How to smoothen text path of a tracked shot

[Michael Szalapski]

Try a smooth() expression.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Sascha Engel]

Pfff, I admit, I am a mess when it comes to Expressions, even look at that site will take me a while to under stand. Could you be so kind and tell me what expression, I have to insert to what Parameter. Thank you so much.

Sascha

[Michael Szalapski]

From the page I linked:

smooth(width=.2, samples=5, t=time) Return type: Number or Array. Argument type: width, samples, and t are Numbers.
Smooths the property values over time, converting large, brief deviations in the value to smaller, more evenly distributed deviations. This smoothing is accomplished by applying a box filter to the value of the property at the specified time. The width value is the range of time (in seconds) over which the filter is averaged. The samples value is the number of discrete samples evenly spaced over time; use a larger value for greater smoothness (but decreased performance). Generally, you’ll want samples to be an odd number so that the value at the current time is included in the average. Example: position.smooth(.1, 5)

Note the example at the bottom. Apply that sort of expression to any parameter you need to be smoothed.

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Sascha Engel]

Now I have to ask really stupid:
In the page they describe three parameters in brackets,
in the example below it’s two – how many is it now?
Where do I ad the expression? Any parameter possible that has to be smoothened?

Sascha?

[Sascha Engel]

got it I think-work! Thanx.
Still don’t understand what is the third number in the bracket for.

Sascha

[Sascha Engel]

How is it possible to only apply the smoothing to the y-value, not the x?
At the moment I just know how to put it to Position, but then it work for x and y.

Sascha

[Sascha Engel]

I alos think I do not see much of an effect, since I applied it to position, and the position value is not changing.
The text layer is parented to the tracked Null Layer.

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Most loose tracks will not benefit from the smooth Expression method as it lacks the desired control that you will require for getting a locked-on track.

I suggest that you re-track AND/OR average the results of multiple tracks. Additionally, if you posted the original clip and the result of your track and let us know what it is that you actually tracked and include the shape(s) that were used in the tracking exercise, we should be able to provide a more concise solution for you.

HTH
RoRK

Intensive AE & Mocha Training in Singapore and Malaysia
Adobe ACE/ACI (version 7) & Imagineer Systems Inc Approved Mocha Trainer

[Sascha Engel]

Hi Roland,

I think the tracking is fine. But yes, maybe I’d should attach the expression to the actual Null Layers that carry the tracking data.
What I did again in a nutshell: I have a Pan shot from left to far, which needs several times new track points. I have have the whole shot split in 4 segments, and parented those 4 Nulls carrying the tracking data together. That worked just fine. But the Pan is of an extremely zoomed shot, so specially in the vertically plane it moves a bit up and down. I have a simple text tool title, that I then attached to the tracking data of the Nulls.
All works well, just the tracking data is too detailed so the text is making also little y axis changes doing the trip, which are unpleasant for the eyes. So, I wanted to smoothen the the y coordinates. Maybe I simply do the smoothening to the tracking data on the Nulls then?

Thanx.

Sascha

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

You are right Sascha, the smooth Expression method has to be placed on the property with keyframes.

Try this script –
Scalar = smooth(2,20);
(value[0],Scalar)
// End of Script

HTH
RoRK

Intensive AE & Mocha Training in Singapore and Malaysia
Adobe ACE/ACI (version 7) & Imagineer Systems Inc Approved Mocha Trainer