Imagineer Systems Announces mocha
Imagineer Systems Launches mocha; Combines Advanced Planar Tracking with Rotoscoping in Powerful New Tool for VFX Artists
mocha Eliminates Point Tracking, Leverages Intelligent Planar Tracking for Unprecedented Accuracy, Ease and Design Speed
GUILDFORD, UK (July 31, 2007) Imagineer Systems (www.imagineersystems.com), creators of next-generation VFX tools, today announced the immediate availability of mocha. mocha, the company‘s new standalone tracking station, leverages Imagineer‘s advanced 2.5D planar tracking technology to simplify and significantly accelerate the tracking and rotoscoping workflow for VFX artists. mocha‘s proprietary Planar Tracking System enables artists to quickly generate accurate corner-pins that can be exported to industry standard compositing and editing systems. Additionally, mocha intelligently tracks and transforms roto splines that can also be exported. This new approach to tracking and rotoscoping results in highly accurate 2D tracks and mattes of superior quality while requiring far fewer keyframes and adjustments.
Tony Jover of UK-based HD Heaven participated in Imagineer‘s beta testing program for mocha and had this to say about his experience:
“I’ve been using pixel tracking for years, but it wasn’t until I tried my first experimental planar track with mocha that I realized what I’ve been missing all this time. It’s not just that it was so easy; it was the uncanny accuracy that totally blew me away. I was immediately aware of how ‘dodgy’ my tracks have been up until now. All of a sudden, new opportunities opened up in front of me; jobs that I would previously have told the client were impossible are now easily achievable. Exporting the clip from my Avid DS, quickly tracking it in mocha and then importing the curves to the DS tracker is a simple and painless workflow. I can then do the composite the way I’m used to, safe in the knowledge that the track is rock solid.”
Jover continued, “I now look forward to being asked ‘Can you track this? I know it’s not well shot, but we need to change the logo/image/sign.‘ With mocha, I know the answer will be, ‘no problem.‘”
mocha: Point Tracking vs. Advanced Planar Tracking
mocha is a stand alone 2D tracking tool packed with features that make the life of the effects compositing artist easier and less stressful. With mocha‘s advanced planar tracking technology, compositors can avoid the guesswork and inaccuracies that result from the painstaking and time-consuming process of hand tracking difficult shots. The process of generating solid 4-point tracks, giving position, scale, rotation, shear and perspective matched tracks is significantly accelerated by Imagineer‘s next generation tracking. Once the track is complete, mocha is designed to seamlessly export the data to the industry‘s most well known compositing and finishing packages such as Inferno, Flame, Flint, Smoke, Combustion, Avid DS, Quantel generationQ, After Effects, Shake and Digital Fusion, providing artists the freedom to finish shots in the compositing application with which they feel most comfortable.
Private Idaho, a boutique editorial and VFX design house based in New York City is now actively accepting challenging roto jobs from clients because of mocha‘s capabilities. Troy Thompson of Private Idaho recently created a complex toy commercial, in which the client required a live horse - shot in front of a barn scene and bales of hay, not a green screen - to change colors multiple times throughout the scene. A job that would‘ve taken the VFX artists at Private Idaho days using traditional tools was completed in a matter of hours.
“It‘s rare that you see a tool that dramatically changes the VFX workflow; mocha is that rare new innovation that has significantly impacted this industry,” said Thompson. “In our business, the faster you complete a project, the more profitable you become. Roto used to mean time, tedium and complexity. As a stand-alone affordable tool that enables us to embrace roto jobs and deliver the highest quality professional results, mocha is a no-brainer.”
Pricing and Availability
Imagineer Systems‘ mocha is available immediately and is priced at $2,995 for single node-locked licenses. For more information, please visit www.imagineersystems.com.
About Imagineer Systems
Imagineer Systems Ltd innovates and markets next-generation visual effects solutions for film, video and broadcast post production and have made their mark on such marquis Hollywood blockbuster productions as Casino Royale, Pirates of the Caribbean and Harry Potter. Imagineer‘s product line consist of monet™ - placement station, mokey™ - removal station, motor™ - roto station, mofex™ - plug-in for Shake and moxel™ - standards station. Imagineer Systems was founded in 2000 and its headquarters is located in Guildford, United Kingdom. For more information visit www.imagineersystems.com
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mocha Customers: Additional Quotes/Comments
“I’ve been using pixel tracking for years, but it wasn’t until I tried my first experimental planar track with mocha that I realized what I’ve been missing all this time.”
“Every Avid|DS user should have a copy of Mocha on his machine.”
-Tony Jover, HD Heaven, UK
www.hdheaven.co.uk
“We‘ve seen entire budgets zapped just on roto projects alone. That way of doing business can break a small company over time. In fact, we‘ve outsourced roto in the past, but thanks to mocha, we won‘t anymore. mocha is no-brainer!”
- Troy Thompson, Private Idaho, NYC
www.pvtidaho.com
“On the new HBO Series ‘John from Cincinnati‘ there was a close up shot of a shrink wrapped DVD case held by one of the characters. The DVD box goes thru lighting, focus and perspective changes and large parts of the surface are obscured by the actor or leave frame entirely. The producers of the show needed to change the cover art of the DVD. As I was evaluating the shot I was a little dubious that I’d be able to get a track. Did I mention we only had about 24 hours to do it? I told the VFX supervisor we might not be able to pull this on off in the time we had, that it would most likely need hand tracking. Having tried mocha on a difficult track for another show I decided to give it a try. With very little input from me, mocha gave me a perfect track.”
I was quite honestly shocked with the incredible results I got from mocha. I exported the data to a Shake corner pin node and it locked perfectly to the image. The VFX supervisor said ‘Hey nice track…I thought you said it was gonna be hard?!‘ Great, now they’re going to think we can do anything.”
- Tom Mahoney, The Outfit (Visual Effects), Burbank CA
www.theoutfitvfx.com
