'maya Live' Is Very Powerful Tool For Camera Matching/tracking

Maya Live is very powerful tool for camera matching or tracking. In this way we can add 3d objects into the real shots and a lot of things. I decided write a Maya Live Tutorial because I guess there isn't many tutorials about Maya Live. A lot of people use "Boujou" for matching. Because Boujou and other matching - tracking software's are very easy and practice but I don't think so. In my point of view you have got many control in Maya live and you can step in every points. For this tutorial you need "a video shot" and I've prepare that for you. Here is my back garden and you can download in here. It's 48mb and "548" jpg files. I have record HD format but I resize the video for low bandwith and easy work. Ok, we can start this project but I want tell a point about this shot. First of all we need know to use which points? The answers in to the video record. And for this you need a clean shot. Ok, in our video shot;

We can use these points for matching. But we dont need every points in this picture. Ok lets start.

1.Open Maya. And select "live" menu.

But if you can't see the "live" section in this menu you must load live from "plugin manager". For this;

2. Select "scene > new match movie". Now you can see the live panels bottom of the screen. Look like this;

3. First panel is "setup" panel. Empty scene and we have got a maya camera. Now we will add our "garden shot" from setup panel. Click the "Browse" button next of the "Full Res Image" and select the first image (corner_00000.jpg) of our "garden shot". And click open.

4.Now we can see our "garden shot" in image plane of maya camera. When click the play button we can see the motion of camera. Its very moving but its no problem.

5. We are ready for "track operation". Click the "setup" section and select "track" section from left of the screen

. 6. Now we can start the tracking operation. and we have got different screen. This is track panel and we will add track points from this section.

7. In the "0" frame click the create button. The "trackedpoint1" created center of the screen. Its our first tracking point. and click this button for moving this point.

8. Now we can change position of this point. In the "shotCamera1" drag the track point to right of the screen. Look like picture; you will see a little dark stone. and set the position of "trackedpoint1" in the "pointCenteredCamera" view. You can do this with by drag the picture in "pointCenteredCamera view". Its important. You dont change of "trackedpoint1 shape". You must do that with by drag picture in "pointCenteredCamera view". If you change or scale the shape of trackpoint you must undo the operation. Yes it's important.

9.In the "0" frame click the "start track" button. You will see a progress window. When the finish progress you can close that progress window and your screen must look like this picture. If you click the play button in timeline you can see trackpoint following the dark little stone. But if your trackedPoint1 dont following the dark stone continuously there is a problem. Probably you didnt set the position nicely. If you have got this problem you must set position of the track point and you must start track again. Ok in the next step we will add more track point.

10.We need more points. So click create button for this. "trackedpoint2" in center of the screen. And set the position of trackpoint look like this picture. You must drag this point to connection area of concrete and there is a little brillant point. You can see and set position nicely in "pointcenteredcamera view". In the "0" frame click the "start track" button. The tracking operation must be continuous. If you havent got problem; it's nice. Because we can continue add more points.

11.In the "0" frame click the create button for add another point into our scene. Drag the point look like in this picture. There is a dark area in concrete and a little brillant point center of the dark area. And you use "pointCenteredCamera view" for set position nicely. Look like picture. The point is brillant. After set the position, click "start track" button.

After the track operation for third point, your track points graphics look like this graphics in this picture. I want make mention about these green graphics. These are very important title. Because the lines are show to us our tracking points are healthy or not healthy. If you see red sections in your graphics; this mean is your points don't tell good things to Maya. If your video record hasnt got good areas for your tracking points; your points will be sickly or useless. Forexample "grains" can excite belie Maya live for tracking. And finally, you will see red sections. But now there aren't any red sections in our graphics and its very good.

12. We will add other points. Click create button and set the position of point look like picture. After that; set the position nicely in "pointCenteredCamera" window. Dont forget "dark area and a little brillant point". And in "0" frame click start track button.

13.Now we have got "4" nice point. Click create button for another new track point. Set the position of point look like this; there is a little dark point in the left of the oar. You can see nicely in "pointCenteredCamera view". After set the position click start track button. Dont forget; click "start track button" in "0" frame everytime. The tracking operation must be continuously.

14.Ok we continue add more track points. For 6. point, click "create button". And set the position look like picture and click "start track button". After the tracking operation we can go "next step".

15.We need add another track point in ground. Click create button and set the position of point look like this picture. After that click "start track button".Tracking operation must be continuously.

16. Click create button "8.track point" and set the position look like in this picture. Click the "start track button". Tracking operation must be continuously.

17. I guess we have got enough tracking points. We can start the "solve" operation. Select the "solve" section from the left menu panel. We can add to real camera movement to our Maya scene camera in Solve panel.

18. Click the "solve button".

19. After the "solve operation". You can see some points and the camera's movement in the perspective view. But its not finish because if we look the "shotCamera1 view" we can see the grid and our concrete ground aren't matching. Look like picture. We must match the grid and cocrete ground. After that we can make a good compositing.

20. Ok. Select "survey".

21. Click "Constraints Type" menu and select "Plane". In the shotCamera1 view select "trackedpoint6"" trackedpoint1" and "trackedpoint7" with "shift" key. And click create button. If you look the perspective view panel you can see a plane.

22. Select the solve look like picture. And click "register" button. We did tell to Maya Live that the points are on a ground with by these constraints.

23. Now we need another plane constraints and we must tell to Maya another points are in the "vertical ground". Select the "Survey" again. And select other points; "trackedpoint2 trackedpoint5 trackedpoint4 trackedpoint3" Click "create" for make a plane constraint.

24. Now open the "channel box" and rotate the new "plane constraint" 90 degree in X. Look like picture.

25. Select the solve "thick" again and click register button. After that you can see that our concrete ground and Maya perspective view grid are matching. Its good. Look like picture.

If you click the play button in timeline you can see the movements are matching and if you create a cube or something 3d model the perspectives are matching and you can go compositing.

If you've any problem about this tutorial don't hesitate for send mail to me. My mail adress is; [email protected] Thank you very much and have a nice day.