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Splices together the path of a camera or moving object from any number of input pipelines. The path of a single object is assembled from the inputs, starting from the first, concatenating them together. Each input pipe past the first is matched up on its first or last frame, translated and rotated so that the object has the identical position on the overlapping frame. For example, the first input might have a frame range of (0, 100), the second (100,125), the third (125, 200), the fourth (200,300) etc. With Direction set to "To front", you'd have (200,300) as the first input, (125,200) as the second, (100,125) as the third, and (0,100) as the fourth. If you get this botched up a little it's easy to rewire.
To add additional input pins, select the phase, then click the Add Input button on the Phase Panel. Use the "Delete last input" button to remove unwanted and unconnected inputs— with nothing connected they will refer to the overall scene, which may produce unexpected results.
Splice path can be used instead of Hold mode, assembling normal camera motions with tripod motions, which is fairly straightforward.
Splice path can also be used with multiple normal camera motions. In this case, it is extremely important that each segment have a scaling the matches the others. For example, if the first 100 frames are solved with 1 SynthEyes unit = 1 foot and the next 100 frames are solved with 1 SynthEyes unit = 1 inch, you'll get a rather pathetic result. The scales will ALWAYS BE DIFFERENT unless you have taken action to make them the same. If you splice two sections together, and there are some non-far trackers that are solved in BOTH sections, SynthEyes will automatically compute and apply a scale factor to equalize the scale.
In many common useful situations, it will be impossible for SynthEyes to equalize the scale automatically without artist input. For example, a camera moves down a track looking left. It spins 180 degrees, then returns down the track looking right. That is two normal sections connection by a tripod spin. There will be no trackers in common between the two. You will need to have a way to set the scale correctly for each portion, ie an on-set measurement. This is not a software issue, just reality intruding!
Field of view also plays an important role in maintaining matches. The FOV must exactly match between the sections, or the FOV must zoom. If you select "FOV Also?" the FOV will be set to be a zoom lens (Make sure your phase tree sets it back to non-zooming for subsequent
re-solves!). Unless the lens really is a zoom, you should use a Grab FOV/Distort phase when solving for subsequent sections.
Warning: requires a non-trivial collection of phases to use. Look for sample phase trees.
Stick to cameras for now.
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