Tracker motion controls Vs. 3D tracking… any info?

[Aaron Bear]

[Joe Murray] “Are you shooting the wall or creating it in AE as well?”

I will be filming the wall or ground, then adding the effects to the surface. For example, walking in a circle with the camera while looking at a spot on the ground then adding a paint splatter or a fountain of particles in AE to correspond to that tracked info.

-Aaron-
“Wherever you go, there you are”

[Aaron Bear]

I just took a look at SynthEyes. It looks like a great 3d tracking program. On their site they have a download section, where theres a clip of an aerial “flyover” zipped footage. I downloaded that, tossed it in AE then downloaded the flyover.ma file for AE.
When I have both of the compositions in AE, I can see how the tracking data (the red squares that move on the black screen) works.

What I dont understand is how objects are attached to this tracking infomation. Just for grins I tried to parent a solid to the tracking composition, but nothing happens. I see how the tracking layer has a ton of null objects and a camera within the comp.
So it would seem to me that the original footage should be in the same comp as the tracking info…oy, maybe I should just stick to 2-D point trackers before doing anything intense hahaha.

-Aaron-
“Wherever you go, there you are”

[Darby Edelen]

[Algae998] “What I dont understand is how objects are attached to this tracking infomation.”

Parent layers to the Nulls and apply offsets. Don’t think of the imported data as anything sacred, it’s just numbers for you to use as you will.

Darby Edelen
DVD Menu Artist
Left Coast Digital
Aptos, CA

[Aaron Bear]

Oh cool, I got it to work pretty well with the downloaded files from SynthEyes. I think the track data was off slightly because applying particles or a 3d layer to one of the many nulls resulted in the objects boucing around or being jittery. But the cool thing is is that I understand how it works now and can see how the 3D tracking data corresponds to a 3d layer/object with rotation, scale, etc.

If I decide to go this route I know Ill need markers on the wall or ground for the tracker to grab onto.

Thank you all for your help and info!

-Aaron-
“Wherever you go, there you are”

[Jimmy Brunger]

Honestly, give this a look: https://www.imagineersystems.com/products/mocha/

It uses a different method of tracking to traditional 2D and 3D point trackers. It won’t spit out Z info for 3D apps, but if you’re using AE it will export solid 4 point tracks to AE and tackle just about any problem shots – excessive motion blur, points going out of frame, grain or noise, fluctuating highlights, etc.

I just bought it and it looks awesome. If you need a 3D matchmover though I guess Boujou, PF Track or Syntheyes is the way to go.

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[Aaron Bear]

Thanks for the info, Mocha looks like a great tracking program. I looked at their video tutorials and example; the program is incredibly powerful.

-Aaron-
“Wherever you go, there you are”