Franken-Tracking: Combining Tracks Together

Sometimes you need to combine two separate tracks together exactly. Most commonly, this involves a shot consisting of normal sections and tripod sections, but other situations might include a shot with a major occlusion in the middle, or as a starting point for a shot that transitions from a wide shot to a full-frame moving object (still tricky). In the past, you needed to assemble the tracks in your favorite animation package, but it is quicker and easier to do it in SynthEyes.

The Splice Paths script (see below) does what the name implies; here we use it to track a camera move where our Advanta-jib cranes upwards, then spins in place. 

Notes:

  1. You can download the source imagery and scene files (61 MB).
  2. The tutorial is 9:25 and 32 MB long. You can download a Quicktime version of the tutorial (37 MB). 
  3. Splice Paths script (splice.szl) is available from the internal customer support site and from the demo downloads page.
  4. Check out all the other tutorials and the manual too (after downloading the demo version).
  5. Mac version is the same, done on a PC (E6600 Core 2 Duo) due to capture software availability.