AI Masks and Polygon Masks

Requires the Max or Studio license

The masking system helps Heavy Tracking ignore or isolate moving objects. It supports SAM2 AI mask layers, manually drawn polygon layers, keyframed polygon animation, and composed mask output.

How to use it

1 Select a footage sequence.
2 Add a SAM2 layer for AI object segmentation or a Polygon layer for manual masking.
3 Confirm the mask and let MotionMaster 3D generate the layer output.
4 Combine enabled layers into the composed mask folder.
5 Enable the Mask toggle in the Heavy Tracker and choose the Track Color: Use Black to track the background, Use White to track the masked object.

Mask Panel

The Mask panel builds black and white mask sequences that tell Heavy Tracking which parts of the footage to use. You combine any number of layers: AI layers made with SAM2, which follow an object through the clip from a few clicks, and polygon layers that you draw and keyframe by hand. All enabled layers are composed into one mask sequence.

Source Footage

The panel works on the footage chosen in the Select Footage panel and shows its path with a check mark. If no footage is selected, select it there first.

Mask Layers

The list holds your layers. Each row has a checkbox to include the layer in the composed mask, its name, which you can rename, and its type. Add a layer with SAM2 Layer or Polygon Layer, and remove the selected one with the minus button. The controls below the list change with the type of the selected layer.

SAM2 layers

Click Create SAM2 Mask (GPU or CPU, depending on your system). In the viewer, click foreground points on the object you want to mask and background points on things that are not part of it, then press Enter to confirm. SAM2 follows the object through every frame of the sequence.

SAM2 Settings shows whether SAM2 is ready on the GPU or CPU and lets you pick the model. If SAM2 is not installed yet, install it from the add-on preferences.

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Tiny (39 MB): fastest, good for simple, clearly separated objects.
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Small (46 MB): balanced speed and quality; the recommended choice.
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Base+ (81 MB): higher quality at moderate speed.
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Large (224 MB): best quality, slowest.

Your license decides which model sizes are available; the panel shows a note if the selected model is above your limit or not downloaded yet.

Polygon layers

Click Draw Polygon Mask, place vertices around the area and close the shape to confirm. Polygons support keyframe animation, so you can move the shape on a few frames and let it interpolate in between. Press P to switch mode while editing and Enter to confirm. Once masks are generated, the button changes to Edit Polygon Mask and the keyframe data is saved with the layer.

Composing and output

With more than one layer, Recompose All Layers rebuilds the combined mask from every enabled layer. Output sets where the mask images are written; leave it empty to use an object_masks folder next to the footage.

To use the masks, enable the Mask toggle in the Heavy Tracker and choose the Track Color: Use Black tracks the unmasked background (a normal camera track that ignores the masked objects), Use White tracks only the masked region (the start of an object track).

Technical notes

SAM2 masks are useful for cars, people, actors, and other foreground objects. Polygon masks are useful for simple shapes, corrections, or deterministic manual control.

The composed mask folder connects into the Heavy Tracking mask path so the solve can ignore moving elements or focus on a selected object region.