-
PF Hoe advice please
Hi … believe me I have made a thorough search but need some more advice please. I bought PF hoe today ’cause I have an awkward track that AE couldn’t handle. I have a handheld camera shot of the back of a car and have to stick a number plate to it. PF hoe did a great track but maybe I’m missing what it should be able to do. I’ve got some excellent tracking information but don’t know if I can add it to my number plate layer to force it to scale, rotate and move correctly … as I say maybe PF hoe isn’t the beast for the job. A splendid chap (cr green) has posted some great information but I’m still struggling. I’ll keep poking away (forgive the expression) but if anyone has any advice please ?
Regards
Roger
-
7 Replies
-
Well, it’s a 3D tracker, but you’re saying you want it to output a 2D track for an AE layer to track to?
I haven’t used Hoe, but I did used to use it’s forefather “Icarus”. You can export the data as AE 3D data. Then in AE, the AE cam should match the footage. In PF hoe make sure there is a tracking point on the plate itself. Rename it to something relevent like “Plate” That way you know where in space it is. Then in AE you should be able to put your new layer in the exact point where that labeled tracking point was.
I haven’t used AE, but I usually use Syntheyes to do a 3D track. Export that to Lightwave file to bring into C4D. Then in C4D, I put my 3D objects in the exact 3D space where they need to be to track along. As long as the track is good, I always get a great lock with no slip.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
Thanks Chris I’m not sure you can tell hoe what points to track … I’ll need to look again. As ever … as clever as these bits of software are I still seem to need ages to get, even just, the theory under my belt. thanks for taking the time.
-
I’m not saying to tell it what to track (Although all 3D trackers I have used you can set up a manual track to add to the auto tracks). I’m saying you should be able to rename any tracking point. For example change it from something like “Point 168” to something relevant like “Plate” so when you see hundreds of track points as nulls in your 3D program you know which point was the plate’s position in space so you can align your new object or layer to it.
Chris Smith
https://www.sugarfilmproduction.com -
Did you see this post:
https://forums.creativecow.net/cgi-bin/new_read_post.cgi?forumid=2&postid=877759
?
hoep it helps
[typed that in quickly — decided to keep the type-o]
-
Thanks again Chris … I spent some of the night sorting this all out in my head … your tips have helped carify things. best Roger
-
Thanks Mr Green …. great typo don’t you just love serendipity ! Yep I came across that post and found it really useful … I’m not really up on scripts so I wasn’t sure what to do with it but I think yours is written for NTSC … I’m in PAL land.
I think I was probably making this more work than it needs to be so will go in to work with a fresh head this morning. Thanks as ever for your time Roger
-
[Roger BURTON] “I’m not really up on scripts so I wasn’t sure what to do with it but I think yours is written for NTSC … I’m in PAL land.”
Hey Roger.
Maybe we can correspond a little to get a newer version working for you. I’m busy but if you want to do a test with a dummy project or something I’d be happy to whip up a better version. You can toggle any aspect of the script off via the interface.
Let me know what you think — feel free to drop me a line: crgreen “at” crgreen “dot com”-cg
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up