Magic Mask lost data when activating deactivating NR

Dear all.
Whenever i activating and deactivating Noise Reduction, it makes my magic mask data lost, so i should re-track again.
Is it normal?
or
how to keep my magic mask data?
Thanks.

Activate n Deactivate NR make magic mask lost.jpg (473.6 KiB) Viewed 1287 times

Normal. Downstream mask is affected by upstream change.

Thanks steve

connect the magic mask creation from teh original point in parallel, then pipe the mask to the node you want to change, you should never have to re-cache it.

connect the magic mask creation from teh original point in parallel, then pipe the mask to the node you want to change, you should never have to re-cache it.

I've been meaning to ask about this: it seems like every time I need to re-render, Magic Mask has to go back and retrack. Sure, I could "read the manual" (ahem), but I'm baffled as to why, one tracked (and nothing has been changed upstream), it still needs to retrack.

My guess -- to answer my own question -- is I was grading in HD just for speed, and then rendered in 4K. And my bet is that it had to retrack in 4K to make an accurate mask.

BTW, just read the 20-page section in the 18.1 manual, and it's beautifully-written, tons of details, great tips. Kudos to whoever did the work. (But nothing on my rendering problem.)

Hi there,

This workaround Walter wrote is indeed the more efficient way to preserve the track...
I've just answered another question about MM by suggesting at leat trying the MM node in the Fusion page instead, to compare. Yes, no "person" choice but the "object" one works great on people too.

And there, it's more usual and therefore handy and comfortable to feed the MM node by a very native node - in the beginning of the node flow.
Because yes, you actually want the MM node to remain alone or almost alone in its chain to finally pipe it in the end (you had understood, I'd prefer a merge node in Fusion than a key mixer in Color for this).

It's annoying in the beginning because not really natural sometimes to work this way, but keeping it from any changes prevent you from the boring retracking necessity ("regenerate tracking" in Fusion).

My guess -- to answer my own question -- is I was grading in HD just for speed, and then rendered in 4K. And my bet is that it had to retrack in 4K to make an accurate mask.

I don't think so but previously thought that too, until I experienced like written above that not only the change of resolution you wrote about was needing to regenerate the track, but also a lot (any ?) change in its chain of nodes.
For me it was my playing with a NR node activation/deactivation in the chain, also a color correction node tect etc...
Keeping it isolated from other common nodes and working on it in the end (the most you can) is the best option so far imho.

Yes, no "person" choice but the "object" one works great on people too.

I've found that the object mask (a newer feature) is much better on people for all the situations where I've used magic mask.

Yes, no "person" choice but the "object" one works great on people too.

I've found that the object mask (a newer feature) is much better on people for all the situations where I've used magic mask.

Yep, I can understand that... but what do you mean by "newer" ? Is there anything newer than what was included since the beginning ?

Yes, when Magic Mask was introduced in v17 it only had the Person Mask option. The Object Mask option is new since v18.

Ah ok, thank you for this... I think I hadn't really used the MM before the object mask was introduced actually...

The person mask is still there mostly for compatibility reasons according to an older reply from BMD staff

Interesting news, I was not aware of all this chronology.
But I'm still not sure the Person option is perceived as a kind of second rate option, is it really ? I'd think users would prefer finding a more specific and dedicated parameter when used for tracking humans, even if as written above, the real efficiency is more noticeable with Object (which still is to be confirmed btw).

Personally I have no real choice because I use it in Fusion where Object is the only option anyway.
And even if it was worst than Person, I think MM is really made for being used in Fusion by design, for so many reasons in any WF but it's another topic

I found the reply I mentioned in my previous post:

The person mask is there for legacy projects as well as for cases when you need to isolate specific parts of a person. We expect Object Mask to be used mostly moving forward.

https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=159636#p846046

I found the reply I mentioned in my previous post:

The person mask is there for legacy projects as well as for cases when you need to isolate specific parts of a person. We expect Object Mask to be used mostly moving forward.

https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=159636#p846046

Thanks Panos, i have just known that Magic Mask Person is legacy.
And i try Magic Mask Object instead. Look better and easier.