Shot Advice

[dr0nzer]

Hi there,

I'm currently quite new to matchmoving and I've been dropped into the deep end with a shot (which i'm not complaining or anything, love working in film/video and il take anything I am given) but I need some advice on how to tackle it.
In the shot there is heavy background motion blur, so all the focus is aimed at the foreground elements (characters), I can just barely manage to track the scene but when it comes to calibration the results are somewhat different....

the shot is quite "advanced" meaning its not the average shot where the cam sits on a tripod or a crane, instead it looks as if the camera is a steadycam and held by hand, so the movement is quite erratic.
Because the elements in the background are heavily blurred and the characters run through alot of them, what is the best way to calibrate a successful solution?
I've winged it but it doesn't produce the results I'm after.

the main problem is troubleshooting the calibration, trying to get a steady motion path.. would be better to edit the curve in the 3d animation package or keep trying using the matchmove software (i use maya and 3d equalizer)

Cheers.

[ShadowMaker SdR]

Without seeing the shot it's difficult to give good advice. Especially when it isn't working the best it could be. If you have any information about the original camera that would certainly help.

[Brötje]

What you can do, is mask out the foreground ( actors ), so your tracking program knows that it should not track there. That will help a lot to get your motionpath right. Most tracking applications have this function. What software are you using?

Shadowmaker is right tough, you need to give us something to work with. Then we'll be able to help a lot better.

CHEERS!

[dr0nzer]

Cheers for the advice, masking out the actors don't really do much since the background is all blurry as the camera moves so there is nothing to track, unfortunatley I am unable to post the actual shot as it will be a breach of company policy and probably get some complaints from warner bros..

the original shot where this thread was written for was completed... to a certain extent, but the next shot I've been assigned is very similar, there is nothing to track apart from 2 markers and they only stay in shot for about 3 frames plus the camera moves extremely fast! so i'm having to guess track a vast majority of it... its not the best solution.
I will try to post an example of this shot up soon!

I'm using 3d Equalizer but do have access to boujou and pftrack.
Thanks for your advice!

[Emre Goren]

You can check out www.cmivfx.com and contact Chris for some suggestions , he is very helpful and if you go with PfTrack he can guide you into right direction...but as other ppl say , its hard to imagine the problem without the shot...good luck