2009

Requirements for Camera Tracking
To use the camera tracker, you need the following:
■ Movie footage in one of the file formats that 3ds Max supports, such as
AVI or MOV. If you have sequential still images, you can use an IFL (Image
File List). The file selector can automatically generate an IFL file by selecting
the file name and turning on the sequence button. Or use the
IFL Manager
Utility
on page 7344 to create an IFL file.
■ A set of trackable features in the movie, such as wall markers, balls, corner
points and so on, for which position measurements are known. The tracker
will track most small features with good contrast to their surroundings,
have a well-defined position in space, and are unique within their
frame-to-frame areas of movement. There must be six or more tracking
features in the scene at any one time, at least two of which must be
non-coplanar with the others, for example four on the ground and two
elevated or three on one wall and three on another. For maximum match
accuracy, you should use as many features as you can and select the features
that are distributed as widely as possible over the scene. The features don’t
have to be in any particular planes.
■ A 3ds Max scene file in which a set of point objects have been created and
positioned in 3D corresponding to all the tracking features in the scene.
The objects should be point or CamPoint helper objects. The tracker will
match-move a selected Free camera in the scene, so you need to have at
least one Free camera. You can place and orient it anywhere in the scene.
Camera Tracker: Movie Rollout
Utilities panel > Utilities rollout > More button > Utilities dialog > Camera
Tracker > Movie rollout
Opens the movie for tracking. Also provides controls for the display of the
movie, including fade display to improve the visibility of the trackers. Provides
controls for loading and saving MOT files in which tracker information is
stored.
Camera Tracker Utility | 3825