3D Camera Tracking

[CarlJ]

secretly lurking in here.

The first rule of video club is there are no rules.

And lurking should have it's own rewards. I've been holding back on posting this video because I've been screwing around with making shadows, but the process is going to take some time, so I'll just go ahead and post it tonight. Here's a frame to hold you over til then.

I think this will segue nicely into integration and color correction, which it badly needs.

 

[CarlJ]

If the average person could do this, there wouldn't be a need for a discussion. That's what forums are for.

I'm hoping the weather cooperates this weekend and I'll try and get a shot that I can work with and give this a try.

Just remember that the tracking data comes from areas of contrast. Things like tress or a light pole, a church steeple work well, and while the text or object can be rotated or panned off screen, the tracking points have to remain in the shot the entire time.

In the example I'm posting I used a tree to track the shot.

 

[CarlJ]

Let's see if this works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywA28UD ... e=youtu.be

Sorry guys, I can't seem to embed the video here.

 

[CarlJ]

I would be happy to provide the raw footage for others to try or follow along, I really don't think it's needed, but I'm willing.

The next issue I'd like to tackle is shadows. With the current version of Element there is no support for shadows, and the only work around I've been able to dig up was Elementary. If you have an older version of the plug-in you'll need to update it, something I found out the hard way. You can name your own price, but I always pay him the 30 bucks...he deserves it.

To use Elementary you need to create an anchor to your Element 3D group (if your text is on group 1, pick group 1). You'll also need a light layer, and it can't be ambient. Scale is controlled by a slider in the effects panel, but opacity you have to use the "T" key on the layer as you normally would. That was kinda confusing.

You'll also need to set your footage to a 3D layer and push it back a bit in Z space, of course then scaling back up to fit the comp.
http://aescripts.com/elementary/

 

[Jebus]

I was planning on doing everything within AE - without Element 3D (although I'm sure down the road I'll try it out). AE's camera tracker has the ability to do 3D text and shadows.

 

[CarlJ]

I was planning on doing everything within AE - without Element 3D (although I'm sure down the road I'll try it out). AE's camera tracker has the ability to do 3D text and shadows.

I'm using AE's camera tracker, but you're right using AE's 3D text would be a much simpler method for shadows. Working with Elementry is like beating yourself in the head with a hammer. Rumor has it that the next version of Element 3D will include shadows, which will also make this pointless.

 

[npalen]

I have read back and forth thru this thread several times trying to figure out what you guys are trying to accomplish. Can someone please explain to me, in layman's terms, what this is all about? Please?

 

[CarlJ]

I have read back and forth thru this thread several times trying to figure out what you guys are trying to accomplish. Can someone please explain to me, in layman's terms, what this is all about? Please?

It's hard to explain, but here goes.

We are attempting to use After Effects for 3D camera tracking to allow the use of titles in our GoPro footage. Normally you'd just follow tutorials online because it's a pretty straight forward process, but the GoPro camera makes 3D tracking difficult. For example you have some footage of a building, but you want to add a sign to it. You'd track the footage, create some text, and then align it so that it appears the text is really on the side of the building. As your camera moves the text would maintain position like it's really part of the building.

We've identified the problem with the camera (barrel distortion or fisheye) that interferes with the tracking

We've discussed a few ways to correct for that distortion

We've successfully tracked footage and attached 3D text that holds the track (with a bad track the letters just run off the screen), please see the video I posted

Now we're working on ways to make the text blend better with the footage

Hope that helps

 

[poostik]

Let's see if this works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywA28UD ... e=youtu.be

Sorry guys, I can't seem to embed the video here.

that's awesome
i wanna learn how to do this

 

[CarlJ]

Let's see if this works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywA28UD ... e=youtu.be

Sorry guys, I can't seem to embed the video here.

that's awesome
i wanna learn how to do this

We're here for ya man, just jump right on in here when you're ready, or PM me if you have any questions.

 

[poostik]

We're here for ya man, just jump right on in here when you're ready, or PM me if you have any questions.

It's really just a time factor. When I finally get around to checking some tutorials I'll be checking back in here. Thanks for the eagerness to help!

 

[CarlJ]

You're looking at the scene from the top down "custom view #2". You should use all of your custom views for the last few steps. I like to create a grid layer (make a solid, effects, generate, grid) and place it between your CG and your footage. This will help you align the light, shadow catcher (if you're using element), and the text.

I just have to say at this point, nice "J-Hook" on the flight path there...

For Element users color correction is as simple as naming your tracked footage as a custom layer, and using it as your environment map. Then play around with the light settings til you get what you want. You can also add lighting, and curves. Color correction is largely subjective so it's impossible to have a fool proof method. Apply a fast blur (.5 to 1) to your text, it helps soften the CG.

The Gopro is a fixed lens camera, and it sounds kinda crazy to use Depth of Field in a GoPro shot, but even the GoPro gets a little fuzzy at a distance. I added a small amount of DoF on the tracking camera, you may like a sharper image.

Normaly you'd add a tint to the CG then add saturation to match, but the GroPros are color intense so I'd leave it alone.

I'll try to post our updated render this weekend.

 

[CarlJ]

If you're thinking that the shadow for the text is a little off, you're right. I'll have to adjust the position of the light and fix it.

 

[CarlJ]

We're here for ya man, just jump right on in here when you're ready, or PM me if you have any questions.

It's really just a time factor. When I finally get around to checking some tutorials I'll be checking back in here. Thanks for the eagerness to help!

There are some tuts on the first page of this thread that should get you started. Take your time, but we'd love to see any video you come up with.

 

[poostik]

There are some tuts on the first page of this thread that should get you started. Take your time, but we'd love to see any video you come up with.

So, I've never used AE before - Can I jump right into the tracking tutorials or should I go through basic AE first?

 

[CarlJ]

There are some tuts on the first page of this thread that should get you started. Take your time, but we'd love to see any video you come up with.

So, I've never used AE before - Can I jump right into the tracking tutorials or should I go through basic AE first?

You should visit this page and do some basic training with Andrew before you try something like tracking. There's a lot of learning with After Effects, but it's really worth the effort.

This is also a great source for plugins for After Effects and are very reasonably priced, many are free.

http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/

 

[djidan]

The following video may be of interest to you. I applied the 3D camera tracking using Adobe After Effects along with Adobe Premiere software.

http://youtu.be/yGh276HyB8k

 

[poostik]

The following video may be of interest to you. I applied the 3D camera tracking using Adobe After Effects along with Adobe Premiere software.

http://youtu.be/yGh276HyB8k

Cool effects!

 

[CarlJ]

The following video may be of interest to you. I applied the 3D camera tracking using Adobe After Effects along with Adobe Premiere software.

http://youtu.be/yGh276HyB8k

Dan!

That's awesome, great job!

 

[CarlJ]

The following video may be of interest to you. I applied the 3D camera tracking using Adobe After Effects along with Adobe Premiere software.

http://youtu.be/yGh276HyB8k

Dan!

That's awesome, great job!

Another clip, another track, but with some updated information. I hope everyone will bear with me as I attempt to work up a formula for aerial tracking with 3D integration. I'm going thru this step by step, making mistakes along the way. The goal with this clip will be to track Phantom Pilots above New York City. Why? Because we can.

It's my hope (after a ton of research) that this method will provide a really professional track.

The first thing we're going to do is precompose our video layer, which is some stock clip, and yes I have rights to use it. Then we're going to apply our 3D Camera Tracker. Next we'll scrub thru the video and watch the track points. In any clip you track you'll notice track points that appear and disappear as you scrub thru the footage. Those are bad tracks points, also if the track point moves at all while you scrub or ram preview, that is bad track point as well.

You must have a minimum of 3 track points, and the more tracking points, the more data, more data, better track.

Now the question is what do we do about the bad track points? We have the option of deleting any and all of the track points we know to be bad, but in a perfect world once you select your track points, After Effects should ignore the rest of them. Keep in mind that deleting bad tracking data could improve your track. We'll put that theory to the test in this example.

I already know there is only 1 building in the shot that has the required amount of tracking data (4 points), and remains in the shot the entire time, and has the proper orientation for our 3D text. This building will hence forth be called the "Goldilocks" building. :lol:

The next post will cover text alignment using a tracking null.