SynthEyes 2008+1 New Features Summary

We show below a break-down of the new features in each release. Sorry the lists are getting so long! We've tried to keep them short by showing only the top features. Existing customers can see more complete lists of details on the customer-only web site. 

SynthEyes™ 2008+1 Versus 2008

3-D Stereo Movies

  • Stereo auto-tracking and cross-linking (or supervised)
  • Stereo solving with camera/camera constraints, including a new seeding mode. Also, stereo moving-object shots and nodal "all-far" stereo shots.
  • Image preprocessor "adjust" channels can be used without stabilization, ie to geometrically conform the two images
  • Mirror imaging in image preprocessor (for mirror camera rigs)
  • Anaglyph stereo display in perspective view (including for 3-D viewing of non-stereo shots)

Lens Distortion

  • New tools to simplify lens-distortion workflows
  • Batch rendering of sequences
  • Cubic distortion support in image preprocessor, for camcorders at wider settings
  • Checkline support in the image preprocessor window
  • Lens distortion presets allow complex distortions (fisheye) or high-order manufacturer-supplied lab measurements.

Image Preprocessor Enhancements

  • Floating-point "clear channel" through image pre-processor so distortion and stereo manipulations to images can be performed at highest quality. (DPX, EXR, TIFF)
  • Selectable processing (8I/16I/32F) and RAM cache formats (8I/16I/16H/32F). For example, 32F floating-point processing for speed and accuracy, with 16H half-floating-point storage to save space.
  • 3D Color Look-up tables (LUTs) plus scripts to generate them (.3dl .cube .csp)
  • Separate animated exposure channel added to image preprocessor
  • Multi-threaded preview image processing for faster experimentation.

User Interface & Scripting

  • Handy free-floating toolbars and manager
  • Detachable free-floating script user-interfaces
  • New perspective view options: Freeze-on-frame and display only trackers for the image being shown. Mouse-wheel now trucks, rather than changing FOV.
  • Mesh opacity control in perspective and OpenGL camera views.
  • Expanded script access to the scene, especially image preparation system
  • Start-up and Post-solve script
  • XML read/manipulate/write and HTTP Get/Post for workflow integration
  • "Read one frame at a time" preference to avoid saturating networks
  • Tracker weight can be animated
  • Selectable key types for level and ROI controls
  • Adjustable nudge size

SynthEyes™ 2008 Versus 2007½

Tracking and Solving

  • Smarter, more robust, and faster solving by detecting and preventing certain common problems.
  • Tracker cleanup wizard to quickly locate problematic trackers and frames.
  • Fine-tuner re-tracks auto-trackers with supervised tracking algorithm for enhanced tracking accuracy.
  • Easy handling of shots mixing translational and nodal (tripod) sections.
  • Flexible hard and soft locking of camera path and field of view.
  • New coordinate system setup capabilities based on camera placement.
  • New methods to select the correct coordinate system when several are possible.
  • Multiple image resampling modes for sharper images while stabilizing, but also for supervised tracking.
  • High-pass filtering option for shots with explosions and other varying lighting.
  • New multi-threading for supervised tracking, fine-tuning, ZWT updates, and coordinate system preliminaries for more speed.
  • New special optimization throughout to run efficiently on 8-core processors.

User Interface

  • MAC OS X Users: new OpenGL versions of camera view and 3-D views deliver greatly enhanced frame update rates—comparable to Windows version.
  • New feature-rich graph and track editor for enhanced monitoring and cleanup.
  • Squished-track feature gives an overview of tracker lifetimes throughout an entire shot.
  • User interface improvements including a more flexible viewport system.
  • Multiple control panels can now be open simultaneously like palettes.
  • Playbar can be moved to the main toolbar or floated independently.
  • Time bar, play bar, and panels can be hidden for lean RAM playback.
  • Safe area displays.
  • Larger and prettier icons, wider tracker panel option for high-resolution displays.
  • Better performance with heavy meshes using the new OpenGL views (PC & Mac).
  • Improvements for easier tracker placement onto meshes in perspective view.
  • Highly visible tracker finder.
  • Better cursors, particularly enabling context-sensitive cursors on Mac OS X.

Workflow

  • File information dialog for comments and image and mesh version tracking.
  • New scripting features for special functions and workflow integration.
  • MAC: adds JPEG, PNG, TIFF 24b RGB output capability.
  • Write roto-spline masks and green-screen keys to disk to assist compositing.

SynthEyes™ 2007½ Versus 2007

  • Gigantic new stabilization system built into image preparation, keying off SynthEyes™ 3-D tracking for high performance, robustness, and accuracy. Geometric correctness permits stabilization without compromising image geometry. Pegs features or handles traveling shots. Create motion to add life to stabilized shots. Re-frame shots. Change aspect and resolution.
  • Single-frame 3-D alignment using lines, for nodal tripod shots and lock-offs.
  • Add-many feature rapidly creates many additional trackers after an initial solve, perfect for creating dense tracker-based meshes.
  • “Coalesce” engine to find and combine multiple trackers at the same location in different parts of a shot. Especially handy for green screen.
  • Camera view can float to a second monitor.
  • Multithreaded image prefetch and read-ahead to optimize performance, especially with multiple cores and RAID drives.
  • Per-tracker color, show/hide trackers. Select all trackers with the same color.
  • More animated settings in the image preprocessor, including lens distortion for handling zoom shots with distortion.
  • Speed and accuracy enhancements when solving particularly bad shots
  • Customizable alert sound for the completion of tracking and solving.
  • Lens distortion grid shown in lens panel.
  • New Vue 6 exporter. Quick access for the last 3 export types.
  • Many UI improvements, including enhanced key equivalents, click-on/click-off mouse mode, improved perspective view navigation and clipping settings. 
  • Around 50 decent improvements in all.

SynthEyes 2007 Edition Versus 2006½

  • Smarter and more robust auto-tracking for more first-pass success.
    • Additional image motion analysis
    • More selective feature detection (even faster too!)
    • Better distribution of trackers throughout images and sequence
    • Works harder to fulfill minimum coverage requirements
    • Automatic correction of small glitches
  • Advanced multithreading in tracking and solving to use multiple cores and processors such as Core Duo.
  • Faster basic solving engine
  • Green-screen masking capability: look for trackers only in a blue-/green-screen area, so that actors don’t have to be roto-ed out or a mask generated before tracking
  • 3-D Curve tracking and solving capability. You can find the 3-D shape of a curve, even if it has no point features
  • Right-click menus for camera view and 3-D view
  • Light position calculation based on reflection from a mesh
  • Usercan create their own shot setup presets
  • Bentley Microstation and Mistika exporters
  • Track repair feature from within tracker graph view.
  • Invert-perspective script for balky low-perspective object tracks
  • Can automatically refine after coordinate system setup using *3 button.
  • When solving, shows field of view and rms error in horizontal pixels
  • Back-plate widths can be shown in inches or mm.
  • Drag handles for cameras, objects, lights, extra points in 3-D view
  • Moving a camera in “Whole” mode moves attached moving objects also
  • Trackerprediction starts after 2, not 3, frames, for quicker supervised tracking
  • Trackerscan be moved to other shots easily (particularly for File/Merge)
  • When changing out of “tripod” mode, asks if Far status of trackers should be cleared, to eliminate a common “gotcha.”
  • Expand-to-fill option for 3-D view
  • Object-creation right-click submenu added for Perspective window
  • Progress bar for solving dialog
  • And more...

NOTE: SynthEyes 2007 requires a processor with SSE2, such as a Pentium 4, Athlon 64, Opteron, Core Duo, etc. Older Pentium 3 processors that ran earlier versions can not run the new version, sorry.

SynthEyes 2006½ Edition Versus 2006

  • Quick coordinate system setup. Click one button, then three trackers.
  • Zero-weighted trackers (ZWTs). Good for marginal features that you don't want to affect the camera path. Even better, once you have an initial solve, ZWT's 3-D positions can be calculated as you track for rapid feedback.
  • Peg trackers to exact coordinates. Force trackers exactly to measured coordinates, to accommodate shots such as a long highway track with occasional GPS fixes.
  • Import tracker paths to rotoscope control points. Quickly set up garbage or object masks before automatic tracking, even for jittery shots.
  • Multiple image preparation setups. Switch back and forth between multiple setups for object-tracking shots or different regions of the image. Accelerate workflow, fitting larger shots in RAM and enhancing visibility.
  • Image preprocessor blur. Pssst: sometimes fuzzier images track quicker and more accurately! Remove compression artifacts and film grain.
  • Quick preprocessor disable.
  • Combine multiple trackers.
  • Select trackers based on their characteristics (solved, unlocked, etc)
  • Improved Pan-to-Follow. Easier fine tuning of trackers taking into account a broad surrounding area.
  • About 50 more!

SynthEyes 2006 Edition Versus 2004

  • Perspective Window — 
    • Navigate the 3-D scene independent of the solved camera.
    • Object-manipulation handles.
    • Place seed points on imported mesh surfaces or vertices to aid tough object tracks.
    • Front-projection onto meshes
    • Shadow-casting onto the ground plane or any mesh(es)
    • Create preview movies for real-time playback in the Quicktime Player, including antialiasing.
    • Depth map outputs
  • Motion Capture — for faces or whole bodies, using multiple cameras.
  • Mesh-building commands to turn a collection of trackers into an exportable 3-D mesh
  • Flexible image preprocessing engine for easier tracking and RAM storage of large film-resolution shots.
    • Traditional hue/saturation and animated level adjustments
    • Animated Region of Interest
    • R/G/B channel selection and inversion
    • Lens distortion removal
    • Optic axis re-centering
    • DeRez to maximize RAM cache
    • Save processed image sequence to disk (QT MOV, OpenEXR, BMP, TGA, SGI. PC version can also write PNG)
    • Reapply lens distortion and cropping for total lens distortion workflow
  • Tracking Improvements
    • New tracking mode for hand-held (jittery) shots
    • Easy tracker direction changes
    • Tracker size and search handles
    • Faster re-placement of trackers after extended loss of track
    • Camera view can automatically pan to follow trackers
    • Many new keyboard accelerators, for mostly-mouse-free tracking if desired
    • Exportable flag per tracker
  • Object and tracker weighting
  • Skip-frame track for auto-tracking and solving.
  • Rotosplines can be named, animated on and off, or hidden. 
  • Scripting
    • Sizzle input and tool scripting capability
    • Self-assembling input dialogs to control scripts
    • More access for Sizzle scripts to scene elements
    • Vector and transform operations in Sizzle
  • Customer Care Center with automatic downloads of the latest builds, new feature suggestion system, messaging from the factory.
  • Dark-colored user interface option.