Roto Vision 02 : Prep the Plate | Episode 008

In the last episode we studied the plate by viewing it 8 times and asking these questions.

1. Where are the target edges?
2. Is the plate bright enough to see the edges?
3. How are those edges changing, moving?
4. On what frames are the edges changing?
5. What frames are the main key frames?

Let's start and answer the first two questions.

1. What are the target edges?

• Answer 1: The target edges are every edge along the girl's silhouette.

2. Is the plate bright enough to see the edges?

• Answer 2: No. the plate has areas so dark and the girl's screen right edges are so dark that decreases the visibility of that edge.

Due to the difficulty in seeing the edges, a professional artist would prepare the plate so s/he could work.

Roto Vision 02: Gamma Up! from ProRotoPaint on Vimeo.

GAMMA UP

When the edges are dark, I would gamma up the plate until I could see my target edges clearly. Many young artists want to go straight drawing roto shapes. But the ability to see your work is a fundamental step to making professional work. The video above shows the progression of prepping this plate.

There's a general rule in Paint about not to change the plate. No artist wants to nor should want to introduce unintentional color issues to the plate. In my experience, it is OK to color correct the plate to help you see your targets because if you did it properly, your beziers and your mattes only affect the Alpha channel and not the RGBs. However, if you want to be safe, adjust Gamma and/or Gain in the Viewer which will leave the plate untouched.