Does anyone have tips on how to do this best?

[michatroubatch]

I'm working on a short movie where everyone has a number above their head. I didn't use any tracking markers. What is the best way to track this and make the numbers move just like their heads ?

[Moving to After Effects forum - moderator]

[excited_Genie16B8]

After Effects 3D Tracking.

[brian704]

Not in front of Premiere now, but I believe both Premiere and After Effects both have the ability to recognize a face. If you set an elliptical mask on a face and let premiere track the shot you should be able to get what you need. AE will definitely do it.

3D tracking will not keep the text attached to an object in the frame, it will only keep the text tracked to the camera move.

[shooternz]

3D tracking will not keep the text attached to an object in the frame, it will only keep the text tracked to the camera move.

Wrong.

Tracking in AEFX will lock and track a "target point" in the video no matter what is moving.  Therefore is the correct solution for the O.P.

eg One could track using the subjects eyes or something on their garment .then create the offset to the graphic so it will track.

[brian704]

No what I said was correct. 3D tracking doesn't attach to a "target" but works by solving for the camera. Tracking an object will provide offset data.

[excited_Genie16B8]

It's a two step process in AE, but I do believe the 3D Tracker will provide the best results for something like this.

[Szalam · Accepted solution]

The camera tracker (what I think some are calling the 3d tracker won't work if the people are moving. It tracks the movement of a camera, not an object. In fact, anything moving in the scene can throw it off - there are some ways to deal with that, but that's another discussion.

Mocha (comes with AE) will probably work for a lot of the shots and AE's point tracker will work for others.

[Rick Gerard]

After Effects does not have a 3D tracker, it has a Camera Tracker and unless you have a very specific shot photographed in a special way, you cannot extrapolate camera data from somebody turning their head, especially if there are multiple folks in the frame.

The est option would to use AE's motion tracking or Mocha AE's tracker and attach a null to each of the heads in the shot. Then attach your number to the graphic, make the number a 3D layer and animate the rotation to match the rotation of the head by hand.

The only other option that I know of is to use a tracker solution from another party that will create 3D models from objects in the scene. Unfortunately this also requires very careful planning and execution to work. I've done this a couple of times and it's very difficult to do from start to finish and requires, or should say I had do several tests to figure out how to shoot the footage so that it would work.

[excited_Genie16B8]

Tracking 3D Camera Movement in After Effects