Cover image via

Mocha Pro 2020 Packed with New Features for VFX Artists

By Jason Boone

Published: November 08, 2019 Last Updated: November 07, 2019

The latest version of Mocha Pro just hit the scene, and it’s chock-full of new tools geared toward visual effects artists.

The award-winning planar tracking software received several new features, including mega plates, a new area brush, and advanced color management support. Let’s take a closer look at Mocha Pro 2020.

Mega Plates

First up is the all new Mega Plates module.

In the wonderful world of visual effects, a clean plate allows artists to perfectly composite multiple images. It’s essentially the background image without the foreground objects, whether those are actors, cars, etc. Once you separate the foreground from the background via a clean plate, you can apply effects to both images for visual effects magic.

Unfortunately, in many cases, a clean plate doesn’t get captured during production. However, you can always manually create a clean plate by removing the foreground object then paint in the background. This is certainly more labor intensive, but it’s often the only option. While performing this technique on a static shot is simple enough, what about when a shot is moving — such as a pan? Enter the Mega Plate.

Here’s a great example of how you can enhance backgrounds with Mocha Pro 2020 and Adobe After Effects.

The Mega Plate module is a unique new feature, building on Mocha’s most powerful core technologies: planar tracking and temporal frame analysis. It helps users create a stitched extended frame for visual effects tasks. Working with Mega Plates is a new way to visualize and work on a larger-than-raster “Mega” canvas for common VFX tasks such as object removal, clean plating, sky replacements, matte painting, and set extensions.

Use rendered Mega Plates in Mocha’s Remove Module or export it with tracking data for advanced effects. Use the exported data in Foundry NUKE, Adobe After Effects, Blackmagic Fusion, or other VFX applications.

Area Brush

Creating shapes in Mocha can be a tedious, time-consuming process. The new Area Brush is a dynamic new paint tool designed to speed up this task. Area Brush, with Quick Mask mode, brings fluid gestural paint functionality into Mocha to define planar tracking and masking search areas.

For example, instead of clicking and dragging spline points, adding and subtracting paint strokes get converted to vector splines. This method speeds up and simplifies multi-shape tracking and masking set-ups. The Area Brush also supports Wacom tablets for pressure-sensitive scaling. Select the Area Brush and paint on the screen. The brush will scale based on pressure sensitivity.

Here’s a closer look at the Area Brush tool.

OpenColorIO (OCIO) Support

Last, but not least, is the new support for color management.

With OpenColorIO, you’ll never have to wonder if your color is off again. Mocha Pro’s adoption of OCIO means you’ll have consistent and predictable color display across industry workflows. It’s compatible with the Academy Color Encoding Specification (ACES) and enables improved color-managed workflows with high-end post-production and VFX applications, including Boris FX Silhouette, Foundry’s NUKE, Autodesk Flame, Avid Media Composer, and more.

To learn more about Mocha Pro 2020, head over to the Boris FX website.

Cover image via Boris FX.

Looking for more on video production? Check these out.