Online Video Match-Moving Tutorials and More:
Learning Camera Tracking
This page is for online web videos we have produced; some are hosted on our site, some on YouTube. For other learning materials, including FAQs, online classes, third-party tutorials, and 'homework' projects, see the page for other stuff.
New tutorials are posted on our SynthEyesHQ YouTube channel. You can subscribe to the channel to be notified of new tutorials, or follow our SynthEyesHQ Twitter channel.
Some tutorials show earlier versions of SynthEyes. Operation on the current version will be very similar, usually with only graphics changes and additional controls. Look for notes on the tutorial's web page to see if a related capability has been developed later.
If your security settings are too high, you may not be able to see some movies. If this happens, you can right-click/Save them and then play them.
Web Tutorials
Check out the Talkin' Tutorials section of the web site for discussion, clarifications, and to suggest new tutorials. Grouped roughly by topic, some tutorials are listed in more than one section. Many tutorials on a specific topic contain general techniques and tricks as well. Looking for a different topic? Let us know.
How to Shoot
- Path-ology: how to plan camera paths for camera tracking.
- How to Shoot a Gecko: discusses shots where the trackers are all on a single plane.
- But it was shot on a crane!. Discusses shots that may seem to be amenable to a 3-D solution but are really tripod-type shots. (2008)
Basic Match-Moving
- Most basic automatic tracking example. (2011)
- Quick Pass Through SynthEyes (part 1), continue on to part 2 and part 3 (2011)
- Introduction to Tracking in SynthEyes. Includes a little automatic and supervised tracking, cleanup, coordinate system setup, and object insertion. (2008)
- Introduction to Perspective. Non-computer look at what's needed to determine depth information in a shot.
- Some New 2008 User Interface Features. (2008)
Tracking Techniques
- Snapping in Symmetric and Spot Trackers. (2011)
- Supervised Tracking with the Search-From-Solved Mode (2011)
- Extending an Automatic Tracker (2011)
- Wait, Over Here: Intro to Offset Tracking (2011)
- Two new techniques for evaluating trackers in SynthEyes 2011 (2011)
- Introduction to SimulTrack (2011)
- Advanced Workflows with SimulTrack (2011)
- Care and Feeding of Supervised Trackers for best results with the least work.
- Creating smooth tracks with Fine Tuning.
- Automatic and supervised tracking with export to After Effects.
- Tracker Cleanup Dialog Walk-through in 2008. (2008)
- Roto-masking for shots with pesky actors. (2008+1)
- Three-part look at a common Sports Stadium shot. (2008+1)
- Tripod-mode solution, including manual alignment and object insertion.
Coordinate Systems
- Visualizing Coordinate System Alignment. A silly look at coordinate system alignment, without the benefits or drawbacks of using a computer.
- Auto-Place Button Tips and Techniques (2011)
- Distance Constraints
- Coordinate systems and the constrained points view.
- Coordinate System Setup with a Distance Constraint. (2008)
- Fun with changing the Coordinate Axis Setting in SynthEyes.
- Single-frame alignment tutorial
- Keep Your Distance: how to scale a scene to match a camera to object distance you have been given.
- Manual alignment of the example 3-D solution.
- Tripod-mode solution, including manual alignment and object insertion.
- Coordinate Scaling from Camera Height. Advanced. (2008)
- Coordinate Scaling from Camera Travel. Advanced. (2008)
Lens Distortion
- Lens Grid Auto-Calibration. (2011)
- Download the 36x27 inch lens grid and print it at most copy shops such as FedEx Office (Kinkos). Use this for 2011.1 lens grid auto-calibration.
- Using a Lens Preset. (2011)
- AE/SE One-Pass Distortion Workflow. (2011)
- AE/SE Two-Pass Distortion Workflow. (2011)
- AE/SE Advanced Distortion Effect. (2011)
- AE Undistortion by 3D Export. (2011)
- Shows lens distortion workflow to produce undistorted images. (2008+1)
- Shows lens distortion workflow based on re-distorting and compositing with the original image. (2008+1)
- Advanced tutorial looking behind the scenes at lens centering and distortion. (2008+1)
- Lens distortion white paper: additional information about the algorithms (updated for 2008+1).
- Another white paper on handling distortion and anamorphic padding.
- Download the older 50x27 inch lens grid for zoom-based centering determination, and print it at most copy shops such as FedEx Office (Kinkos). Not for use with the 2011.1 lens grid auto-calibration.
Stabilization
- Traveling-shot image stabilization tutorial (camera windshield-mounted on a car)
- Image Stabilization tutorial (peg-mode - camera orbiting target)
- Tracking and stabilizing in SynthEyes, then exporting to Bentley MicroStation
Textures, Backgrounds, Clean Plates
- Texture Extraction Introduction (2011)
- Mesh's Texture Extraction (2011)
- Roto-masked Texture Extraction (2011)
- Creating Clean Plates (part 1), followed by part 2 and part 3 (2011)
- Creating a Panoramic Image (part 1), followed by part 2 and part 3 (2011)
Object Tracking
- Relative Scale of Object Tracks. (2011)
- Tracking a Flat Tablet, eg iPad (2011)
- Moving Object Roto'd Autotrack (2011)
- Object-mode and simultaneous camera tripod-mode tracking example.
- Mesh Match-moving - track an existing mesh model to a shot.
- See the writeup of Digipost's object-tracked commercial, Cascade.
Stereoscopic Tracking
- New Stereo Features in 2011 (2011)
- Basic automatic stereoscopic tracking and solving. (2008+1)
- More details of stereoscopic tracking setups and how to do supervised stereoscopic tracking. (2008+1)
- Handling 'all far' tripod-type stereoscopic shots. (2008+1)
- Shows stereoscopic object tracking using automatic tracking. (2008+1)
- How to do motion capture in stereoscopic shots. (2008+1)
- How to set up Anaglyph Stereo Views in SynthEyes. (2008+1)
- How to align stereo cameras manually using the perspective view and image preprocessor in SynthEyes. (2008+1)
- Follow-on, how to align stereo cameras quickly and accurately using a SynthEyes(Sizzle) script. (2008+1)
- Introducing a minimal stereo rig that we use to generate test footage. ("White paper")
- A more complex second-generation stereo rig produces better-aligned results, with a wider inter-ocular distance. ("White paper")
Exporting
- Exporting 2D Trackers to 3D Applications (2011)
- Introduction to Modo exports from SynthEyes. (2008+1)
- A Motion 3 in 3-D example. (2008)
- Export and setup in After Effects, after automatic and supervised tracking in SynthEyes.
- Tracking in SynthEyes to Lightwave export to opening in Lightwave.
- Tracking and stabilizing in SynthEyes, then exporting to Bentley MicroStation
Advanced Topics
- Projection Screen Generator (2011)
- Discussion of a moving-camera + moving-object track. (2008)
- Using the hold mode in SynthEyes 2008 to handle shots that are a mix of normal and tripod-mode sections. (2008)
- Franken-Tracking: Combining separate tracks with Splice Paths. (Largely superceded by Hold Mode!)
- Creating a movie from a still using the image preprocessor.
- Add-Many and Coalesce Trackers tutorial.
- Using the SynthEyes 2007 green-screen panel.
- Smoothing zoom shots.
- Using the Image Preprocessor to reduce RAM cache memory requirements.
- Using SynthEyes's Batch processor to auto-track a collection of shots.
- Changing a tracked camera from a camera to an object track.
- Follow the Sun: find the direction to a distant (sun) light, so you can cast matching shadows in your 3-D app.
- Building a Shadow-Catcher using the new 2006 features.
- How To Find Your Plate Width. Shows how to convert from field of view to focal length and back using plate width, and how to use field of view and focal length to compute the back plate width of your camera.
User Interface
- Auto-Save Introduction. (2011)
- Maya-style Keyboard Accelerators for Move/Rotate/Scale Modes (2011)
- Creating and Using Script Bars to quickly access commonly-used functions. (2008+1)
- Using a Tablet with SynthEyes.
Troubleshooting
- How to locate bad trackers by working in the dark!
- Tracker cleanup of an example shot of a warehouse: jumping and far trackers.
- Diagnosing export issues: what to look for if things don't line up after export from SynthEyes to your other applications.
Administrative
- Visual registration and authorization procedures.
- Configuring auto-update, or manually accessing SynthEyes updates.