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Geometric Hierarchy Tracking Control Panel
This panel is accessed from the GeoHTrack room. The panel itself is usually accompanied (on larger monitors) by a Hierarchy View directly underneath it. The Hierarchy view is a convenience only and is not essential if part of it is cut off on smaller monitors. Simply use a hierarchy view in the main viewport area instead.
Delete (big red X). Button. Standard, deletes selected objects. Note that regular non- GeoH moving objects must be deleted by Shot/Remove object.
Tracking direction. Left or right arrow. Sets the tracking direction for all GeoH objects in the entire scene (sni file), ie when you have the main playback direction set in the same direction, and click play or frame-forward or -reverse, tracking will occur. Otherwise, play or stepping will not cause tracking to occur. When you change the direction here, the main playbar will be changed to match (but not vice-versa).
Tracking channel. Icon dropdown button. Selects whether image-based tracking will be based on luma, red, green, blue, alpha, or the three image channels (RGB).
Normally luma suffices, RGB is predictably around 3x slower.
Color. Swatch. Sets the (unselected) display color for this object, used for the widget or bone, and for the vertices assigned to this object.
Lock/Unlock. Icon button. Locks or unlocks the selected GeoH object, and all its children.
Alpha Chan. Dropdown: Ignore/Include/Exclude. Controls what effect the alpha channel, if any, has on the trackable portion of the image. In the Include setting, only the portions selected by alpha are tracked, in the Exclude settings, selected portions are ignored. (Note that the effect of the alpha channel is indirect, not an absolute.)
Key. On/off Button. When clicked to turn it on, marks that this is a key frame and sets lock values at the current values on this object, its parents, and all its children. It will be a new reference pattern for tracking, and it temporarily and implicitly turns on the channel locks for all unlocked channels on this frame, so that the lock values will be used. When you click Key to turn it off, it is no longer marked as a key and key values are removed from each unlocked channel, for this object and all its children, but not the parents. Control-click the button to affect only the current object, not the children or parents. Right-click to remove the key, but not the lock values, of this object only. Shift-right-click to truncate all subsequent keys, but again not the lock values, of this object only.
Key Every. Spinner. As with regular trackers, a nonzero value causes a key to be set regularly (ie via the Key button) to accommodate drift in the images, for example changing lighting. Setting the spinner affects child objects as well. Do not use this unless needed, and only as infrequently as possible, as it allows drift to accumulate. Deleting automatically-generated keys can be difficult, as they are automatically regenerated as soon as they are deleted. Set the value back to zero to delete those keys.
Advanced. Button. Brings up a menu containing the additional technical controls described below. Button is checked(blue) when any of the technical controls are active. Note that Affect Parent appears both as a checkbox and on the menu; it does not cause the Advanced button to glow since it is already directly visible.
Careful. Advanced menu, checkable item. When set, a more complex and time- consuming algorithm is used. You can use this on smaller objects, after trying to track without it first.
Fine. Advanced menu, checkable item. Check this when tracking comparatively skinny objects (in terms of the number of pixels across on screen). This will do a more intensive and time-consuming search. Affects all child objects.
Spinny. Advanced menu, checkable item. Checking this enables some compensation for rotation of the object around the normal to the image plane. This may improve robustness and/or reduce the need for re-keying, at a substantial cost in increased CPU time.
Unbound. Advanced menu, checkable item. Playback stops when the tracked object departs too dramatically from the expected location. Checking this has the effect of disabling that (and also increases CPU time).
Vtx Maps. Button. Brings up the Vertex Weight Map Control dialog, see below.
Affect Parent. Checkbox. Animated. Indicates that the tracking of this object should affect that of its parent(s), such that they are all solved together. Used when the position of the child further constrains the position of the parent. Do not turn on when the child is moving independently. Also appears on the Advanced menu.
Joint/Locks... Dropdown. Controls which values are displayed in the spinners: the actual joint values, the world position of the object, the animated lock values, minimum or maximum values, or pivot location (where all joint values are zero) relative its parent, or in world coordinates.
X/Y/Z/Pan/Tilt/Roll. On/off Buttons. Animated. When the button is on, this channel of the object is forced to have the value specified by the corresponding lock value. When the button is off, this channel will be part of the search (tracking) to find the best-matching position for the object on each frame. These are animated tracks, so a joint can be locked during some of the shot, and unlocked the rest.
X/Y/Z/Pan/Tilt/Roll. Spinners. Animated. Shows the channels value in the coordinate system set by the dropdown above it. The normal "Joints/Locks" setting shows the lock value if the channel is locked, or the channel's as-tracked value if it is not locked. (Keyed values are underlined in red.) Note that the step size scaling of XYZ is influenced by the Solver Panel's World Size; adjust that temporarily when fine adjustments are required to small models
Dist. Button/Spinner. Animated. Similar to the above, shows and controls distance from the camera to the object, for more control when there is little depth information.
GeoH Toolbar. Button. Convenience function that opens the GeoH tracking toolbar in the first open perspective window. (It's available from within the perspective window by right-clicking, then looking in the Toolbars submenu.) See the description of the toolbar below.
Pinning Toolbar. Button. Convenience function that opens the pinning toolbar in the first open perspective window. (It's available from within the perspective window by right-clicking, then looking in the Toolbars submenu.) See the description of the toolbar below.
Smudge-Relax. Button. Convenience function that opens the Smudge-Relax toolbar in the first open perspective window. (It's available from within the perspective window by right-clicking, then looking in the Toolbars submenu.) See the description of the toolbar below.
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