how to use MAYA LIVE ??? - Page 2 - Simply Maya User Community

# 21 08-02-2005 , 09:18 AM

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Hey leo, hope the tracking is going well!

You could send me the video clip that you are using to track to my yahoo address if you like. I'll take a look and offer any advice I think is necessary. If you have any compositing software, such as Shake, you could try processing your image sequence to make it better to track. I find this can help a lot.

Hope to hear from you soon

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# 22 15-02-2005 , 12:08 PM

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Hi everyone,

it took a while, but I managed to get my friend to upload my tracking test clips on his website. The links are below. Please take a look and offer feedback.

There's no lighting, or shadows and objects are very crude, just basic camera movement. In case you're wondering, the clips are really small, less than 1 mb each.

https://www.acehit.co.uk/live_test_1.avi

https://www.acehit.co.uk/live_test_2.avi

I hope they open/download OK!

Thanks,

Geo.

Last edited by le_geo; 15-02-2005 at 12:12 PM.

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# 23 15-02-2005 , 12:33 PM

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Hey Leo, long time no hear! user added image

Your tracking looks great, especially considering the quality of your backplates. If you feel you have jitter, try smoothing out the camera curves manually in Maya.

What was your pixel slip in Maya LIVE?? (it'll be a figure in a box under the solve menu set). Ideally, you don't want it too high....around 0.4 is a really good result.....don't worry though if yours is high!! The tracking I do has to be pretty damn good, so we have to be accurate. Your effort is great, keep it up mate!!

LisaG

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# 24 15-02-2005 , 02:35 PM

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Thanks Lisa,

yeah, it's better than I thought it would be. Pixel slip was pretty good I think, below 1.0, something like 0.8... cant remember exactly...

Something I was wondering about though, in the clip featuring the hallway, I wanted to do a test animating something like a spider crawling on the wall (nothing major just a test).

But when I put a plane in to simulate the wall, it didnt line up that well. Could it be that my hall isnt straight, because I took meticulous measurements for each track point?

Oh yeah, one other thing, I want to change the scene so the origin is better positioned for animation (points constraint or something?). Do you use this feature?

Thanks for reading,
Couldn't have got this far without your help!
Geo.

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# 25 15-02-2005 , 03:02 PM

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Hey Leo.

Unfortunately, that is a weakness with LIVE...the solver isn't that great. You will notice this when it gives you a poor shape for your solution. The shape of the locators the solve produces should roughly represent the overall shape of your scene in reality. LIVE is not too great for this. You can improve your solves by adding plane and distance constraints. You could try selecting all of the points that make up one wall, and add a plane constraint to them. When you do this, a blue rectangle will appear in your scene, simply orient this to represent the wall, then resolve. It may well force the locators into the shape you want. There is more info about this in the help files.

** she takes a breath!! **

When you open your LIVE export in Maya, group both the camera and locators together to make an overall scene group. You can then move this group around in 3D space to where you want it to be. As a general rule, you should move and scale the solve to fit a built scene, and not move the scene to fit the camera. Sorry, this is VERY difficult for me to explain without actually showing you how to do it. Make a plane to be your wall, then move your new scene group until the wall looks right through the camera. The wall will track properly as long as the appropriate locators are touching the wall plane. Does this make sense???

:bandit:

When in doubt......smile!

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# 26 19-02-2005 , 01:34 PM

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Hey Lisa,

thanks for comment, sorry I havent responded sooner.

wow yeah, I think that makes sense, I wouldn't have thought of grouping locaters and camera together, sounds like a good idea. I'll have to try it when I have a spare time.

I was just wondering, if you ever have a piece of footage with a very fast movement that is really pretty blurry, can/do you ever manually position the solve ? Can you manually position the solve at all?

Anyway..... you should create your own video tutorial series Lisa, people would download your expert advice like crazy!

Thanks,
Geo.

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# 27 19-02-2005 , 05:19 PM

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I'm not entirely sure I know what you mean about manually positioning the solve for a blurry shot?? Do you mean how can you track a blurry shot?? You can manually place the tracking locator for every frame if you need to - not every shot you come across (in fact, very little!) will you give you perfect points to track. If you have a very fast moving shot with motion blur, you can manually place the tracking locator for each frame for where you think the centre is, obviously you need to try to be accurate.

Could you post a screenshot of your Maya scene with you solve/geometry at all? I could give you some better advice if I took a look, or feel free to email it to me.

..it would be quite cool to create a vid on this, but I'm pretty busy at the mo, moving house in a few weeks, so things are pretty hectic at the mo. Glad your learning lots though, sounds like you are picking it up really well user added image

to be good at tracking takes a lot of practice and patience.

LisaG :p

When in doubt......smile!

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Last edited by lisa_gonzalez; 23-10-2005 at 03:24 PM.

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# 28 27-02-2005 , 12:48 PM

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Hey,

about 'manually positioning' the camera, I meant animating it by hand, like you would normally, so that you can judge by eye where the track points should be. I was thinking this might be necesary if the shot is to fast or blurry for Live to understand.

Do you have any tracking attempts online at all? I'd love to see some examples of your work.

Do you use any other tracking software other than Live? I've heard good things about Boujou...

Geo.

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# 29 27-02-2005 , 02:11 PM

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Hi Leo.

Yes, you can hand track the camera! This is every trackers nightmare!! (well, it is for me anyway)...it can be very difficult to hand track the camera if the move is very fast or complicated, or the shot is very long. Literally hand tracking the camera means just setting up a camera and moving it frame by frame into position, to try to recreate the real camera move (sorry, this probably isn't a very good explanation!) You can just manually track the points yourself like I said before. If you are pretty accurate, you should get a solve out of it.

Unfortunately I cannot post any examples of shots I've tracked, as everything I've tracked so far has been for films that aren't even out yet!! I'm not even allowed to put shots on my showreel until the DVD is out.

I use Boujou bullet, Boujou 3 and 3d Equalizer as well as Maya Live. Boujou is a good, easy program to use, but I find that it crashes a lot, and is a pain to set up each time you start a new shot. It can give great solves though, and because it creates so many points, it is very easy to align scene geometry to Boujou solves. 3D equalizer is the best tracking software out of the lot. It has an excellent solver, and can also handle zoom shots really well. The interface takes some getting used to, but once you can use it it's great. I've found that shots that won't solve in Boujou or Live will come out fine in 3de. At work, some people specialise in a particular tracking software, which they use all the time. I like to change between them all, as they all have good and bad points, so one particular piece of tracking software might be more suitable for some shots than others.

Jeez, I can waffle on sometimes......lol!!

LisaG user added image

When in doubt......smile!

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# 30 27-02-2005 , 09:11 PM

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Originally posted by lisa_gonzalez
Jeez, I can waffle on sometimes......lol!!

Originally Posted by

Let me assure you we all enjoy your Waffling user added image

This is one great thread!

Thanks Lisa . . and Leo to for bringing it up.

Cheers
Paul
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# 31 27-02-2005 , 09:14 PM

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BTW: I've just downloaded and started looking at Voodoo Camera Tracker . This is one of their Test Clips

Its free so I'm not sure how good it is.

Cheers
Paul

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# 32 28-02-2005 , 09:39 AM

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Hi BMS

Just took a quick look at the Voodoo camera tracker, it looks like it works a bit like Boujou. The test clip was good. I haven't heard of that piece of software so I can't really comment on how good it might be, but if you like it and it works good for you, then great! 3de, Live and Boujou I think are just the 3 most well know and widely used tracking software, but I'm sure there are lots of others out and about that are just as effective.

LisaG :p

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# 33 28-02-2005 , 10:41 AM

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Not sure how good it is either.

I tried a 10 second clip and it did well, then I tried a 5 second clip and it kept on crashing. I guess that's expected from Beta Software. user added image

I'm going to have a play with Maya Live next.

BTW: I'm a newbie at this user added image

Cheers
Paul

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# 34 28-02-2005 , 12:06 PM

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I think that Maya Live is a good choice for if you are new to tracking. If you are used to using Maya, then the interface is lovely to use, especially the interface for tracking the points - its difficult to find a piece of software that tracks points faster. I also think that it makes you think about your shots a bit more, rather than just letting it run through Boujou, you can have more input into the shot. You can also select which points you want to track, so its great for learning what are good and bad points to track. The solver isn't great, but if you are using it for just small personal projects, it should do you well. I've got some great solves out of very difficult shots using it.

Good luck with it,

LisaG

When in doubt......smile!

https://www.x-menthelaststand.com/

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# 35 28-02-2005 , 01:14 PM

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Hey Lisa,

feel free to waffle on, because what you type definitely isnt waffle. If I find anything frustrating about forums its when people dont talk enough! It's great that you're willing to share you're knowledge.

Wow, I didnt realise you were working on movies, in fact I dont know what I thought! Are you allowed to tell us what movies they are? Sounds awesome.

How does Maya Live cope with zoom? I havent given that a go yet.

Oh yeah, BMS, I agree, I hope people find this an interesting thread. We're really lucky that someone like Lisa found it!

All the best,
Geo.

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# 36 28-02-2005 , 01:45 PM

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I'm glad that people are learning new things through this thread, thats what makes this website fab!

Yes, I think I can say what films I'm working on, but I won't say anything about them. The good thing about tracking is you get to work on lots of different films. At the moment I'm working on Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate factory.

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# 37 28-02-2005 , 02:16 PM

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WOW! That's a proper movie!

I was expecting something a little more low-key... you must be a tracking genious!

How is the job going?... or is that confidential....

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# 38 28-02-2005 , 02:43 PM

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lol! I wouldn't say I'm a tracking genius at all! I've only been doing it for nearly 6 months, but I'm really enjoying it. There is so much that I've learnt, the difference in the learning curve from being at Uni to working in the industry is massive! I do other things as well as tracking, such as 3d roto and modelling bits for scenes for camera alignment. Its also pretty cool being surrounded by people who do lots of other different things, such as texturing, compositing, effects and animation....you get to pick up loads of little tricks and tips.

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# 39 01-03-2005 , 05:52 AM

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Sorry . . . I posted a problem I was having and after spending 2 hours trying to work out what I was doing wrong, I found the problem. Sorry about the post guys user added image

Here is my first attempt at Maya Live

Cheers
Paul

Last edited by BMS; 01-03-2005 at 06:56 AM.

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# 40 01-03-2005 , 09:26 AM

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Looks really good, BMS. I think there's a a bobble at the end, but its really hard to tell as the video clip was quite small for me. Great job though :tup:

LisaG

When in doubt......smile!

https://www.x-menthelaststand.com/

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