Tripod-Camera + Object-Mode Tracking Tutorial

This flash movie demonstrates how to do object tracking, including simultaneously doing a tripod-mode track on the camera. This is a common scenario for shots of vehicles driving, sailing, or flying past the camera.

Once you've watched the tutorial, you may want to try it out yourself, or take a look at the final file. See fridge.zip (approx 10 MB) for the source image sequence and final SynthEyes scene file (also contains the scene file for the mesh match-moving tutorial). You can download a Quicktime version of the tutorial (36 MB).

If you're new to SynthEyes, you can use the SynthEyes demo edition.

Notes:

  1. The video is 12:32 and 27 MB long. Check out all the other tutorials and the manual too (after downloading the demo version).
  2. Supervised tracking is typical for these types of shots, to facilitate accuracy and to control what goes with the background and what with the object. Setting up an animated rotomask might be another possibility.
  3. Note that you can do supervised tracking in either direction; for this kind of shot it can be easier to go from the end of the shot towards the beginning, and some of the trackers were done that way, or from the middle out.
  4. The "Far Points" referred to are the trackers associated with the camera (not the object). Since the camera is in tripod mode, there are no distances available, only directions, and so the trackers are effectively infinitely far away, hence "Far Points". To facilitate display, far points are displayed at one world-size away from the camera.
  5. The HDV source footage was shot on a Canon XH-A1 in 30f mode -- 30 fps pseudo-progressive. It's then been recoded into an intermediate format, and then to medium-quality JPEG stills. Shot using a Spiderbrace.
  6. Mac version is the same, done on a PC due to capture software availability.