Re: Motion trackers

Hi Paul--

Personally, I've used Boujou aand exported the camera movement data to Maya. 
It is actually pretty easy to use, and certainly has a much flatter learning 
curve than Maya itself, but I think all the modern motion tracking s/w is 
fairly easy to learn these days.  Boujou is great in that it is 
resolution-independent, but it is rather pricey, somewhere over $5 grand, I 
believe.  If your friend's studio is working with standard def DV, they 
might want to take a look at The Pixel Farm's PFHoe; it is supposed to be 
the same software engine as their full-featured (and full-priced) PFTrack, 
but PFHoe is $99 and I believe there are demo versions you can get.  PFHoe 
is limited to standard definition DV, but for $99 (or the demo version) it 
might be a good thing to play with to evaluate their anticipated workflow.

Maya has motion tracking software built in as you mention Max does; it is 
called Maya Live... I don't know anyone who uses it.  I've been studying 
Maya at the very Maya-centric Gnomon School, and they mention it is there, 
but they don't teach it at all, instead teaching Boujou and Realviz 
Matchmover.    I suspect 3DS's tracker is similarly limited as your friend's 
experience suggests...

If you are shooting live actors against green screen and want to put them in 
a virtual set, all I know to do is place tracking markers (X's) on the green 
screen and use those to track the camera's movement with.  There are 
recommended practices about the shape and placement of the markers as well, 
but I haven't actually done this particular workflow as the tracking 
projects I have done were putting CG objects into handheld camera background 
plates.

The Pixel Farm's web site is http://www.thepixelfarm.co.uk/   If your friend 
is interested in learning about motion tracking workflows and "best 
practices" for production, he might want to take a look at some of the DVDs 
on motion tracking offered by The Gnomon Workshop 
http://www.gnomonworkshop.com

Hope this helps!

--Alan


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul K Egell-Johnsen" <[email protected]>
To: "Linux motion picture technology" 
<linuxmovies-general-5NWGOfrQmneRv+LV9MX5uipxlwaOVQ5f@public.gmane.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 6:46 AM
Subject: [Linuxmovies-general] Motion trackers


> Hi folks,
> I thought this might be the right forum to ask around for help on
> motion tracking. A friend of mine wants to create a 3d scene that
> should be synced to a studio with a green screen.
>
> Unfortunately we don't have any fancy hardware for keeping track of
> the cameras, so we need software for creating the motion data needed
> to integrate with the scene made in 3d studio max.
>
> 3DS max has such a function, but according to my friend it isn't good
> enough for what he wants to do.
>
> Any tips on software, but also how to set it up to save time and
> money, would be great.
>
> Best regards,
> Paul K Egell-Johnsen
>
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security?
Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier
Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo
http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642