Using the Mocha Pro OFX Plugin in DaVinci Resolve Fusion

How To Use Mocha Pro OFX plugin from BorisFX to remove an object

In this Insight we look at the industry’s gold-standard for tracking, Mocha Pro. It’s available standalone and as an OFX plugin for stand-alone Fusion, on Resolve’s Color Page, and as a node on Resolve’s Fusion Page.

Mocha is a little different to nearly all other tracking software around. It’s a planar tracker and it has some really advanced tools and workflows, not only for creating a really good track on difficult to track items, but it can also remove or replace items in a shot or export a 3D camera solve. If there are parts of a shot where it can get a clean background, it can even automatically remove an object without the need for any manual paint/clone work. It’s been doing this for over twenty years.

Using Mocha Pro in conjunction with Fusion and Resolve

I opted to use Mocha Pro within Fusion rather than using the standalone Mocha Pro because I’m more familiar with the compositing tools in Fusion. It’s more flexible combining all the tools of Mocha Pro with those of Fusion. I like to key elements back on top of Mocha Pro’s output using Fusion’s keyers. The alternative is creating very precise, tight rotos and mattes within Mocha Pro for those elements. Also, the input/output to and from Mocha Pro standalone seems like unnecessary steps. Plus the Mocha Pro OFX is slightly cheaper than the standalone!

Another reason for using Fusion inside Resolve, along with the Mocha Pro OFX, is we also have access to the full suite of ResolveFX plugsins. In this instance the De-flicker FX really helped Mocha get a good track at certain points. That’s the same reason I applied a LUT before Mocha Pro, to give it more contrast to work with. Either or both of those tools could be turned off again in Fusion, once a good track was achieved and before rendering.

About that Resize Node

Early in my node tree I mention using the Resize tool. I did this only to give more interactivity on my system for this demo! It is not required for this workflow, at all.

Challenges for tracking

The shot used in this example has some typical challenges. They include:

• The area to be tracked is sometimes occluded by other objects.
• The area to be tracked is sometimes on the same plane as other features, sometimes not.
• Perspective and lighting changes through out.

This really just scratches the surface of what’s possible with Mocha Pro but I think it’s a great example of why you can consider adding Mocha Pro to your toolkit.

(Clip used courtesy of Through The Lens Entertainment.)