camera tracking question

[themaxxer]

hello all

I have to track a film from the view of a helicopter. what's the best and most simple way to do this?

the project:
the task would be to composite 3D and realfilm. a helicopter flies over a terrain where the 3D modell will be placed later on...

the question:
how to tell the trackingsoftware that I look downwards and not horizontally?
how to get the right distance from the heli to the ground?
what's the best software to do this?
are there other things to consider?

it's the first time I will make a project like this.

thanks in advance for helping me.

best regards
themaxxer

[alkis]

i would recommend using syntheyes to track. i was up and running ( with much older versions) within few days and managed to track almost perfectly about 5 minutes worth of aerial shots in about a couple of days .
you ll need to have some known points in the shot that exist on your model as well. that will really help the software to understand x,y,z planes and camera distances etc.
hope this helps
regards

[instinct]

i'm only experienced using PFTrack. In PFTrack i'd first enter all camera data i know, track and solve, and then i can choose a tracking feature to be my coordinate origin. Then i can adjust the groundplane as needed/wanted...that way i'd tell it to look down.

Regards,
Thorsten

[panthon]

You have four options: Pftrack, Boujou (or boujou bullet), Matchmover and Syntheyes, and i prefer them in that particular order. As it seems syntheyes is the cheapest (400 USD), being boujou the most expensive. In my opinion, all of them are easy to use, but i prefer pftrack because it's able to track moving objects too, and i think it´s easier to set the coordinate system than in boujou. YOu must be aware of the fact that it won´t be perfect, tracking will silde a bit here and there, but i guess it will acceptable for your aerial shot.

[instinct]

Synteyes allows tracking objects too afaik. So does Maya Live witch would be the fifth options...then there's voodoo3d wich is free, but i got no idea if it is any good/usable

[Paul Oblomov]

Hm, Maya Live is too... hm old for this
I tried Boujou and Matchmover - nice apps, but first tracks everything, the second much simplier (at least for me). Anyways - if resolution is smth like 2K and higher, low-noise - almost every software can track.

[instinct]

why too old ? the adaptive tracker is one of the fastest and robust i've seen so far....it's a bit odd to use yep...but very powerful.

Thorsten

[joconnell]

Okay i'd definitely go with syntheyes - It's got a good workflow, really quick solver and the results are as good as any of the others for a lot less cash.

As for the main questions, what you normally do is track lots of points in 2d first of all (either manually which I prefer or automated) and then get the program to solve the camera. The program will return an animated camera for all or some of the move. If it returns part of the move, it means that it couldnt find enough detail to track during the footage or there was some incredibly huge camera pan that blurred everything to much to track. It also returns a set of nulls in the tracker.

The nulls represent little parts of your footage that have been tracked so for example if you have a tracking point that corrosponds to a road, then if you place an object at that null then it'll lock on to the road when the camera moves. Ideally you'll just get loads of tracking points around the area that you want to place your object in.

As for the horizontal vs vertical question, you can select all of the nulls from the camera solve and then give those coordinates. If you have a small set then some times it's possible to give exact measurements of where tracked points lay, but more importantly you can set up a coordinate system. this means that you can select a load of points and tell the tracker that they all lie on the same plane. You tell the program that they lay on the XY plane for max and it will make sure your ground points end up flat when they come into max. Bear in mind though that you can actually make your track worse by trying to tell the solver that a set of points are totally flat when in fact they aren't.

Once you've got this set up, any of the track apps will allow you to put in a test object into its 3d viewport and position it using the solved nulls. you can play back the footage in your viewport and see if the test object locks on in the way you want. If it does, the program will allow you to export a maxscript file that when run will make a max camera and a set of nulls in the same positions as in the tracker. You then build up your 3d scene using the nulls as position guides to place 3d objects into your footage.

In terms of things to consider, ideally try and keep blur to a minimum so no huge quick pans. Trackers like having a lot of parallax if possible so if you are trying to track something totally flat like going over a field you may find it difficult. Trees, houses, lamp posts and so on can all help.

Lens distortion is a big factor - since the lens of the camera will distort footage slightly towards the edges, you may find that your 3d objects slip out of place where they get close to the edge of frame. Any tracking program will allow you to undistort footage to give you a better track and make your life easier integrating 3d objects.

Motion blur in vray is also an issue - I'm writing something on it at the moment but make sure your interval center is at 0.0 or else your objects will not lock on.

Any other questions?

[Da_elf]

i actually like icarus alot

[themaxxer]

wow, thanks guys! this forum is helping me so much.

I will post the result if I will get the project. I hope so!

best regards
themaxxer

[panthon]

Slightly OT, have u seen the syntheyes website? It´s extremely awful!

http://www.ssontech.com/

[dapeter]

Slightly OT, have u seen the syntheyes website? It´s extremely awful! http://www.ssontech.com/

http://www.ssontech.com/about.htm

Check out the last paragraph... I noticed this when I got Syntheyes a few years ago.

[panthon]

Slightly OT, have u seen the syntheyes website? It´s extremely awful! http://www.ssontech.com/

http://www.ssontech.com/about.htm

Check out the last paragraph... I noticed this when I got Syntheyes a few years ago.

FAQ: why don't you have a super-fancy web site? FGR: We're more interested in offering the best possible software at the best price (see above). We do great software, we leave the great art up to you. Same thing applies to little interface icons and the like. It all costs time and money. Maybe we'll get to it one of these days. Constructive suggestions always welcome.

LOL, that's what i call attitude!
Nevertheless some people still think that the uglier an interface is, the more powerful a software is...[/quote]