This week we learnt about ‘Matchmoving’ which is the technique that allows computer generated graphics to be inserted into live-action footage with correct position, scale, orientation, and motion. Also known as motion tracking, its what allows movie monsters to run down Main Street and robots to run through crowds and look real!
It can track the 2D position (the x and y) of a small cluster of pixels and ‘solve’ the 3D position. It can reverse engineer camera movement, camera angle and lens angle and attach this data to another layer or objects. However, like the more basic motion tracking we looked at in week 5, it cannot track pixels if they are obscured by another object of motion blur.
When experimenting with Matchmoving we first used it to attach some text to a box.
This we experimented a little more creating a VFX hole in a road… complete with terribly placed fire and smoke! If I had more time to work on this I would have cleaned it up a lot more however it still gets across the potential of Matchmoving.