A marionette is a puppet that is controlled from above by pulling on strings attached to its limbs. In other words, you can animate the puppet by tugging on its strings.  

Let's start by placing Deform pins for our composition below.

Start out by clicking in the Puppet Pin tool in the Tools panel.

Next, click on the first area in your object that you want to be able to move. We are going to click near the wrist.   As you can see in the snapshot below, the Puppet Pin is a yellow dot on our composition.

Now let's add another pin on the other wrist.

We are also going to add a few more.

Click on the triangle beside Mesh 1 to expand it.

Then click the triangle beside Deform to expand its properties.

When you are finished, put a checkmark beside Show in the Tools panel. This will show you the distortion mesh.

Your composition should look like this:

Next, look at the Triangles value in the Tools panel. 

If you need to, zoom in on the composition so that you can see the legs and torso of your "puppet," then go back to the Tools panel and change In Front to 100%.

Next, let's look at the mesh in the composition.

Now place pins on the areas you want to stiffen. 

To animate it, select the layer in the Timeline panel. Press U so you can see all the keyframes for that layer.

Repeat these steps for other pins. 

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In this article, we will learn how to:

• Use the Roto Brush tool to create a segmentation boundary

• Create a new base frame

• Make adjustments to the segmentation boundary

• Use the Refine Edge tool

• Freeze the segmentation boundary

• Replace the background of footage

Using the Roto Brush Tool

As stated in the introduction to this section, rotoscoping is the process of removing an object from the background. To do that, you use the Roto Brush tool to distinguish the item you want to remove from the background from the rest of the background.   When you do that, After Effects will create a segmentation boundary between the background and the object you are removing.

We are going to remove the man from this image below so we can adjust the color of the background without it affecting him.

The Roto Brush tool will be used to create strokes to a base frame that will distinguish the foreground from background. The base frame will be used by After Effects to apply the Roto Brush tool to other frames.

Next, go to the Tools panel and select the Roto Brush tool. It looks like this: 

Double click the layer you want to work with to open it in the Layers panel. The Layers panel is grouped with the Composition panel.

Now start to add strokes to the foreground using the Roto Brush tool. The foreground in our example is the man. You can use broad strokes for larger areas, then smaller ones for the border.

To access the brushes, go to Window>Brushes. You will then see the Brushes panel.

Select a brush size.

WARNING:  If you have ever extracted objects from Photoshop, do not worry. This is a lot easier!

In the snapshot below, we drew a green stroke down the center of the man.

When we release our mouse, we see the areas of the man that After Effects recognized based on our stroke.   These areas are in magenta.

As you can see below, it did not recognize all of the man.

Draw another stroke. We are going to do this stroke across his shoulders, followed by a stroke across each under-side of his leafy hat.

Take a look at the results below:

We have now created a segmentation boundary. 

If you accidentally have included some background in with the foreground, do not spend too much time trying to get it perfect. Instead, press ALT to access the red background stroke brush.   Add red strokes to the areas you want to remove.

When you are finished, click the Toggle Alpha button in the Layer panel. It looks like this: 

The foreground is now white, and the background is black. This makes the matte easier to see. 

If you click the Toggle Alpha Overlay button ( ), the foreground will be in color and the background will be red.

If you click the Toggle Alpha Boundary button ( ), you will see the outline again.

Creating a New Base Frame

The Roto Brush spans 20 frames.  There are ten in each direction of the base frame. If you need to create a new base frame, go to the frame in the time ruler and define the segmentation boundary using the Roto Brush tool.

All base frames are marked by gold rectangles in the time ruler.

The Roto Brush Tool and the Timeline

Once you create the segmentation boundary in one frame, the boundary will move with the foreground object throughout the footage. However, you may need to make adjustments to the boundary.

You can press 2 in your keyboard (not the numeric pad) to advance forward one frame at a time.

Making Adjustments to the Segmentation Boundary

Sometimes the segmentation boundary around your foreground image needs to be cleaned up.   You can make it smoother with very little effort. 

To do this, go to the Effects Control panel.   Increase the Feather amount and the Reduce Chatter.

Both are highlighted in the snapshot above.

The Refine Edge Tool

The problem with the Roto Brush tool is it makes creates a boundary that goes around the general shape of the foreground image. It does not pick up small details. There may be times when you use the tool when you want to include wisps of hair in the segmentation boundary and other tiny aspects.   The Refine Edge tool will allow you to do this.

The Refine Edge tool is grouped with the Roto Brush tool. It looks like this: 

Once you have clicked on it, go to the clip in the Layer panel.

Zoom in if you need to so you can see the details that you need to include in the segmentation boundary.

Set your brush size in the Brushes panel.

Now, move the Refine Edge tool over the edge of what you need to include in the segmentation boundary. Make sure you straddle the segmentation boundary as well.

In the snapshot below, we are refining the edges.   We zoomed in. The image is pixelated, but it allows us to include the fuzzy areas.

Once you release your mouse button, you will see the Refine Edge X-Ray view.   You can see how the matte has changed. 

Zoom back out when you are finished.

Freezing the Segmentation Boundary

Freezing the segmentation boundary simply means making the data for it (the calculations) so that it does not slow down your processor and, in turn, After Effects.

To do this, click the Freeze button in the Layer panel.

It looks like this: 

You will then see a progress bar as After Effects freezes both the Refine Edge tool and the Roto Brush tool data. 

When it is finished, there will be a blue bar above the time ruler in the Layer panel that tells you the segmentation boundary is frozen.

Next, click the Toggle Alpha Boundary () button in the Layer panel, then the Toggle Transparency Grid button ().

You can now see the foreground without the background.

Replacing the Background

Now that you have your foreground object isolated and a transparent background, you can add a new background if you wish. 

Click on the tab for the Composition panel if you are still viewing the Layer panel after creating a segmentation boundary.

Go to the Project panel. You can import another background and drag it to the Timeline panel, or import a new background then add it to your composition.

We have added a new layer to our composition which will serve as the background. 

You can see it in the snapshot below. It is blue.

If you need to, select the new layer in the Timeline panel, then go to Layer>Transform>Fit to Comp to make the new layer match the size of the composition.

NOTE:  Whenever you add a new layer, do not forget that you can go to Layer>Transform, then choose an option to make the new layer match the size of the composition.  

Now, with the newly added layer selected, you can go to Effect>Color Correction and adjust color of the new layer until you achieve the look you want it to have with the foreground object.