Alternative to software 3d motion tracking?

[Magnus3D]

There is this one, commonly used in flightsimulation but it should have a SDK so you can make use of it in 3d apps too. It tracks you in 3d space, pretty sweet device. :)

http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/products/trackir5/ (http://%20http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/products/trackir5/)

/ Magnus

[biliousfrog]

Voodoo camera tracker (free): http://www.digilab.uni-hannover.de/download.html

[iMario]

You are all very kind guys... but I'm looking for something really professional... I mean... in Movie productions they do all the 3d Mocap with softwares?

[biliousfrog]

You are all very kind guys... but I'm looking for something really professional... I mean... in Movie productions they do all the 3d Mocap with softwares?

So are you looking for something professional like the software you mentioned (Boujou, Syntheyes, MatchMover) or an alternative? AFAIK tracking is all done with motion tracking software unless you're doing mocap in which case you can get mocap suits...but it's still not a magic solution.

[iMario]

So are you looking for something professional like the software you mentioned (Boujou, Syntheyes, MatchMover) or an alternative? AFAIK tracking is all done with motion tracking software unless you're doing mocap in which case you can get mocap suits...but it's still not a magic solution.

I already use Boujou, but a couple of days ago I saw the backstage of this spot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SALSn9E1fkc&feature=player_embedded

and wandered if there are... let's call them "hardware solutions" for 3D motion tracking :)

[biliousfrog]

I might be wrong but it looks to me like a motion capture rig attached to the camera/iphone. Three cameras are capturing the LED's attached to the camera which are then tracked with mocap/matchmoving software. It seems like a complicated setup but I guess that it might be to get round the difficulties of tracking footage which has been captured with a CMOS sensor (rolling shutter).

The camera's capture the rig and LED's, mocap software tracks the position, the tracks are imported into a 3d/compositing application and parented to the virtual camera.

There doesn't seem to be any special hardware or software involved, just a variation on motion capture and camera tracking...not sure why they went with an iPhone though.

[meleseDESIGN]

What about Movimento or Facerobot. Did you used it before? It should be the right stuff what you´re looking for!

[olson]

There are some camera rigs that have built in motion tracking (camera position within environment) but the word that comes to mind is archaic. If shot properly with points that can be tracked there's no need to rely on anything besides tracking software. Why are you interested in alternatives? Motion tracking software has clearly been proven worthy in thousands of films. Cheers!

[iMario]

I'm just curious... Boujou is a great software but sometimes there are scenes that are really hard to be properly tracked. An hardware solution would provide a perfect track in no time... but it doesn't apparently exist... he he... hope someone will invent it! :beer:

[biliousfrog]

An hardware solution would provide a perfect track in no time...

It's easy to say that about something that doesn't exist.

Even though motion tracking software often has a wizard or auto-track feature, they're not perfect and the best results are often from manually tracking footage. Even then you'll find that one application is better suited than another for a particular shot, it's not unusual to find studios using Boujou, Matchmover, Syntheyes, PFTrack etc.

The latest issue comes from using CMOS sensors on cameras which causes a jello effect during panning which is extremely difficult to track, probably one of the reasons for the rig in that shot. There is a rolling shutter plugin now available to correct the distortion but it's only a recent development.

I agree that a hardware solution would be useful but I guess that there's a reason why it hasn't become popular, maybe cost, technology or even just because the software works well for 99% of shots.

[iMario]

You are completely right :) But you know... we are in the years of gps... compasses on mobile phones... robotic cameras... I mean... why not?

I saw a camera during an expo, attached to a robotic arm and able to reproduce the same movement ad libitum... the movement was created via an interface... wouldn't be amazing if it could also createa a 3D data of it's path?

Dunno... maybe one day!

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