TrackerViz for After Effects

[Redsandro]

These bugs will be fixed in the next version.

Thanks.

Could you elaborate on this, or provide a simple screenshot to illustrate your purpose.

Sure.

Imagine having two layer tracks (Tracker 1, Tracker 2) and with those trackers selected, you make an expression based average track (Tracker 4).
The layers are named after their source, indicated by the brackets surrounding their name.


You then replace the source of the Average track to something else (maybe you want a single solid color for all expression based layers).


Same for the keyframed trackers, I usually select all of them and drag a new solid on them while holding ALT:


Error: Without any warning, the scripts now all reference tracker #2 because it's the first one with that name. Hence breaking the average track.


If TrackerViz would actually rename the layer in stead of the source, the name would stay when the source is updated.
(And I'd like the option to specify the prefix before the number, because I like to have tracks named according to what the tracker is for, so it would save me the step of renaming them anyway.)


Alt-drag source update: scripts remain proper.

[Redsandro]

Another feature request, for I think everyone likes to track multiple TrackPoints at the same time:
If you have Trackers selected which have multiple TrackPoints (TrackerViz wants trackers with a single Pt), it would be neat if all those points were automatically used as an "Average Position".

[Redsandro]

And here's a bug I had never encountered before:
When there's an unrelated layer in the comp with a name of more than 31 characters that is also the source name so that it gets brackets (e.g. "[32chars(...)]"), whenever you run TrackerViz it mentions conflicting layer names and offers to change them. When you click yes, nothing is changed and no TrackerViz layers are added.

In addition, if there is only one layer like that and it's the target layer for TrackerViz to work on, the expression will break even if you choose keyframes in stead of expression.
So, maybe trackerViz should rename this layer too, for example by removing the last character. (you cannot append anything because 32chars is max).

[sagebru5h]

Great tutorials on the TrackerViz script! Really helped me better understand tracking in AE.
I have a question though.

I am trying to do several screen replacements, and many are on hand-held devices.
BUT... all four corners of the screen aren't always visible in some of the shots.

So, I've figured that if I animate a mask shape, I can approximate the position of the 4th corner vertex
by simply lining up the angles of the other two adjacent mask corner vertex (looks good enough).

Then, using TrackerViz, I was hoping to use the position of each mask vertex to create separate shapes (the Shape to Layers funtion), so I can ultimately perform a corner pin, but i keep getting an error--

"Some Transform properties have been modified. This function requires default Transform."

Could someone please help me? Thanks! I greatly appreciate your time.

[Redsandro]

You can do it without the cornerpin. You need to track only three corners. If you lay out a screen replacement so it fits nicely, you can parent it to a layer that's the pos/rot/scale average of the 3 points. It will work on some types of footage. That's how I did it (even though I did have 4 corners).



If you want to continue your method, I think you've either moved, rotated or scaled your layer with the mask. Like the message sais, TrackerViz doesn't want that. You need to 'Reset Transformations' somewhere (messing up your mask) and reshape your mask without transforming the layer.

[sagebru5h]

Nevermind. I found v3 of TrackerViz, and am no longer experiencing the error. Thanks anyway. Great script!

[Redsandro]

Hey I didn't even know there was a V3. Thanks for the tip.

Nab/Hype, why the silent release? I thought there would be a small party here. I'll check it out soon.

[nab]

TrackerViz v3 (among others)

[Redsandro]

Ah I missed it. But great to see a new version!

[hype]

I haven't had a chance to make a video tutorial yet for the new features/UI (been moving apartments, working too much, etc....). I will soon, though.

[Redsandro]

-edit-

My mistake!

After messing around, I found that I have two identically named precomps in my project. Naturally, this confuses any script that points to one of them!
My mistake.

For anti confusion, here's my original post:

Hi people,

I found another bug, although I think it's After Effects' fault, but it can be fixed by TrackerViz.

I have a preComp named "020; Blah Blah B". It contains a layer with a random name like "Any Name". This one has two trackers and I use TrackerViz3 to convert two track points to Average Pos+Rot. My settings is to make keyframes, but in order to do that, TrackerViz first makes an expression. TrackerViz uses comp() by default (for making keyframes). This error won't show up if you change that to thisComp(). But in keyframe mode, you cannot choose it in the options (first button).

When I continue, I get two errors:

Bad argument: couldn't find layer named 'Any Name'
Expression Disabled

Script error:
undefined

Since TrackerViz converts the expression to keyframes anyway, using comp() for the temporary expression is not necessary. It could be changed to thisComp with no difference in behavior for TrackerViz except for avoiding this error.

(I am still using the above version, dunno if there are any bugfixes since. Also, I use CS3)

[lloydalvarez]

Hey Nab,

Would be great if you added support for the RedGiant Warp corner pin plugin. It supports 32bit, motion blur and a few other key features that I find are a must now-a-days.

-Lloyd

[Redsandro]

I noticed that for example Rot Pos Sca does not take the average position but the position of the first tracker. I always add that manually. Because it has always given me a more steady track.

Hence, I suggest changing the pos expression to the (P1 + P2) / 2 math used for averaging two points.

Also, usually I average trackpoints and calculate rotation from the averaged layer. Most time I forget to switch from trackpoints to layers and TrackerViz gives me an error message. But since it's obvious what to change, would it be a good idea to change TrackerViz so that it detects what is selected and use that for the calculation? Layers, Trackpoints, all is fine as long as not something unrelated is selected?

[hype]

I noticed that for example Rot Pos Sca does not take the average position but the position of the first tracker.

Correct, that is how it was designed to work. The averaging tool is for averaging, the Pos Rot Scl is for creating a new layer with all 3 transforms custom selected by you, not for averaging position. The way I work myself is to track lots of things in the scene, many things multiple times. Then I average tracks together. THEN after all that, I select the one that represents the position I want, and the second one that represents the scale and rotation I want, and then run Pos Rot Scl. That's how it was designed to work. Pos Rot Scl Is not for averaging tracks.

would it be a good idea to change TrackerViz so that it detects what is selected and use that for the calculation?

This idea wouldn't be bad at all. Although I've never run in to this issue myself (mainly because I don't really ever use it set to trackers), if it's possible, I don't see why it shouldn't do that.

[Redsandro]

would it be a good idea to change TrackerViz so that it detects what is selected and use that for the calculation?

This idea wouldn't be bad at all. Although I've never run in to this issue myself (mainly because I don't really ever use it set to trackers), if it's possible, I don't see why it shouldn't do that.

Yeah there's a slight difference between our workflows. You manually apply all single trackers to solids outside of TrackerViz to preview them, and then choose which ones to use. When I need tracking in simple shots, perhaps CG, only few trackers, when I find no tracks with errors on first glance at the path, I skip a step and do the averaging straight from the trackers.

I select the one that represents the position I want, and the second one that represents the scale and rotation I want, and then run Pos Rot Scl. That's how it was designed to work. Pos Rot Scl Is not for averaging tracks.

I see. But since averaging tracks used also for rotation cannot in my experience make the track worse, only better, it's something I'd like to see implemented. I'd update the script myself, but last time I did that, Nab released a new version that had the updates even better and other functions.

So I am curious if an update is planned? If this specific feature is not going to be changed, I'd still rather tweak a new version than an old version.