Blender Motion Tracking: 2D & 3D reconstruction test

Two experiments I did with the new Blender Motion Tracker. The
lightsaber test is a simple 2 point tracking exercise. The
reconstruction is only bi-dimensional: I used the shape keys to manually
adjust the saber's length. The second one is a classic camera tracking
test, with 3D reconstruction.

Both shots were filmed with my Galaxy Tab 10.1 (the highest-resolution
camera I have!). It worked quite well, but I discovered two problems
with it. Firstly, I couldn't find anywhere its focal length (required
for camera tracking). At last, I set it to 45mm. The other problem is
that Galaxy camera apparently duplicates some frames. It puzzles
Blender Tracker, which understandably doesn't expect to find two
identical pictures.

Another thing I learned is that it's safer to convert a video file into
its individual frames before tracking. This way Blender seems to work
better and you can delete duplicate frames as well.

Playing with motion tracking is funny, so I hope these tips can help
you. And thanks for watching !

Blendswap

Quit Blender or die!

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[samthehostie]

How do you remove points!? Also how do you use less than 8 points on the lightsaber?

[fulviosilvanofontana]

Thanks to everyone for all the nice comments (and sorry for the delay in my replies)! About the markers removing: I followed a great Blender Guru's tutorial, "Tracking in Blender: hidden safe" (check the third part). The lightsaber isn't tracked as a 3D object, so it doesn't need 8 points. I tracked one point (for the 2D position) and another one (for the 2D rotation). I manually adjusted the length of the virtual "blade" to adeguate it to the rotation on the the 3rd axis (perpendicular to the screen).

[fulviosilvanofontana]

Yes, it helps, even if it's not always essential. I think much depends on the the scene. I'm glad it could help, anyway!

[marekgrencstein]

Amazing work, sir. It looked real and believable, but there was only one thing that was killing realism for me - and that was that flying thing shadow. In you footage it looks like you have strong environment light due sharp building shadows. And you did really good job creating that same environment in 3D space. But as the flying-thing was moving in shadow, it's shadow stayed the same, instead it should've missed shadow. I hope that you get the point and overall I liked that. I felt like I should say that because it'll help you improve your further work. :) Take care! 

[adro]

cool! I'll check it out. Thanks for answering

[fulviosilvanofontana]

I followed a Blender Guru's tutorial. Try searching "Tracking in Blender: hidden safe". The third (and last) part is about marker removal

[fulviosilvanofontana]

Yes, I am (I was, to be exact ;). Enjoy your summer holidays!

[TheMltesechainsaw]

How do you remove the track markers? All I need to know is that and I'm set!! Nice job though, awesome video.

[fireside]

dude please do a tutorial on how to do the lightsber with motion tracking! I've searched all over the internet for such a tutorial and this is the closest thing I've seen

[fulviosilvanofontana]

Gazie fra burlo! (al momento sono ancora KO per l'influenza... speriamo in bene per Natale =_=). A proposito, auguri!

[FlyingNunchuck]

How is you add the shadow on the drone? Great job btw!

[GameItalyExpress]

parte finale l'ho capita ma non quello tra parentesi

[stevenjackson]

This is incredible. Is there any chance my 14 year old son could use a few seconds of this for his Judge Dredd YouTube movie? He could credit you.

[suhailabdulrahman]

it's nice but you need more improvement then it will be cool