Advanced support for native stereo 3D workflows and Python scripting simplify tracking and rotoscoping on complex VFX projects.
Guildford, UK -- Imagineer Systems, creators of the Academy Award-winning mocha Planar Tracking technology, announced the release of its flagship visual effects solution, mocha Pro 4.0. Packed with new innovative features that facilities with complex VFX production pipelines will love, mocha Pro 4 offers groundbreaking native Stereo 3D (S3D) workflow capabilities and advanced support for Python scripting.
“Visual effects artists working on stereo 3D feature films have been asking for these new features, and we have worked closely with customers to understand and support their workflow,” states Imagineer Systems chief marketing officer Ross Shain. “With version 4, we are streamlining many of the complex corrective tasks that come with large S3D projects and expanding the compatibility of mocha Pro with visual effects applications such as Nuke, Ocula and Adobe After Effects. This allows a wider audience of VFX professionals to tackle some of the more dense effects work such as S3D rotoscoping, motion tracking and object removal.”
mocha Pro 4’s new Stereoscopic 3D workflow lets users quickly analyze differences between right and left camera streams and apply the solved disparity in 2D tracking, 3D camera solving, object remove module and image stabilization.
“In a typical S3D post-production workflow, an early process is to correct the footage -- vertical alignment, color and other differences between right and left eyes. With mocha Pro 4’s new stereo workflow, the mocha planar tracking technology has been enhanced for multi-stream image analysis,” Shain continues. “This automatically detects and keeps track of the difference between both eyes, so tracking and roto tasks can be done on uncorrected footage and disparity offsets are automatically animated. This results in a lot less manual keyframing for both solving tracks and creating articulate roto masks.”
The benefits of mocha Pro 4 also carry over to editors and artists using Adobe’s Creative Cloud tools: Premiere Pro and After Effects. Premiere editors can now paste mocha roto masks directly to their timeline for advanced isolation, blurring and color correction tasks while the new customizable keyboard shortcut interface comes with preset profiles to match After Effects.
Facilities can now deeply integrate mocha Pro 4 into their unique VFX production workflows thanks to newly added support for Python scripting.
“With Python scripting, VFX houses can better customize their workflows,” Shain comments. “For example, a facility can use Python scripting to integrate mocha Pro 4 with an asset management system such as Shotgun, Hiero or Generation, seamlessly synchronizing visual effects content and metadata across applications and projects.”
Python also allows technical directors to customize and automate mocha Pro tasks, such as sending intensive object removal renders to a background render farm.
mocha Pro 4 Feature Highlights
- mocha’s new Stereoscopic 3D workflow adds unique stereo support to planar tracking, rotoscoping, object removal and 3D camera solving. It also adds the capability to work on uncorrected, native stereo 3D footage.
- Python scripting support allows facilities to further customize their workflows, integrating mocha Pro 4 deeper into the visual effects production pipe.
- The customizable keyboard shortcut interface enables mocha Pro 4 users to edit and save customizable keyboard layout or select industry standard keyboard layouts such as Adobe After Effects or Nuke.
- The improved user interface plus high-resolution retina display support greatly enhances the end user experience.
- New exports and format handling includes support for Adobe Premiere Pro masks, Nuke 7 Tracker export and improved Nuke Roto exports. Version 4 also improves QuickTime and MPEG support.
mocha Pro 4 is now available on Mac OS X, Windows and Linux with nodelocked or cross platform, floating licensing options. mocha Pro 4 supports Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro and Motion, Avid|DS, Assimilate SCRATCH, Autodesk Flame, Smoke & Maya, Boris FX, Eyeon Fusion, HitFilm, Quantel, Maxon Cinema 4D, Red Giant Warp and The Foundry’s Nuke. Upgrades are available starting at $495 USD; new users can purchase mocha Pro 4 on the Imagineer Systems website for $1,495 USD.
Special promotion: all mocha 4 upgrades will be on sale for 20% off list prices for the month of July.
Source: Imagineer Systems Ltd.
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
