Hole in the hand

Flow - stock footage VFX videoss
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After Effects and Mocha tutorial

With a bit of creativity this special effect can be an amazingly versatile tool. We will show it with a hand but it can be used in almost any kind of surface. Face, chest, and of course object as well not just humans. The most basic version gives you a lot of opportunities to create spectacles. All you need is a drill, and a tolerance for blood… 🙂

The first part of creating this effect is preparation. You need to make sure your footage is useful. This will also be showed in the video. You’ll see that it can be done using average household items. When recording, make sure you have footage where the surface you want to put the hole into is not there. The background behind the hole will be created from these scenes.

Next comes the tracking of the markers. In the video we use the Mocha tool. It does beautiful work, quickly and precisely. This was you can place new layers on the video that move the same way as the original footage. This is how we put the Bevel effect and the extra blood on it. Plus with the Alpha Matte tool and the data from Mocha you can remove the markers from your video with a few clicks.

When this is done it is time to remove the green parts with Chroma Key. Since we are dealing with a small, well prepaired area with a clear outline all we need is Linear Color Key and Inner/Outer Key.

We hope the video wasn’t too difficult to follow. We tried to keep it simple, but there are always way to make a scene a bit better. If you had trouble understanding some parts or have any kind of question, just leave a comment and we’ll gladly answer.

PROJECT FILES

You can find and download the project files at my Patreon page.
Please if you like my videos, and you can, help my work here:



30 Responses so far.

  1. Liv says:

    Thanks for this awesome tutorial – really helpful. I used to have tried this trick already. I did not do that well, but I can see the solution. 🙂

  2. Natalie says:

    I’d like to do this effect on a character’s chest over the heart area and he reaches in to put in and take out items. Also, the hole gets a little bigger in each scene. Any suggestions on how to shoot and light this? Thanks!

  3. Svyatozar says:

    Hi,what’s up! I tried to repeat this effect,but I did not succeed,because I did not manage to make an effect BELVER. What is the possible mistake? Help me,plz!:)

    • CreaRec says:

      Unfortunately, I can not help it because I do not see your video. Try it again and you will succeed.

      • Svyatozar says:

        When I tried to attach effect Bevel to Mocha track
        he could not cling to track
        Maybe this is because I missed stage BLOOD. Or that does’t matter? But still I’ll repeat.

  4. Masud says:

    What is the name of this software?

  5. maniec says:

    Great tutorial, thanks. But im stucked at 17:16 – 17:18 , I dont understand what exactly are you clicking on, and my screen reamins blackish… (I skipped the ‘Remove Markers’ part, because my markers disappeared already in Part 3, but I dont think thats the problem) Please help! :D

    • CreaRec says:

      Thank You!

      Mark Remove is the solution. Because these (Mark Remove and Hand.avi) layers do not really remove the markers. They form a layer that is all there except the signs. So cover your unnecessary parts on your black layer.

  6. kamal says:

    from india….awesome work bro…plz tell me how you edited your videos….or slides “text coming from left side”: like dont drill your hand.
    thanks in advance

  7. Josh says:

    I’m working through your hole in the hand tutorial. When I create the mask and try and make its path it moves the frozen image with it when i move the mask. Any help would be appreciated. At the 6 minute mark in your video

  8. deniz says:

    Hello. It’s a great jobs. I want too, take a record on camera and then work on this. Which camera are you using ? Thank you very much. :)

  9. shanshuai911 says:

    I am from China, I can’t see YouTube, but I like your video tutorials very much. Can you send your tutorials to my mailbox, thank you.

  10. Tom says:

    Can I get your unprocessed projects?

  11. Gerardo says:

    Hello,great tutorial, Im trying to follow yours as accurate as possible. Could you send me your original footage so I can follow your every step of the process?

  12. Mateusz says:

    Hello, very nice effect 😉 but I have a question, when I’m in Mocha AE and track the hole and then a copy this like corner pin(first option) and i paste this in null object next a copy this to mask “back and then this “Corner pin” change my shape mask to smaller and I cant do the back effect 18:30 min in your video

    • CreaRec says:

      It is important that the two layers are of the same size. If it is not the same, it can cause your problem. But it’s also important that the cursor is at the beginning of both layers.

  13. William says:

    Hello.

    Great tutorial as always, but I’m facing the same problem as “Josh”

    At around the 5:31 minute mark in your video, you are moving around the mask of the face and it works as it should, but when I try to move the mask, the frozen frame of the face moves along with the mask.

    I did everything exactly the way you did, but I’m still having this problem.

    You replied to “Josh” here with “Maybe your Head track data is wrong.”, mine clearly isn’t, and even if it was I would have had the same problem because the frozen frame of the face still moves with the mask when it’s not parented with the “Head track data” layer.

    I’d really appreciate some help.

    • CreaRec says:

      It moves along the frame with the mask because not only the mask is highlighted, but the entire layer. The important thing is what you see at 5:27: I select the Mask Path. So, the move only applies to the selected element.

      • William says:

        Ohhhh man, how did I not notice that!?
        Thank you so much though haha, now I can finally continue with this 🙂

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