User Manual

Visibility
Toggles which overlays will be displayed in the 2D and 3D viewers. The options are Tracker
Markers, Trails, Tooltips in the 2D Viewer, Tooltips in the 3D viewer, Reprojected Locators, and
Tracker Patterns.
Colors
Sets the color of the overlays.
 Selection Color: Controls the color of selected tracks/locators.
 Preview New Tracks Color: Controls the color of the points displayed in the viewer
when the Preview AutoTrack Locations option is enabled.
 Solve Error Gradient: By default, tracks and locators are colored by a green-yellow-red
gradient to indicate their solve error. This gradient is completely user adjustable.
Reporting
Outputs various parameters and information to the Console.
Understanding Camera Tracking
On large productions, camera tracking or 3D match moving is often handed over to experts
who have experience with the process of tracking and solving difficult shots. There is rarely a
shot where you can press a couple of buttons and have it work perfectly. It does take an
understanding of the whole process and what is essential to get a good solved track.
The Camera Tracker must solve for hundreds of thousands of unknown variables, which is a
complex task. For the process to work, it is essential to get good tracking data that exists in the
shot for a long time. False or bad tracks will skew the result. This section explains how to clean
up false tracks and other techniques to get a good solve.
Workflow
Getting a good solve is a repeated process.
Track > Solve > Refine Filters > Solve > Cleanup tracks > Solve > Cleanup from point cloud >
Solve > Repeat.
Initially, there are numerous tracks, and not all are good, so a process of filtering and cleaning
up unwanted tracks to get to the best set is required. At the end of each cleanup stage,
pressing Solve ideally gives you a progressively lower solve error. This needs to be below 1.0
for it to be good for use with full HD content, and even lower for higher resolutions. Refining the
tracks often but not always results in a better solve.
False Tracks
False tracks are caused by a number of conditions, such as moving objects in a shot, or
reflections and highlights from a car. There are other types of false tracks like parallax errors
where two objects are at different depths, and the intersection gets tracked. These moiré
effects can cause the track to creep. Recognizing these False tracks and eliminating them is the
most important step in the solve process.
Track Lengths
Getting a good set of long tracks is essential; the longer the tracks are, the better the solve. The
Bi-Directional tracking option in the Tracker tab is used to extend the beginning of tracks in
time. The longer in time a track exists and the more tracks that overlap in time of a shot, the
more consistent and accurate the solve.
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