Quick Tip: Manual Track

October 30, 2015


In this short and advanced tutorial, MaryPoplin, imagineer systems Product
specialist, shows you how to use manual track on simple and complex planar
tracks to correct drift and other tracking problems. Manual Track is usually
used when the object you are tracking is completely obscured or becomes
untrackable, like laptops closing or turning away from the camera, or faces
turning away from camera. Mocha is a very flexible tracker and will save a lot
of time, but you will eventually run into a piece of footage that just will
not track. Large or continuous obstructions, extreme blur, low contrast
details and sudden flashes can all cause drift or untrackable situations. If
something just isn’t tracking no matter what you try, consider using Mocha to
track as much as possible then move to manual work, or continue to mix both
methods. You can often get a lot more done fixing shots by hand with Manual
Track or using AdjustTrack in Mocha rather than trying to tweak your shapes
and parameters over and over again to get everything done automatically.