By Brady Betzel
I realize I might sound like a broken record, but if you are looking for the best plugin to help with object removals or masking, you should seriously consider the Mocha Pro plugin. And if you work inside of Avid Media Composer, you should also seriously consider Boris Continuum and/or Sapphire, which can use the power of Mocha.
As an online editor, I consistently use Continuum along with Mocha for tight blur and mask tracking. If you use After Effects, there is even a whittled-down version of Mocha built in for free. For those pros who don’t want to deal with Mocha inside of an app, it also comes as a standalone software solution where you can copy and paste tracking data between apps or even export the masks, object removals or insertions as self-contained files.
The latest releases of Continuum and Mocha Pro 2019 continue the evolution of Boris FX’s role in post production image restoration, keying and general VFX plugins, at least inside of NLEs like Media Composer and Adobe Premiere.
Mocha Pro
As an online editor I am alway calling on Continuum for its great Chroma Key Studio, Flicker Fixer and blurring. Because Mocha is built into Continuum, I am able to quickly track (backwards and forwards) difficult shapes and even erase shapes that the built-in Media Composer tools simply can’t do. But if you are lucky enough to own Mocha Pro you also get access to some amazing tools that go beyond planar tracking — such as automated object removal, object insertion, stabilizing and much more.
Boris FX’s latest updates to Boris Continuum and Mocha Pro go even further than what I’ve already mentioned and have resulted in a new version naming, this round we are at 2019 (think of it as Version 12). They have also created the new Application Manager, which makes it a little easier to find the latest downloads. You can find them here. This really helps when jumping between machines and you need to quickly activate and deactivate licenses.
Boris Continuum 2019
I often get offline edits effects from a variety plugins — lens flares, random edits, light flashes, whip transitions, and many more — so I need Continuum to be compatible with offline clients. I also need to use it for image repair and compositing.
In this latest version of Continuum, BorisFX has not only kept plugins like Primatte Studio, they have brought back Particle Illusion and updated Mocha and Title Studio. Overall, Continuum and Mocha Pro 2019 feel a lot snappier when applying and rendering effects, probably because of the overall GPU-acceleration improvements.
Particle Illusion has been brought back from the brink of death in Continuum 2019 for a 64-bit keyframe-able particle emitter system that can even be tracked and masked with Mocha. In this revamp of Particle Illusion there is an updated interface, realtime GPU-based particle generation, expanded and improved emitter library (complete with motion-blur-enabled particle systems) and even a standalone app that can design systems to be used in the host app — you cannot render systems inside of the standalone app.
While Particle Illusion is a part of the entire Continuum toolset that works with OFX apps like Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve, Media Composer, After Effects, and Premiere, it seems to work best in applications like After Effects, which can handle composites simply and naturally. Inside the Particle Illusion interface you can find all of the pre-built emitters. If you only have a handful make sure you download additional emitters, which you can find in the Boris FX App Manager.
Particle Illusion: Before and After
I had a hard time seeing my footage in a Media Composer timeline inside of Particle Illusion, but I could still pick my emitter, change specs like life and opacity, exit out and apply to my footage. I used Mocha to track some fire from Particle Illusion to a dumpster I had filmed. Once I dialed in the emitter, I launched Mocha and tracked the dumpster.
The first time I went into Mocha I didn’t see the preset tracks for the emitter or the world in which the emitter lives. The second time I launched Mocha, I saw track points. From there you can track where you want your emitter to track and be placed. Once you are done and happy with your track, jump back to your timeline where it should be reflected. In Media Composer I noticed that I had to go to the Mocha options and change the option from Mocha Shape to no shape. Essentially, the Mocha shape will act like a matte and cut off anything outside the matte.
If you are inside of After Effects, most parameters can now be keyframed and parented (aka pick-whipped) natively in the timeline. The Particle Illusion plugin is a quick, easy and good-looking tool to add sparks, Milky Way-like star trails or even fireworks to any scene. Check out @SurfacedStudio’s tutorial on Particle Illusion to get a good sense of how it works in Adobe Premiere Pro.
Continuum Title Studio
When inside of Media Composer (prior to the latest release 2018.12), there were very few ways to create titles that were higher resolution than HD (1920×1080) — the New Blue Titler was the only other option if you wanted to stay within Media Composer.
Title Studio within Media Composer
At first, the Continuum Title Studio interface appeared to be a mildly updated Boris Red interface — and I am allergic to the Boris Red interface. Some of the icons for the keyframing and the way properties are adjusted looks similar and threw me off. I tried really hard to jump into Title Studio and love it, but I really never got comfortable with it.
On the flip side, there are hundreds of presets that could help build quick titles that render a lot faster than New Blue Titler did. In some of the presets I noticed the text was placed outside of 16×9 Title Safety, which is odd since that is kind of a long standing rule in television. In the author’s defense, they are within Action Safety, but still.
If you need a quick way to make 4K titles, Title Studio might be what you want. The updated Title Studio includes realtime playback using the GPU instead of the CPU, new materials, new shaders and external monitoring support using Blackmagic hardware (AJA will be coming at some point). There are some great pre-sets including pre-built slates, lower thirds, kinetic text and even progress bars.
If you don’t have Mocha Pro, Continuum can still access and use Mocha to track shapes and masks. Almost every plugin can access Mocha and can track objects quickly and easily.
That brings me to the newly updated Mocha, which has some new features that are extremely helpful including a Magnetic Spline tool, prebuilt geometric shapes and more.
Mocha Pro 2019
If you loved the previous version of Mocha, you are really going to love Mocha Pro 2019. Not only do you get the Magnetic Lasso, pre-built geometric shapes, the Essentials interface and high-resolution display support, but BorisFX has rewritten the Remove Module code to use GPU video hardware. This increases render speeds about four to five times. In addition, there is no longer a separate Mocha VR software suite. All of the VR tools are included inside of Mocha Pro 2019.
If you are unfamiliar with what Mocha is, then I have a treat for you. Mocha is a standalone planar tracking app as well as a native plugin that works with Media Composer, Premiere and After Effects, or through OFX in Blackmagic’s Fusion, Foundry’s Nuke, Vegas Pro and Hitfilm.
Mocha tracking
In addition (and unofficially) it will work with Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve by way of importing the Mocha masks through Fusion. While I prefer to use After Effects for my work, importing Mocha masks is relatively painless. You can watch colorist Dan Harvey run through the process of importing Mocha masks to Resolve through Fusion, here.
But really, Mocha is a planar tracker, which means it tracks multiple points in a defined area that works best in flat surfaces or at least segmented surfaces, like the side of a face, ear, nose, mouth and forehead tracked separately instead of all at once. From blurs to mattes, Mocha tracks objects like glue and can be a great asset for an online editor or colorist.
If you have read any of my plugin reviews you probably are sick of me spouting off about Mocha, saying how it is probably the best plugin ever made. But really, it is amazing — especially when incorporated with plugins like Continuum and Sapphire. Also, thanks to the latest Media Composer with Symphony option you can incorporate the new Color Correction shapes with Mocha Pro to increase the effectiveness of your secondary color corrections.
Mocha Pro Remove module
So how fast is Mocha Pro 2019’s Remove Module these days? Well, it used to be a very slow process, taking lots of time to calculate an object’s removal. With the latest Mocha Pro 2019 release, including improved GPU support, the render time has been cut down tremendously. In my estimation, I would say three to four times the speed (that’s on the safe side). In Mocha Pro 2019 removal jobs that take under 30 seconds would have taken four to five minutes in previous versions. It’s quite a big improvement in render times.
There are a few changes in the new Mocha Pro, including interface changes and some amazing tool additions. There is a new drop-down tab that offers different workflow views once you are inside of Mocha: Essentials, Classic, Big Picture and Roto. I really wish the Essentials view was out when I first started using Mocha, because it gives you the basic tools you need to get a roto job done and nothing more.
For instance, just giving access to the track motion objects (Translation, Scale, Rotate, Skew and Perspective) with big shiny buttons helps to eliminate my need to watch YouTube videos on how to navigate the Mocha interface. However, if like me you are more than just a beginner, the Classic interface is still available and one I reach for most often — it’s literally the old interface. Big Screen hides the tools and gives you the most screen real estate for your roto work. My favorite after Classic is Roto. The Roto interface shows just the project window and the classic top toolbar. It’s the best of both worlds.
Mocha Pro 2019 Essentials Interface
Beyond the interface changes are some additional tools that will speed up any roto work. This has been one of the longest running user requests. I imagine the most requested feature that BorisFX gets for Mocha is the addition of basic shapes, such as rectangles and circles. In my work, I am often drawing rectangles around license plates or circles around faces with X-splines, so why not eliminate a few clicks and have that done already? Answering my need, Mocha now has elliptical and rectangular shapes ready to go in both X-splines and B-splines with one click.
I use Continuum and Mocha hand in hand. Inside of Media Composer I will use tools like Gaussian Blur or Remover, which typically need tracking and roto shapes created. Once I apply the Continuum effect, I launch Mocha from the Effect Editor and bam, I am inside Mocha. From here I track the objects I want to affect, as well as any objects I don’t want to affect (think of it like an erase track).
Summing Up
I can save tons of time and also improve the effectiveness of my work exponentially when working in Continuum 2019 and Mocha Pro 2019. It’s amazing how much more intuitive Mocha is to track with instead of the built-in Media Composer and Symphony trackers.
In the end, I can’t say enough great things about Continuum and especially Mocha Pro. Mocha saves me tons of time in my VFX and image restoration work. From removing camera people behind the main cast in the wilderness to blurring faces and license plates, using Mocha in tandem with Continuum is a match made in post production heaven.
Rendering in Continuum and Mocha Pro 2019 is a lot faster than previous versions, really giving me a leg up on efficiency. Time is money right?! On top of that, using Mocha Pro’s magic Object removal and Modules takes my image restoration work to the next level, separating me from other online editors who use standard paint and tracking tools.
In Continuum, Primatte Studio gives me the leg up on greenscreen keys with its exceptional ability to auto analyze a scene and perform 80% of the keying work before I dial-in the details. Whenever anyone asks me what tools I couldn’t live without, I without a doubt always say Mocha.
If you want a real Mocha Pro education you need to watch all of Mary Poplin’s tutorials. You can find them on YouTube. Check out this one on how to track and replace a logo using Mocha Pro 2019 in Adobe After Effects. You can also find great videos at Borisfx.com.
Mocha point parameter tracking
I always feel like there are tons of tools inside of the Mocha Pro toolset that go unused simply because I don’t know about them. One I recently learned about in a Surfaced Studio tutorial was the Quick Stabilize function. It essentially stabilizes the video around the object you are tracking allowing you to more easily rotoscope your object with it sitting still instead of moving all over the screen. It’s an amazing feature that I just didn’t know about.
As I was finishing up this review I saw that Boris FX came out with a training series, which I will be checking out. One thing I always wanted was a top-down set of tutorials like the ones on Mocha’s YouTube page but organized and sent along with practical footage to practice with.
You can check out Curious Turtle’s “More Than The Essentials: Mocha in After Effects” on their website where I found more Mocha training. There is even a great search parameter called Getting Started on BorisFX.com. Definitely check them out. You can never learn enough Mocha!
Brady Betzel is an Emmy-nominated online editor at Margarita Mix in Hollywood, working on Life Below Zero and Cutthroat Kitchen. You can email Brady at bradybetzel@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @allbetzroff.
