Mapping LED Rings with Resolume Arena 5 and After Effects

With Resolume Arena 5 you can now controlled LED fixture via the DMX protocol. The type of LED fixtures are limited to rectangular grids and strips.  However with a little trick in After Effects we are able to properly map LED rings, allowing for more complex and dynamic circular animations to properly render.

Gear I'm using:ENTTEC DMX USB Pro MK2 - Uses the DMX protocol to communicate to various devices ENTTEC Pixie Driver 5V - Controls 5V LEDs compatible with WS2811, WS2812 & WS2812b Adafruit NeoPixel Ring 16 RGB - Really great LED rings.

LED text replacement VFX tutorial using Mocha for AE

Project Files: http://goo.gl/Q17hPh Website: http://www.martin-thoburn.com In this After Effects Tutorial I will show you how to track the LED video footage using Mocha for AE. After that we will replace the text. Tutorial covers Motion Tracking, Optics Compensation, Track Matte,Fractal Noise, Pre-Composing and much more. This is a intermediate VFX project tutorial and the basic principles can be applied in many scenarios, not just LED boards.

Have you ever wanted to replace the text of an LED board?  Well now you can, you don't need to know how to hack electronics, just some After Effects elbow grease will get the job done.  This is my first ever online After Effects Tutorial!  In it I will show you how to track the LED video footage using Mocha for AE, then I'll show how to replace the text with any graphics, icons or any words you please.  This tutorial in an intermediate to advanced tutorial and not recommend for beginners.  The tutorial video covers  Motion Tracking, Optics Compensation, Track Matte,Fractal Noise, Pre-Composing and much more.  This is a general VFX tutorial and the basic principles can be applied in many scenarios, not just LED boards. If you wish to follow along, you can down load the project file below.

LED Tutorial Project Files!

Please leave comments below with any questions or feedback for future tutorials.  And don't forget to watch the original short film I created that used this effect: "Words tend to be Inadequate"