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3D camera tracking in a dark room
Hey!
I have a question where i don’t know if i’m overseeing something really simple or if it just isn’t that simple.
I wanna film a singer in a dark room, pretty much like this https://vimeo.com/18072467
And it’s going to be a lyric video with real footage, so the singer is standing in the room, lip syncing and the words of the song seem to be “in the room” with him.
So if there are, say, 10 animated words “hanging” between the camera and the singer, and the camera moves closer to the singer, it moves through the words and they disappear behind the camera.
I hope you know what i’m trying to say here. Now to my problem:
How do i track a 3d space with the 3d cameratracker in After Effects if there aren’t any reference points for the camera tracker because everything except the singer is black?
Should i add something in the background, like a piece of square paper or anything, so after effetc can track it right?I was thinking if it would be easier to do in a green screen, but i’d rather shoot everything in camera because i don’t want any additional troubles with keying.
Thanks for any tips!!
Best
Pascal -
19 Replies
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Assuming you haven’t shot the footage yet….
Green screen means that you’d have to key out all of the background, something made more difficult in low lighting. Tracking shots can be much easier is you place some tracking markers. In this case, I would just use some luminous tape, or even some very low brightness lights behind the singer, and then track them. Mask them out in the final edit.
It sounds like you’ve already figured out the 3d text letters.
Jim
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thanks for your feedback!!
I pretty much decided to go with a black room instead of greenscreen. I think it’s too risky to go with greenscreen and then have keying issues later, because i’m working on a very tight schedule with this one.
And i think i will use tape as a tracking point. I’m just wondering is after effects can track a good 3d movement if it just has to POINTS to refer to. I thought i would make two squares with tape, left and right behind the singer so than the tracker can get the 3d information from the form of the squares. I don’t know if i’m getting something wrong but if you only have two points, or dots etc. than it might not notice if i move AND pan the camera, the distance between the points might stay the same but the distance to the camera varies.
I’ll just give it a try and see what happens. And then i’m gonna need your help again;)
Thanks you!
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Thanks guys. I just did a test shooting and it was kind of sobering. i had two neon tape squares left and right of the singer that were clearly visible. When i tracked the footage in after effects the camera tracker completely ignored the squares and just tracked the movement of the singer. And got everything totally wrong. i don’t know if i should use bigger objects as tracking targets or if it’s just an adjustment thing in after effects. But as for now it doesn’t work at all to track it..
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I have a picture from my test footage right here. I had to blurry the singer but the important things are the tracking points in the back.
I did some more research and kind of get the feeling that after effects isn’t able to track this properly. I just keep reading that for a proper 3d tracking a new mocha version or even boujou is needed?!
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sorry to post again, but i don’t know if you can really see it in the picture. The black screen is hung in a corner, so right behinder the singer is the corner of the room. that is why the squares are distorted this way.
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Hi Pascalle, I’d suggest a couple of things – use as many markers as you can at different depths (you’ll need foreground, mid range and background) so that the tracker has 3D depth information – then mask out your singer before tracking. It only needs to be a rough garbage matte around the performer, leaving only the tracking markers visible.
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Thanks a lot Greg! I found this video that pretty much explains what you just said. And i never knew that random key markers work the best. I thought this one was pretty helpful!
I’ll see how the result are gonna be. But it’s gonna take a while longer to do the pre production now;) -
sorry….here’s the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qhe7IO2hwY
am i too stupid or can’t you edit your own posts?
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Yes you can edit your own posts – no you are not stupid, the edit option is available only if you access your post from your profile page/Activity, at least that is how I get to see it.
Tudor \”Ted\” Jelescu
Senior VFX Artist -
It looks like you are successfully working through your tracking concerns and learning that it is important to test PRIOR to actual production. This eliminates the “fix it in post” thinking that can drive up costs and efforts if you don’t test.
Some other thoughts: When AE tracker wants to track the wrong object, you can usually mask out that object, track, then delete the mask for the final render.
You can, of course, shoot in brighter lighting and then make the “darkened room” look in post. This would also simplify some of the tracking concerns. Or, as Dave suggested, make your tracking points part of the set. Maybe your set could be partially virtual in the sense that it is hard to know what was a practical and what was created in post.
Best of luck on this project.
Jim
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