Gmask tracer roughen edges

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1

Is there a matchbox that can roughen edges of a mask inside tracer to keep the effect static?

Apparently you can do this in after effects.

Can’t use sapphire matte ops or deform because it makes the edges boil which isn’t desirable in this case.

So I was wondering if a matchbox could be hung off the mask which would affect the gradient and not boil because it’s downstream of the axis.

2

Would the noise parameter of the matte edge node do what you’re after? I use it from time to time to break-up edges on grads.

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3

Matte ops

If I remember correctly it’s “jitter frames” value that animates the the edge. Set to 0

5

Hi All - I thought I’d make a quick gif video to show what I mean - I’m not sure it’s possible to do in the gmask tracer node itself - I think in after effects it might be able to do it because the matte might be drawn with vectors and there’s probably a way to affect the pen stroke of the vector before it is animated. Adding a matte ops/deform/matte edge has an animated noise because it seems the offset is multiplied by a static noise pattern instead of a noise pattern that is tracked to the shape.

So to be clear, my workaround is to animate a static irregular shape but my desire is to affect the offset blur to have some noise inside gmask tracer.

noise_on_edge_of_tracer
noise_on_edge_of_tracer1918×1116 2.94 MB

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6

I use the stock flame deform node to noise up edges. set the scale super low (to like 1, or 0.5 even) and wind the amplitude.

Is your issue that the mask animates THROUGH that noise, thus “animating” the noise, whereas you want something that lives INSIDE the softness vector which would stay consistent as the mask animates?

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7

Use Crock Grunge

8

So I think this is what you’re after…

Basically it links the pos x/y of the axis parenting the gmask shape to the position x/y of the noise parameter in the matte edge node and then divides that pos by the size parameter as the noise position is scaled by size. This only works with axis positional data though and isn’t based on vertex positions.

Edit: this trick would work with pretty much any noise generator with positional offsets.

9

Correct. @andy_dill

Thanks @cnoellert for the setup. I’ll take a look.

I’m asking the question because someone asked me and I wasn’t sure it was possible. And then I started wondering how you’d be able to affect the offset if you animated it or if you animated the splines. At this point I just thought I’d ask you all to see if anyone else had thought about it. It’s just academic. The job delivered already.

However there are times it’s been something I thought about like when matting patches grass. I’ve wanted to affect the offset so it looked like blades of grass. I think I’ve tried to use pixel spread with a luma key but you’re very much dependent on the key and lighting changes etc that in the end as with most things, I end up just painting it. I wouldn’t mind a procedural approach if it exists.

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