remove Mocha 2020.5 Examples.aep)
* Based on some requests, we’ve also improved the visibility of the playhead when playing
and tracking footage so it’s easier to see where you are up to in the shot.
(any clip) * Mocha Pro 2020.5 now fully supports macOS
Catalina * And as always, we’ve tweaked a whole bunch
of other areas and squashed many annoying bugs.
[short clips of each]
You can view more detailed videos of the main updates, check out the release notes for a
full feature list, or if you have any questions, pop over to the forums at borisfx.com