Matchmoving: The Invisible Art of Camera Tracking, 2nd Edition

Chapter 5

Automatic Tracking

When matchmoving software first came on the market, 2D tracking was strictly a manual affair. Matchmovers had to place 2D tracks one at a time (much as we did in the Chapter 2 tutorial). But then automatic 2D tracking came on the scene, and it was a whole new ballgame. Automatic 2D tracking made more shots easier to solve, and perhaps more important, they could be solved without any special knowledge of how the software worked.

Automatic tracking represents a huge paradigm shift in how matchmoving is approached. Rather than laboring to place tracks in the right position, the artist simply runs the automatic tracker. But there are a few major differences between the two approaches, and that’s what this chapter is all ...