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Tracking dots go off screen – lens distortion – blue screen – tough composite! Any ideas?
Hi everyone! Haven’t had to post in a while…most of my answers have already been answered by other posters… I use this forum all the time though – you guys are great!
Here’s the deal: I’ve been trying to track this footage for 2 days and it’s time to consult the “experts” here. As you’ll see in the clip (link below), we have a blue screen in a picture frame on a wall. The idea was to have a painting “come to life” as she references it…that’s why it had to be composited in post.
In the four corners of the frame, we placed tracking dots to ease the post process a bit. They have been very helpful WHEN THEY’RE ALL IN THE SHOT! This was shot on a jib with a VERY wide angle lens (you can see some distortion on the edges), and the shot zooms out to reveal the painting frame.
My problem comes when the tracking dots aren’t all present. I am using corner pin tracking, and yes, I have read the Adobe 6.5 tutorial about how to track obscured objects. Unfortunately, there is virtually nothing else in this shot to lock onto that’s on the relative same plane as those tracking dots were.
So, I am looking for some advice on how to accomplish this. I tried today to do it by hand, keyframing about every 5 frames. Unfortunately, since I was “guessing” where the corners of the frame were as they went off screen, my image inside the frame gets very distorted (squashed and squished in any direction) very quickly (see link below). Once I get all 4 tracking dots in the frame, the tracking is great. It’s just the beginning of the shot that’s the problem.
I don’t mind if you have a plugin suggestion…I’ll get the client to pay for it. Any help would really be appreciated.
I really need to get this thing done…
Thanks in advance,
SteveThe footage was shot on a DVCPRO HD Panasonic camera, 60fps, 720p.
Original Footage: https://www.firstimage.tv/transfers/TS/TSOpenWeb.mov 600k
My Botched Tracking: https://www.firstimage.tv/transfers/TS/TSComposite.mov 4mb -
12 Replies
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Sorry, was unclear…When I say that the tracking dots go off screen, that’s because I was working backwards in the footage, starting at the point where all 4 are on the screen…. Just wanted to clarify.
-Steve
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I’d stabilize the shot first then add in your graphic, then reintroduce the motion. It will be a lot easier. When planning motion tracking shots you should keep the move as simple as possible. You’ve got a hand held pan and zoom. If you can get the shot stabilized in rotation position and scale you may have a chance.
if not you’ll need a 3rd party tracker. Next time, put the camera on a tripod or keep the cameraman’s fingers off the zoom, or both
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I’ve been fiddling with the lowres version: sorry man: I think this is an impossible 2D track.
Looks to me like you could be more succesful by tracking the door in 3D, then figuring out the relationship between the painting/wall and the door-wall (probably 90 degrees ?)
Time to fork out some cash for a 3D tracker…
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This is very possible, just not in AE. I was able to track that shot fairly quickly using a 3d tracker as mentioned previously though.
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oh yeah, here’s my attempted track at the small video file.
https://rapidshare.com/files/19637925/Composite_TSOpenWeb047.mov
It’s not perfect but for about 15 minutes work, it came out pretty good and can be easily tweaked.
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sam…the shot was done on a jib…not handheld by any means…I don’t think stabilizing this is gonna do anything…
and as far as 3d tracking…are there plugins available, or do i need an external program? any suggestions?
thanks everyone for all your help!
bimdas……can you email me? I showed my boss the quick composite you did in about 15 minutes and she said to see if you wanted to do the composite, and how much it’s be……seriously…
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By the way bimdas, that looks great! Never had any experience 3D tracking…
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Is AE your only tracker available to you? Cause it can be done in AE with lots of patiences.
But personally I would use a planar tracker like Monet to track this and not a point tracker.
But Monet is VERY expensive, so i wouldn’t expect many to have access to it. -
My first attempt at stabilizing the shot gave me the impression it was hand held. It was the lateral motion of the camera, the changing perspective and the changing vertical line that gave me the impression that it was hand held. With all that movement you really need 3D tracking. Who ever directed the shot needs an education in perspective because the choice of a jib move + a zoom made the shot much more difficult that it needed to be. We’ve been doing a lot of motion tracking lately and i’ve learned that even with a 3d tracker, the simpler you keep the shot, the more success you’ll have. Changing focal length is much more problematic than moving the camera.
I’d suggest synth eyes for 3D tracking.
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Thanks sam…yeah, i’ve been reading about synth eyes…
and concerning the shot…we do have a static shot, but preferred to use the more dynamic moving shot you see me trying to composite…
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