AFX Tracking

[AlexLD]

This depends a lot on the camera movement. If you are only panning up and down and the camera isn't moving much at all, then you should be able to get close with AE's tracker - depending a bit on the quality of the footage. AE's tracker cannot track elements in 3D so it's only ever going to help you "stick" some flames on the floor that is on fire. You'll have to fake the 3D perspective taking a stab at the angle of view from the camera to the floor you are shooting. If you have parallax movement say left to right (your walking with the camera) then this will be quite hard work. AE can't compensate for the perspective shift on a pure 2D track. It doesn't know about the camera as such so I would not use it if that is the case.

Syntheyes and Boujou etc, being 3D trackers, love and to a degree need parallax. So if you are only shooting up and down then they basically do the same as a 2D tracker without any real knowledge of distances etc. However, if you are walking with the camera and coming around the side and other buildings are in the background then they will be able to build up the scene for you and give you a full camera and object track to which you can attach the flames. As it's all in full 3D the perspective of the flames will match. Again, this is all dependant on footage as 3D trackers can't work magic.

[dell]

Thanks AlexLD for the reply

The footage is a good mix of static panning "left & right", plus walking around the building while moving the camera in different directions. I've tried the AFX tracking tools which can't really handle a lot of the shots, plus it's DV footage which don't help.

I've looked at different 3d trackers, and am going to do a trial Syntheyes.

Thanks again.

[mackdadd]

Hi Dell,

I remember reading this in another thread around here, maybe the After Effects thread.
Have you solved this yet? If not, I'd love to take a crack at it, or at least see the footage and give some thoughts. I'm really curious about replicating 3d matchmoves in AE, and this sounds like a good test. :)

sean

[Aneks]

I have had a lot of sucess taking cameras from Boujou to Maya. doing my 3d and then going to comp apps such as Shake and AE.

Generally I would recommend that you shoot your move as smooth as possible and then use the camera in the final comp package to add the little jerks and kicks that will make things look hand held. Depending on the quality of yor footage a 5-8% upscale here will
allow you enough spare room to wiggle the shot without introducing in any black pixels !

t,

[dell]

Thanks for all your comments, mackdadd & Aneks

Have you solved this yet?

Well yes and no,

I've tried cutting the clips into sections, to make it easier to track. This also inc backwards tracking, where the target is moving off screen. The fact is you do need a 3d tracker, which I'm looking into "SynthEyes".

This way you can building geometry in places you can't see, like a window on the other side of a building. This window/room might be on fire and have smoke pouring out of it, so you could make rough measurements and build the geometry around it in 3d.

Plus you could match your lighting to the footage and have particles, falling debris etc casting the correct shadows onto your geometry. I've done this on a still plate, as below.

There's an animation and a still.

http://img531.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cameramatchye9.flv

http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/3501/cameramatchstillvh3.th.jpg (http://img501.imageshack.us/my.php?image=cameramatchstillvh3.jpg)

But if you analysed and cut each section of your footage, you might get some ok results within AFX.

Generally I would recommend that you shoot your move as smooth as possible and then use the camera in the final comp package to add the little jerks and kicks that will make things look hand held .

I agree with that 100%, depending on how the project develops, I might go and re-shoot the footage.



Depending on the quality of your footage a 5-8% upscale here will
allow you enough spare room to wiggle the shot without introducing in any black pixels !



Well crappy PAL DV, but I might hire a camera, as I'm sick of poor quality DV.

I remember reading this in another thread around here

That’s right, the AFX forum. Plus thanks for those tutorials, they where very useful.

Below is a very quick test i did with roto/tracking and some facing particles within 3dsMax & AFX.

http://img532.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mainrotobreakdowngy0.flv

I'd love to take a crack at it, or at least see the footage and give some thoughts

No problem, I'm not sure about the best way to upload this amount of footage without degrading it too much, I might break it into small chunks for ya. Could you recommend another method? Below is a sample

http://img531.imageshack.us/img531/7240/trackingcompletexq8.flv

[mackdadd]

you can building geometry in places you can't see

You can do this in AE, too, but if you know a 3d program, yeah, it might be easier in there.

If you can post the whole video somewhere, in whatever the best resolution you have is, I'll try to track it all in AE. Maybe at yourfilelink.com? I used to use them before I bought some web space.

Generally I would recommend that you shoot your move as smooth as possible and then use the camera in the final comp package to add the little jerks and kicks that will make things look hand held

Yeah, I agree with this if you know you're going to be doing some CG fx to it.

Plus thanks for those tutorials, they where very useful.
no problem, they're fun to make.

if you have to break it into chunks to upload somewhere, that'd be fine too. I love a good challenge, and right now I have some spare time. :)

[dell]

Hi Sean


Sorry for the delay.

Below is the link for the footage, I'll also give it another go.

Keep us posted ;-)

http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=337183

Thanks

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