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Activity Forums DaVinci Resolve Compositing and tracking

  • Compositing and tracking

    Posted by Jonathan Bigler on April 2, 2014 at 3:02 pm

    Hi all,

    now that DaVinci Resolve has audio support, and editting features, we started using it as an online tool (put everything together, graded shots, audio and animated graphics).

    I know it’s a color grading software, but I am quite impressed at how much online job I get to do with it. And by doing that, I avoid an extra exporting / conforming round.

    But my question is the following, for now the VFX guy tracks his animated graphics when they need to “stick” to the picture. And I get a file with an alpha channel. It works well. But is it possible to do that using DaVinci’s tracker? Can I track an animated graphic so it follows the camera moves? I don’t manage…

    If I could do the tracking in DaVinci, which has a tracker that is really effective. I would get more flexibility to adjust the edit in Online.

    Jonathan Bigler replied 12 years, 4 months ago 5 Members · 8 Replies
  • 8 Replies
  • Juan Salvo

    April 2, 2014 at 4:42 pm

    [Jonathan Bigler] ” Can I track an animated graphic so it follows the camera moves?”

    No, Resolve does not have a camera solver.

    [Jonathan Bigler] “If I could do the tracking in DaVinci, which has a tracker that is really effective. I”

    Resolve’s tracker is really effective, because it’s tracking loose shapes using a point cloud. WHole other level of complexity in tracking for camera solution, or match moving. Much less forgiving.

    https://JuanSalvo.com
    https://theColourSpace.com

  • Joseph Owens

    April 2, 2014 at 4:44 pm

    [Jonathan Bigler] “But is it possible to do that using DaVinci’s tracker? Can I track an animated graphic so it follows the camera moves? I don’t manage…”

    Not really intended to be a compositing package… but there is a kind of cheat that you might try with the Stabilizer. Save the stabilizer track for that scene, picking your key reference point and apply that to your foreground plate. The stabilizer really is meant to smooth shots, but it is a way to create a record of motion within the scene. Most people use it to add “weave”.

    It’s a bit like using the stabilizer in a compositing application like SHAKE instead of its tracking node.

    Personally, I like the MochaPro planar tracking and wish that data could be used.

    jPo

    “I always pass on free advice — its never of any use to me” Oscar Wilde.

  • Margus Voll

    April 2, 2014 at 5:04 pm

    Mocha import would be great feature.

    I use it separately or some times make alpha masks with Mocha to use with super complicated shots.

    I would keep my compositing stuff out of Resolve maybe in something like AE?

    Margus

    https://iconstudios.eu
    https://vimeo.com/iconstudioseu/videos

    DaVinci 10, OSX 10.8.5
    MacPro 5.1 2×2,93 24GB
    GUI 4000 / GPU GTX 780
    DL 4K
    Eizo Color
    Scope Box
    Full Ligthspace CMS

  • Joseph Owens

    April 2, 2014 at 11:00 pm

    [Margus Voll] “I would keep my compositing stuff out of Resolve”

    Well, anything that you might be doing for real. However, it is really an advantage to have the ability to stack up an effect and grade the plates in context. Just don’t screw up the green screens.

    jPo

    “I always pass on free advice — its never of any use to me” Oscar Wilde.

  • Margus Voll

    April 3, 2014 at 5:23 am

    Oh yes in context is good point.

    I have seen and felt that with lets say multiple split screen.

    Margus

    https://iconstudios.eu
    https://vimeo.com/iconstudioseu/videos

    DaVinci 10, OSX 10.8.5
    MacPro 5.1 2×2,93 24GB
    GUI 4000 / GPU GTX 780
    DL 4K
    Eizo Color
    Scope Box
    Full Ligthspace CMS

  • Jonathan Bigler

    April 3, 2014 at 8:45 am

    Hi Joseph,

    thanks for the feedback, out of the box thinking, I like that 😉

    [Joseph Owens] “Save the stabilizer track for that scene, picking your key reference point and apply that to your foreground plate.”

    That’s exactly what I would like to try. Basically, all I want is to apply the camera shake to my plate, no fancy camera moves. But I don’t manage to save the stabilizer track and apply it to an other clip. Could you give me more details?

    Thanks to your tip about “adding weave”, I found this tutorial.
    https://www.mixinglight.com/001-R9-ShakeyCamera-DM.html

    That’s pretty much the same idea, but this one works accross projects/timelines. Sadly, ColorTrace does not load the existing timeline. Copying the footage on a new timeline just for tracking defeats the purpose of simplicity… Any tip?

  • Andi Winter

    April 3, 2014 at 11:39 am

    go to the tracking tab, switch to stabilize and track forward. go on the context menu
    and copy track data. switch to your clip where you wanna have the data, paste track data,
    change parameters and hit stabilize.

  • Jonathan Bigler

    April 3, 2014 at 12:36 pm

    Thanks Andy, I’ve been looking for that “Copy track” all over, but now I found it 🙂 thank you!

    It works very well!

    Tip for those that wants to use that method, use the strong value -100 instead of 100. This is because we don’t want to stabilize, but apply the same shake.

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