Black Magic of Match Moving

Beat Takeshi

Beat Takeshi

Two-Hip Shakur
Has anyone done this extensively? Im just getting into it but its hard to find a lot of info on it. I bought the Gnomens Matchmoving 101 DVD and a book that still hasnt come yet but Im looking for some other links to stuff like this.
 
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0782144039/ref=ase_prolost-20/102-8010493-7103338?s=books&v=glance&n=283155&tagActionCode=prolost-20

Here is a really good book on the subject. He works at The Orphanage and he is considered one of the best...he's probably worked on tons of big name movies.

What software are you using? 2d like AE or Shake, or full 3D like boujou or pftrack?

A little more FYI, Pixel Corps just released a special version of boujou bullet (which retails for $2k) for only $399. You also get a free 3 month membership and they have hundreds of hours of tutorials from pro's on everything.

Check it out...http://www.pixelcorps.com/boujou_overview.php
 
This is the book I ordered like a month ago on amazon and still havnt got it yet. I think there is a day left before the projected delivery date though. I paid for overnight but WTF, they have me waiting anyway. Tomorrow I think im going to cancel the order and go to B&N and order it. They dont keep this one in stock.
I saw some work on boujou that looks great from Psyop. Stash DVD magazine did a screening and they invited them and another motion graphics house to come down and talk about some techniques. This is what got me into it in the first place.
I would be using either Combustion or Matchmover pro for now.
$400 is pretty good deal just for the tutes I guess. hmmmmm i have to shift some monies around.
 
I've toyed with Boujou, but haven't really dived in head first yet. I haven't had a need for it yet. From what I saw though it look to be pretty in depth and the possibilities are great.

Aram, glad to see another Stash subscriber on here! They're like my video inspiration injections :) There's some craaaZy shops out there.
 
I specialize in 2d/3d integration and tracking/matchmoving is a huge part of that.
It definately is a black art. If you're going to get deep into it or are considering
'going pro' as a tracker.. let me know. The specialist integration guys like myself
are a VERY short list.

Someday I need to actually get some info up on my site:
http://www.matchmove.com as its pretty ancient.

The 'automagic' apps are pretty neat and a time saver at this point, but if
you really want to learn to track, you gotta become an expert at 2d tracking,
the camera and channel controls in the major 3d apps, 2d compositing
packages, on set shooting techniques, scanning issues, camera optics and
in most cases, virtual set modeling using 'through the lens' modeling
techniques.

Tracking is a pretty cool specialty though. Its been extremely good to me.
 
Dude, I'm going to take you up on that offer. I have an ending shot for my Herofest short thats going to need some matchmoving. Maybe we can talk about how to set that up and what I need to know to execute it correctly.
Thanks!
 
I never hear anything about Maya Live. Is it not adequate as a 3d tracker? Even when I was in school a few years back, where we learned Maya (it was version 4 back then) and Shake (2.6), we didn't use Maya Live for our little 3d tracking class we had. We used something else. So what's the deal, does it suck?
 
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I use maya live for 'hand tracking'. Its got the only off the shelf 3d nudge tool that
I've seen outside of the vfx houses (though I havent checked highend3d for one in
QUITE a while). Its a capable tool, but its got some really bad tolerance problems
that are tied to old maya camera issues that have long been repaired/reworked. It
has a tendency to gimble lock and overcompensate with excessive rotational
solutions for what should be much more simple solves.

I do like the tracker movies it makes though. I wish that was standard with
the other guys apps.

BTW, Was that Michael's class at Full Sail? He was one of my students back in the day :)
 
So how would i track a 3D object to a hand or arm and follow its rotations? Should i tape white X's around the arm? The part that confuses me is the rotation of the arm and having the object know to rotate. Also, if the object is partly transparent like a glow how do you mask out the backside of the object so it looks like its going behind the arm or hand?
 
For a hand/arm, you're pretty going to be manually animating the item
right in your 3d package to match what the hand/arm is doing. Tracking
points will be pretty useless.

If the talent can hold something that is representational of the item, it
will save you TONS of headaches.

As for occlusions where it passes behind the talent, you're going to have to
create mattes that are used in the composite to mask out those parts of the
item and its glow. You create those mattes via rotoscoping, most likely
included in whatever compositing package your going to use.
 
MrPolarBare said:
I never hear anything about Maya Live. Is it not adequate as a 3d tracker? Even when I was in school a few years back, where we learned Maya (it was version 4 back then) and Shake (2.6), we didn't use Maya Live for our little 3d tracking class we had. We used something else. So what's the deal, does it suck?
Click to expand...


As someone who worked at Alias for 6 years, let me tell you, avoid Maya Live if you can. Syntheyes is a great package for the money.
 
bgundu said:
As someone who worked at Alias for 6 years, let me tell you, avoid Maya Live if you can.
Click to expand...

I end up using it all the time for the nudge tool and the ability to move along
the camera normal.
 
You mentioned you had bought the gnomon tracking book, well, if you need more they have just announced tracking DVD's. check out the site.
 
I agree about SynthEyes. It's pretty damn cool, and much easier to use than Boujou. Speaking of Boujou, 2d3 makes another cool product that comes with Premiere Pro called SteadyMove. It's the motion stabilizer plugin, but it is only for video.
 
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