Self Improvement

Matchmoving is an essential part of visual effects production; whether you are work at a boutique house or on the assembly line at Industrial Light and Magic, knowing how to track a backplate is a valuable skill. New software makes it easier than ever to do, but that doesn't mean matchmoving is a simple task. If you want to improve your tracking skills or save yourself unnecessary hours of experimentation, pick up a copy of Matchmoving: The Invisible Art of Camera Tracking by Tim Dobbert, a matchmoving expert at San Francisco's leading VFX house The Orphanage.

Matchmoving: The Invisible Art of Camera Tracking, by The Orphanage''s Tim Dobbert, is an in-depth, thoughtful guide to mastering this challenging skill.

Even with automatic trackers and improved algorithms, problematic footage can confuse any software. In typical Siggraph and NAB demos by Realviz or 2d3 — two of the leading companies covered in the book — the software performs tracking shots in minutes with little human intervention. That's not real-world tracking. For every easy shot, there's a killer shot with smoke, moving objects, motion blur, and other artifacts in the frame that can make tracking a very challenging assignment, even for experienced VFX artists.

Dobbert begins explaining the basics of the underlying concepts of photogrammetry and projection geometry (without the math) with two simple exercises. These appear in the first 30 pages of the book, and you are expected to be ready to follow along with your animation program of choice. The first few chapters continue Dobbert's blend of the practical and the theoretical, and then the guide settles into tutorials of the basic tasks required to track a shot — selecting and setting points, solving the data, and configuring the coordinate system for export to a 3D program.

The tutorial on coordinate systems is worth the price of the book because this seemingly simple part of the process is poorly described in the documentation for every matchmoving application I have reviewed. Dobbert's explanation of how to set up the coordinate system and recalibrate the scene will save any newcomer a lot of annoyance.

Once the fundamentals have been established, Dobbert takes on difficult shots and situations one at a time. The book is filled with all the things the software manuals leave out about even basic requirements of their applications, while including solutions to situations that break matchmoving software. There is also a chapter and tutorial on tracking humans and animals (the book's example is a duck) — the first in-depth treatment of the process I have seen. Tracking a mask or creature face to a living creature is common visual effect, and now artists can learn the fundamentals of this specialized category of tracking using files supplied in the accompanying CD. The DVD also includes versions of 2d3 Boujou Bullet, Andersson Technologies Syntheyes, and Realviz Matchmover Pro.

Dobbert has written a good chapter on the basics of motion picture cameras and optics, which is vital because knowing camera technology is going to be helpful when camera reports or a site survey has not been done (forms for these surveys are supplied on the included CD). There is also a very informative chapter devoted to setting up markers and taking measurements on set. In short, this is a course on becoming a professional matchmover in the VFX industry.

The book is well illustrated, and the tutorial material covers a wide variety of matchmoving situations. This is a thoughtful presentation of professional matchmoving with practicality and results the main focus. You really believe Dobbert wants you to succeed as a matchmover at a VFX studio. It's good news that the first — and so far only — book on the subject is an excellent teaching guide. Highly recommended.

Prosumer software and hardware have become acceptable solutions for boutique production studios of all kinds and E-on Software's Vue 5 Infinite, a landscape generation program, is one of the best.

The advantage of dedicated-use software is that the software is set up to do one thing really well, so the ease of the learning curve (compared with general 3D apps) is a big part of Vue's appeal. Still, a little insider information is always welcome. AsileFX has just introduced five training CD-ROMs for Vue 5 Infinite, including Getting Started with Vue 5 Infinite; three CD-ROMs for advanced users; and a CD-ROM dedicated exclusively to using Vue 5 Infinite with LightWave. The training consists of QuickTime movies stored on a CD-ROM that largely consist of lecture/demonstrations. This is not a self-running DVD that works in a player.

Compared with other DVD-style training products — for instance, the Total Training series for Photoshop — the AsileFX training is middle of the road. Each QT in the Vue series is a shot of the interface without interruption. The narrator goes through each aspect of the interface, workflow, and tools in relatively elaborate detail, with the assumption that you are a novice 3D user.

The production values are adequate, but there is no topic index, so you have to scrub/search to repeat a useful section. There is a fair amount of repetition and a few questions that go unanswered, but generally, the narrator knows the program well. There are several useful points every few minutes, so sit back and relax.

There is no question that a few hours spent watching the training QTs will save you time searching through Vue's documentation, which is good but not great. You will also learn things that are not covered in the Vue manual. Since there are no third-party books or other training materials for this excellent software, the AsileFX CD-ROMs are the only game in town. Frankly, considering that what you basically get is an expert user speaking for nine hours while a screen capture runs, $45 a pop for these CD-ROMs is pricey. As of press time, there are two discount packages available for three- and four-CD-ROM sets ($119 and $149, respectively).

Vue Infinite is in need of more high-end tutorial projects in addition to those available on its site. For now, the AsileFX Vue training CD-ROMs are adequate, perhaps even necessary, but not up to the level the software deserves. My recommendation: Try the Getting Started CD-ROM first and see how you like it.