NEXT-GEN Nescot Year 4 HND - Tracking (Scar)

For this small project, we were tasked with using After Effects to add a scar or injury to a stock footage person. In order to do this, I got a stock footage video of a man sitting at a computer and I got a stock image of a scar with stitches. Once I had the video and image I needed, I added them into an After Effects project.

Next, I used a additional After Effects plugin called "Mocha", which is used to create accurate and consistent trackers in After Effects. I then used the pen tool in the Mocha window to create a tracker circle before then using it to render a tacker onto the man's face.

Once I created the tracker, I created a Null object and attached it to the tracker, so that it would follow the man's face.

After doing this, I added the scar, using colour correction tools and masks to make it blend more effectively onto the man's face. I also adjusted the size, rotation and position of the scar, making sure to reposition the center point to the same area as the Null object.

Finally, to avoid any change in appearance or creating distortion for the scar, I used the parent function to make the Null object the parent of the scar, so that it could maintain its appearance while also following the same tracker as the Null object.

I then made the Null object invisible so that it could not be seen on the final render.

Overall, I believe I did well on this project because the scar blends well onto the man's face and tracks accurately as the character moves and looks at the screen. If I could improve the project however, I would add another scar to the man's neck in order to see if I could track a similar scar to a more difficult location.