3D track moving head in static shot - Pro version needed?

Hi there, I’m doing something very much like the Iron Man helmet HUD, and I want the HUD elements to move around in 3D space when my character moves his head. I have a greenscreen video clip with a locked off camera with a guy moving his head around. Unfortunately, I don’t have any trackers on the guy or the BG, but in theory I could add tracking dots to the BG in post, as the cam is locked off.

I’m working in After Effects. What I want to end up with is a 3D camera and some animated 3D null data (or something similar). What I’ve been able to get from AE’s 3D Camera Tracker is a static 3D element and a crazily moving camera - so it ends up looking sort of like what I need, but is actually opposite in how it’s working.

Is this something I can do in Mocha? Would I need the Pro version for it?

Thanks for your help!

Hi there!

Yes, this is something you can do with mocha Plus, but not the free version of mocha AE that ships with AE. All you’d need to do is track the background (not hard, since it’s a lock off shot, you could essentially make two manual keyframes) and then track the guy’s face. Solve for the BG layer (it only takes one layer because it’s a lockoff shot) and then export all your tracks. You’dd end up with 3D moving nulls for your face track.

You can download a trial of mocha Plus here: Boris FX | Downloads

Please let me know if you have any questions and I will be happy to help.