Looking for "Mesh Warp"-like function

(bradleypariah) #1

Hello all,
I am trying to figure out a way of enabling something like “Mesh Warp”, which is a function in After Effects where the user can subdivide a video into a variable number of columns and rows, then drag the corners of the boxes to distort/warp/bend the image.

I have seen this thread https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?306548-Blender-does-Grid-Warping&highlight=mesh+warp+video

I watched the video, but the video isn’t very helpful. He just says, “I added a mesh”, but he doesn’t explain how he did it. I don’t need motion-tracking or anything. I just want to add vertices to a video track so I can warp it.

Can someone help me find this setting? Is it possible in Blender?

(hype) #2

Maybe this could be useful.

(3pointEdit) #3

Also look at this tutorial of mesh distortion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPGDoJcaVyg&t=684s

(bradleypariah) #4

This helped! Thank you so much!

For anyone else that stumbles on this thread, here’s the steps:

  1. Open File > User Preferences. Search for “import”, and check the box for import images as planes.
  2. Go to 3D view.
  3. File > Import > images as planes > Select your movie.
  4. Select your object (right-click), and go to the Materials tab in the Properties window. Under the Surface category, change Surface to Emission.
  5. Use your Transform tab in the 3D window to center your camera on the video. Hit the 0 in your keypad to toggle camera view.
  6. In your 3D window (ensure your video object is still selected), switch to Edit Mode.
  7. Right-click a vertex, then shift-right-click another.
  8. Ctrl + R
  9. Move your moue around to view a pink line, this will be where your subdivision is made
  10. Double click to set the new division
  11. Profit.

Obviously this tutorial requires some know-how of Blender and Animation settings to render the video, but hopefully this will help someone to do some simple lens-correction in the future.

(3pointEdit) #5

Oh lens correction.

Why not apply a Subdivide modifier and a Cast modifier to the image plane and distort its shape to a sphere?

de distort.JPG1920x1040 287 KB

(bradleypariah) #6

That’s a cool trick! I always just eyeball the vertices. Effect looks the same, but your technique could save a few minutes. I appreciate the help.