Adobe After Effects CS4 - Manual (Page 267)

261 USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4
Animation and keyframes
Last updated 12/21/2009
Unwanted distortion in figure (upper left) is prevented with Starch pin (upper right and lower left)
Each Starch pin has the following properties:
Amount The strength of the stiffening agent. The influence of Starch pins is cumulative, meaning that the Amount
values are added together for places on the mesh where extents overlap. You can use negative Amount values to cancel
out the influence of another Starch pin at a specific location.
If you notice image tearing near a Deform pin, use a Starch pin with a very small Amount value (less than 0.1) near
the Deform pin. Small Amount values are good for maintaining image integrity without introducing much rigidity.
Extent How far from the Starch pin its influence extends. The influence ends abruptly; it does not decrease gradually
with distance from the pin. Extent is indicated visually by a pale fill in the affected parts of the mesh.
In addition to animating still images, you can use the Puppet effect on a layer with motion footage as its source. For
example, you could distort the contents of the entire composition frame to match the motion of an object within the
frame. In this case, consider creating a mesh for the entire layer, using the layer boundaries as the outline, and using
the Puppet Starch tool around the edges to prevent the edges of the layer from distorting.
Tracking and stabilizing motion
Resources for mocha for After Effects (mocha-AE)
After Effects includes Imagineer Systems mocha for After Effects (mocha-AE), a stand-alone application that can
export tracking data for use in compositions in After Effects. For many tracking tasks, mocha for After Effects provides
superior results with greater convenience than do the native After Effects tracking features. For more information, see
the mocha for After Effects documentation, which is available from the Help menu in the mocha for After Effects
application.
Important: The free trial version of Adobe After Effects software does not include some features that depend upon
software licensed from parties other than Adobe. For example, mocha for After Effects, some effect plug-ins, and some
codecs for encoding MPEG formats are available only with the full version of Adobe After Effects software. (See
“
Installation, activation, and registration ” on page 1.)
The Imagineer website provides several video tutorials and other resources for learning to use mocha for After Effects
with After Effects.