Classroom in a book

Making a traveling matte
You will use this effect time and again. It’s a great way to follow action or hide an 
object. In this case, you will use Track Matte Key to blur the moving face of the 
hero moving around in this scene.
1
Open Lesson 15-5.prproj, and open the Practice sequence. Notice that the same 
video clip is on Video 1 and Video 2.
2
Drag the face matte to Video 3. Stretch the face matte clip to the same length as 
the other clips. If you play this sequence, you will notice the face matte just stays 
in the middle of the frame. You need to animate the face matte so it follows the 
hero’s face.
3
Select the face matte clip, and then expand the Motion effect in the Effect 
Controls panel. Click the Show/Hide Timeline View to open the Timeline in 
the Effect Controls panel if it isn’t already visible.
4
Set the current-time indicator at the start of the clip, and then set a Position 
keyframe at the beginning of the clip by clicking the Toggle Animation button 
to the left of Position. Using the Position controls, position the white circle over 
the hero’s face, even if it is offscreen.
5
Scrub the Timeline to about the halfway point of the clip, and adjust the matte 
to be over the hero’s face. Move halfway across the remainder of the clip; then 
do the same thing again. Continue setting keyframes until you can scrub the 
clip and have the matte over the face at all times.
#
 Note:
Keyframing 
motion can be a tedious 
task, but you don’t 
have to set a keyframe 
at every frame. A 
good technique is to 
set a keyframe at the 
beginning, then the 
end, and then in the 
middle. The in-between 
times will be smoothly 
calculated. If the motion 
is constant and there is 
no camera movement, 
you will not need to 
set many in-between 
keyframes. If you need 
to add more keyframes, 
keep dividing the space 
between keyframes in 
half until the animation 
is correct.

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ptg