TrackerViz for After Effects

[hype]

TrackerViz is an amazing little free tool for After Effects that makes it unbelievably easy to work with tracking data! You can average tracks together, correct drifting tracks, use averaged tracks to calculate rotation and scale, and it's the simplest, easiest way to apply tracking data to mask vertices EVER for After Effects! And the latest version, v2.1, includes some special functions for quickly and easily applying your corrected tracks to corner pins!

Get TrackerViz here:
http://www.mackdadd.com/CG/trackerviz/T ... z_v2-1.zip

I revised the tutorial videos a bit.

The first part quickly goes over the After Effects tracker. I explain how tracking works in AE and most of the choices in the options panel for tracking. This first part is really for people who don't have much experience with AE's tracker, or maybe if you haven't been able to get good tracks using just the default settings. If you've tracked alot in AE, you should probably skip this one. Also, I should mention that I don't cover EVERYTHING about AE's tracker, just the settings you might want to adjust if your track is having a hard time.

The second part really shows what TrackerViz was made to do - tweak, modify, and correct tracking data. Everything about TrackerViz is now in this one video, including the new features of version 2.1. It was made around the way I've become accustomed to tracking, by using little solids, so I can watch the playback in realtime and visually see which tracks are working and which aren't.

The third video here shows how to use TrackerViz to help with stabilizing footage.

http://www.mackdadd.com/CG/trackerviz/T ... part01.zip
http://www.mackdadd.com/CG/trackerviz/T ... torial.zip
http://www.mackdadd.com/CG/trackerviz/S ... Viz_01.zip

They are all zipped Quicktime movies, so everyone should have no problem viewing them.

About TrackViz:
TrackerViz was created for me by nab over at Aenhancers.com. You can see the making-of thread here, if you want:
http://www.aenhancers.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=946
nab is an AE scripting genius, and you can browse all his stuff at his website! (most of it is in French)
http://www.nabscripts.com/

v2.1 changes:
-Dockable!
-Remembers the mask weights of original mask shape and recalls it when applying the track data.
-Mask chapes can be open or closed now.
-Uses Attach Point instead of Feature Center for tracks and solids. This would have only been a problem for you if you were repositioning your Attach Points before tracking.
-Two new Corner Pin options, including automatic precomposing.
-Automatically renames layers (after prompting you) if there are any layer name conflicts.

BUG NOTE for earlier versions and the old video tutorial PART 3:
In creating the third video, I thought discovered a bug in one of the TrackerViz functions, "Shape to Layers". It didn't seem to want to work the way I thought it was supposed to. I went back in and dabbled around and found out it's because I had set the LAYER OPACITY to LESS THAN 100%. If you leave the layer you are rotoing on at 100% opacity, "Shape to Layers" works just fine.

Hope everyone likes it! There's no excuses now for bad tracks in AE!!!
If you have any questions, post 'em here.

sean

edit: Aug 6, 2008 - found solution to the bug note.
edit: Feb 14, 2009 - added stabilizing tutorial.

[mechis]

Cool hype! Glad to see you were able to make these tutes! downloading.....
~Mechis

[ivanisavich]

Dude! Awesome!

[bzudo]

Here is nab's expression site translated.

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_ur ... =Translate

Here is nab's scripting site translated.

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_ur ... =Translate

[mark_creative]

I am not able to download links because http://www.nabscripts.com isn't working any more
from where else should i get this tracker viz script?????????

[hype]

I just tried both the link you posted and the link in my first post, and both seem to be working for me.
Try right clicking on the link in my first post and picking "save target as".

[Pierre]

Link works for me. Great script!
Thnx Hype for the well explained tutorials: well done man

[mark_creative]

okay i have got it from AE enhancers forum.... excellent script. thanks

[mahmoudnahmad]

thx buddy, but i think for the replacement and corner pen mocha does a lot better job and much faster no doubt, but the idea of combining tracks is amazing i loved every bit of that script, again thx for sharing.

PS: any other translator than google language and bable fish; saudi stupid internet company blocked it cause it can be a way to access bad sites indirectly.

[hype]

last year, some guy at VFXtalk.com and I got into a discussion about mocha vs AE for tracking. I basically said I could track anything in AE that mocha could track, and he posted 2 really hard examples, things AE usually has tons of trouble tracking. With some babysitting and, of course, TrackerViz, I screenrecorded me tracking one of the examples he put up. It's just a big white plus sign rotating 180 degrees on a black background.

There's NO AUDIO, and I don't explain anything about what I'm doing, but if you want to see TrackerViz doing what I had it made for, here's the link. It's a quicktime when you unzip it. 11 minutes long.

http://www.mackdadd.com/CG/trackerviz/h ... oAudio.zip

[Pierre]

Cool Hype. Well done,no words spoiled...lol

[brooklyn]

peace!! been using this nice lil script for a nightmare of a rototracking job(handheld, constant zoom in, zoom out nonsense), gotta roto out translucent plastic covered bground where u can plainly see the objects they were tryin to hide? with two actresses jumping around, using hype's theory of trackin has worked nicely(drift solids, even tho i discovered using numbered text layers as fixers helps me to keep track of whats parented to what easier, i digress), when tracking the footage i am force to track in one area while attaching in another area, but i notice when i use trackerViz's tracker to shape function, the shape is attach at the tracking point not the attach point, is there away around this? i hope so because besides that this is a great tool.

peace
roler!!!

[triplej96]

Hey hype thought I wold post this here for you and the rest of simply cg members.

I finished that sky replacement music video job I was telling you about. Trackerviz helped me nail a perfect track! The director was quite happy with it. I got to start putting together a reel here soon. Although I would like to incorporate some more match moving and camera mapping in it before I make the reel.

Anyhow here is a before video with blown out sky and here are the after videos.

videos are password protected
password: joshvfx

before
http://www.vimeo.com/1642544

after comp with track
http://www.vimeo.com/1655863

after comp on tripod
http://www.vimeo.com/1655921

The director wanted a much more naturalistic look. He didn't want real dynamic sky. Let me know what you think I tried to make it as realistic as possible. Also thought you might be interested I made the sky gradient in after effects then used some separate cloud photographs I had taken previously and comped them in.

thanks again for the script
Josh

[hype]

i notice when i use trackerViz's tracker to shape function, the shape is attach at the tracking point not the attach point, is there away around this? i hope so because besides that this is a great tool.

I'll look into this, and if I figure it out, I'll post the answer. If it is a bug or some overlooked feature, I'll log it for v.2. Thanks for catching it, and glad you're liking the tool otherwise!!

Josh, those look great! Not only are they a great example of TrackerViz (I saw no slipping in the track anywhere!), they also show something I think separates video from film - that blown out white sky. That is a clear shot-on-video giveaway, the bright white overexposed sky. Just replacing the blown out area with a plain old ordinary sky instantly makes the shot look much more filmic. Nice work, and thanks for posting it!

[triplej96]

Thanks Sean I will post this at the rebel cafe as well so they can see the power of trackerviz and my work . I agree that is a great example of video and a great solution to make it more filmic adding a natural looking simple sky.

[Pierre]

Great samples Josh of the use of the trackerviz tool! Love the flat shoot too, ready for a hdr colorcorrection.
Is there a specific workflow to incorporate the new sky jpg? Do you have some sreencaps of the different steps?
Did you desaturate this sky picture too?
Thank you for sharing

[triplej96]

Great samples Josh of the use of the trackerviz tool! Love the flat shoot too, ready for a hdr colorcorrection.
Is there a specific workflow to incorporate the new sky jpg? Do you have some sreencaps of the different steps?
Did you desaturate this sky picture too?
Thank you for sharing

Thanks Pierre. Which flat shot are you referencing too? The 3d camera projection with 3d cloud one?

Any how I don't have any screen caps currently nor do I have any tutorial making software yet. Someday I will but they are quite expensive. I could put together a PDF tutorial eventually. I'm building my portfolio website now and will have some tutorials on there too.

Yes there is a somewhat specific workflow for doing a sky replacement. Most of the sky I made in AE. I did use two separate photographs I took my self for the 2 clouds. I then took those clouds out and comped them into my AE sky. I guess it is a lot to explain especially with no screen capture software.

Hope some of that helped.

Josh

[Pierre]

Which flat shot are you referencing too? The 3d camera projection with 3d cloud one?

Thanks for the explantions Josh. I referred to the sky replacement.
How many times do we have a blown out sky because of a low camera shot: to many.
I understand It's not so easy to do a sky replacement in a moving shot and certainly explain the workflow steps. A tut would be of great help, but I know it's a lot of preparation and work aside from selling expensive software... I shouldn't have asked

[triplej96]

Your welcome. Never feel bad for asking in fact always ask! I certainly don't mind. A year and a few months ago I didn't even know AE, PS, Sytneyes, C4D now I do and believe me I have aksed a lot of questions in the past and still do!

I think I will eventually do a tutorial on this maybe just pdf until I get screen capture software. Theres a few more tuts I'd like to do as well. As Hype said blown out skies happen a lot in video so a sky replacement is a big helper to make it much more filmic and professional!

If you haven't I would certainly watch hypes tutorials and his trackerviz ones too. A great great resource one of the best on the net.

Josh

[Pierre]

I've seen a lot of AE tuts lately: Hype, Kramer, Cow team... in fact to many, and I'm stupid: in the given setup I can 'imitate' the tuts, but once on my own with my own setup or problem I'm stuck lol.

TechSmith has a new public screencast project called 'Jing' looking promissing:

http://www.jingproject.com/

I Installed it but didn't open it yet.