How do i motion track unrotated footage?

[Walter Soyka]

[David Ghast] “The tracker requires i track the footage layer itself, and the footage was shot sideways so it needs a 90deg rotate to upright it, but when i motion track this isnt possible.”

Track the motion, then rotate the footage in your comp.

Add a Point Control effect to the tracked footage layer. Alt-Click the stopwatch for the Point Control, and enter the following expression (modifying this as necessary to refer to the correct tracker and point number):

toComp(motionTracker("Tracker 1")("Track Point 1").featureCenter);

This will translate the tracked feature center from the local layer space to the global comp space and store it as the value of the point control. You can pickwhip to this from other point controls (like another layer’s anchor or position property). You can rotate, scale, and re-position the layer as necessary, and the point will stick.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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