motion tracking 3d text in ae

[LukeWarm13]

I have a shot i'm trying to use as a dvd menu. I have a shot where the camera tracks right revealing some text that appears to be "in the scene". It is 3d text with shadows being cast on the ground. I'm trying to motion track the background shot and have the text stay still in the scene. What is the best way to go about doing this? Here are my layers: light, camera, text1, text 2, text 3, white solid (invisible layer acting as the floor).

thanks for any ideas.

 

[AndrewGentle]

It won't be easy to help you without seeing the shot itself but you're probably going to want to create a new 3D null object, perform motion tracking with rotation and then apply it to that null object. Then parent the camera to the object and see what happens. You'll probably have to play around with the scale and whatnot to make it look right. If it completely doesn't work you might have to look into complete, point based 3D camera move extractions (matchmove) which can automatically determine the path of the camera over the course of a shot. Boujou is one such app but there are other, more free options.

 

[oneinfiniteloop]

It won't be easy to help you without seeing the shot itself but you're probably going to want to create a new 3D null object, perform motion tracking with rotation and then apply it to that null object. Then parent the camera to the object and see what happens. You'll probably have to play around with the scale and whatnot to make it look right. If it completely doesn't work you might have to look into complete, point based 3D camera move extractions (matchmove) which can automatically determine the path of the camera over the course of a shot. Boujou is one such app but there are other, more free options.

Technically, there are 2D matchmoves & 3D matchmoves. In both cases you are extracting camera data, it's just a matter of how. Motion tracking in AE is a type of matchmoving.

 

[AndrewGentle]

Technically, there are 2D matchmoves & 3D matchmoves. In both cases you are extracting camera data, it's just a matter of how. Motion tracking in AE is a type of matchmoving.

Yep, I was hoping that the Z position of the camera remained constant throughout the shot so that you could get away with using 2D motion tracking in AE. Otherwise a more specialised program will probably be necessary.