after effects tracking

[matwom1]

Hello everyone 

iv been using premiere pro cc and after effects for quite some time but iv never had really great results using the 3D tracker .

i decided to purchase a add on called FAYIN which i found really good and easy to use when i needed to track my footage .

unfortuantly the company FAYIN stopped in 2017 ish and the add on is not any longer compatable with after effects .

i use the built in 3D tracker but i find that its abit hit amd miss with the quality of the tracking .

does anyone have any ideas on over tracking  add ons or other workflows which can give me more reliable tracking .

thank you for your help 

[Rick Gerard]

For successful Camera Tracking, you need to have a few things in your favor and you really must set an origin and ground plane. Here's a shortlist.

• very little lens distortion - AE's camera is perfect and most wide-angle lenses are not so the two are not necessarily compatible
• fixed geometry with sufficient detail to actually track in the scene - no fixed geometry = no way to solve for the camera
• moving detail in the shot, like people walking around, will end up with tracking points that foul up the calculations so they must be deleted
• an origin and ground plane must be set before you add your first camera and solid to anchor the camera track
• it is a very good idea to add a camera and solid with the grid effect using the same points you used to set the origin and ground plane to make sure your track is accurate
• if you end up with a bad camera solve try deleting tracking markers on moving objects or changing the parameters 

After Effects does not have 3D tracking, it only has Camera Tracking and there is a huge difference. To reliably get good camera tracking data requires that you choose the shot carefully. If you do not get a good solution then re-tracking is not necessary to run the tracker again, all you have to do is clean up the bad tracking markers and let it solve for the camera again.

I hope this helps. Maybe this screenshot will also help. JR football at night, MoVI Pro + Segway for moving 4K footage at 120 fps for some slow motion. The first solve was terrible because of all these markers on the players:

Even though I could get what looks like an accurate target on the field all of the markers on the players fouled up the track. After Deleting the markers on the players by dragging a selection around all of them, and setting my origin and ground plane I got a really solid track from the shot that was giving me a lot of trouble. 

I hope this helps. The tool works very well if you know how to use it. I don't know of any tracker that works on every shot without a lot of help from the user.

[matwom1]

Hi mate , 

firstly , thank you for your advice and speedy response . 

Im sorry to bother you but I have a few questions if you don’t mind ? 

You mentioned setting a origin and ground plane which I’m not sure how that is done ? 

Also how do I delete bad tracking markers ?? 

Sorry to be a pain mate ,, is there a video tutorial you could point me at or something? Thank you 

[Rick Gerard]

Type Camera Track in the Search Help field at the top right corner of After Effects and spend 30 minutes with the User Guide. It will tell you how to use the feature. DO NOT rely on YouTube for tutorials unless you fully vet your trainers. Most of the new ones are by enthusiasts that don't really know what they are doing.