how to use MAYA LIVE ??? - Page 4 - Simply Maya User Community

# 46 02-03-2005 , 09:43 AM

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Morning everyone (well, for me anyway!)

Yep, that track looks good BMS. What exactly are you putting in the scene?? Are you keeping those geometric objects, or are they just for testing? It looked nice and smooth, which is important. It's ok to have jitter or unusal moves in the camera track, as long as the real life camera makes these same moves. Sometimes the solve can add uneccessary jitter, which should be removed.

Regarding reflections, specular highlight, etc.....as a rule of thumb you should try to avoid tracking these, as they will not be representative of actual points in the 3d scene, and can throw the solve. I've tracked specular highlights before though when I was desperate for points, and it came out alright.

What tracking software are you using for the example there BMS the Voodoo camera tracker? Its just that you mentioned about having too many points. You can't really have too many points, as long as they are good points, but I don't know how Voodoo works. I've found that using a low number of points for an easy shot will give a much nicer, smoother solve than using lots of uneccessary points, but some shots will require lots of points....at work some poeple have tracked shots in Live using 200+ points!

LisaG

When in doubt......smile!

https://www.x-menthelaststand.com/

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# 47 02-03-2005 , 11:33 AM

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Hi Lisa,

It's purely a learning exercise for me and the scene was shot at home to test out Tracking after reading this thread.

The footage was taken using a MiniDV camera and the shot was bad and shaky on purpose. I assume smoother camera movements are going to be easier to track.

I ended up using Maya Live which seems to work really good even with the minimal points I put in. I understand what you mean by having a lot of points, but considering this scene was only a test to give me a feel for tracking, I didn't need a perfect track, because I wasn't ever going to use it for anything.

I never ended up using Voodoo camera tracker, because it seems to keep on crashing on me. It looks like it sets up its own track points and lots of them. Like I said I didn't get very far with it.

This thread has been so helpful. I'm glad le_geo posted the thread and you were here to help.

Cheers
Paul

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# 48 02-03-2005 , 12:17 PM

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Hi Paul.

It must be late in Australia! One of my friends is off down under for a year on Friday, lucky cow!! lol.

You choose quite a good subject to practice tracking on, with lots of good points for you to get, and the camera move wasn't too simple, with some jerks and the like to practice with. You did a good job.

The good thing about Maya LIve is that it can sometimes get a pretty good solve out of just a few points....this is especially great if the shot is nodal and you only have the luxury of 1 or 2 points and nothing else.

Voodoo sounds a lot like Boujou, which picks its own points, and sometimes you have loads! With Live and 3d equalizer, you can intuitively select your own points to track. This also eliminates the need for masking, which you do in Boujou to cover up the moving objects.

user added image

When in doubt......smile!

https://www.x-menthelaststand.com/

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# 49 02-03-2005 , 09:25 PM

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Hi Lisa,

Yes it was late here in Australia when I posted last and now its 9:40am Thursday Morning user added image

When you typically track a scene and then place in your objects how do you normally go about adding the Shadows, reflections etc to the scene from your 3D objects?

Is your friend coming down here to holiday, work or Holiday and work user added image

Regards
Paul

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# 50 03-03-2005 , 11:58 AM

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Hi Paul.

Good question, but all of that is dealt with by the lighters, renderers and compositors. The objects are lit and textured appropriately, then seperate elements of the scene are rendered out (reflections, shadows, beauty, etc), and then the compositors put it all together, in a nut shell.

My friend is going over to work and to play user added image

When in doubt......smile!

https://www.x-menthelaststand.com/

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# 51 03-03-2005 , 10:37 PM

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Hey everyone,

glad to see this thread is getting more active!

Out of interest Lisa, what compositioning software do you use? I have After Effects, which I'm not that familiar with. I've used it to do some chroma keying compositioning. I basically turned everything in my maya scene bright green, then in AE used vector paint to smooth it out! I'm sure this is the WRONG way to it!

By using different 'rendered' layers, is this the 'good' way to composite? I suppose you have greater control.... I'd really like to know more about compositing. I'll be gutted if I get pretty good at camera matching then realise I suck at compositing it together!

see ya,
Geo.

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# 52 04-03-2005 , 09:36 AM

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Hey Leo, how you doing? Its a bit snowy in London today, and freeeezing!

I use Shake, although I'm no way an expert at using it! I know the basics though, such as layering and keying. I've used After Effects before, but I didn't really like it much. I probably just didn't give it a chance, I know its a pretty good program.

Yes, the best way to render is in layers, as it gives you so much more control over the final look of your scene. Typical render layers can include a beauty, specular, diffuse, occlusion, reflection and shadow passes, but you can have lots more. Rendering in layers enables you to tweak each layer individually to get just the look you want, its amazing the difference this can make to your final piece. Compositing is a huge topic by itself though.

Bye for now,

LisaG

When in doubt......smile!

https://www.x-menthelaststand.com/

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# 53 04-03-2005 , 07:22 PM

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Yeah,

I'm reluctant to start waffling about compositing. It would be a little off topic.

I'm never sure where to ask about compositing in forums. Is a maya thing or a compositing package thing...?

Anyway, yeah i know what u mean... it is getting pretty damn cold! So bad I've even sunk so low as to wear long johns today! I'm not proud ! hehe

geo.

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# 54 28-03-2005 , 05:15 AM

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Well this is a Maya specific forum but you can always ask about other things. Feel free to discuss your compositing issues. We're always glad to help. user added image

Dave Baer
Professor of Digital Arts
Digital Media Arts College
Boca Raton, Florida
dbaer@dmac.edu

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# 55 28-03-2005 , 05:24 AM

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Man I'm a major newbie at compositing, but I'm slowly learning.This is my latest effort. So much to learn and so little time user added image

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# 56 28-03-2005 , 04:48 PM

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Yeah, needs work. Color and light matching is needed. Right now it doesn't look 'natural'. What are u using to composite?

Dave Baer
Professor of Digital Arts
Digital Media Arts College
Boca Raton, Florida
dbaer@dmac.edu

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# 57 28-03-2005 , 07:38 PM

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Yeah Dave it needs a lot of work user added image

I did another clip this time using an outdoor scene, where I didn't have controlled of tracking points. Here is Clip 2

I'm not using a specific compositing program as yet, but I am going to start using After Effects in the near future. In both clips I simply used Adobe Premier.

Clip 1 - Real Footage
Clip 2 - Shadow Layer
Clip 3 - Robot Layer

I still have heaps to learn about Modelling, Animation, lighting, you name it!

Any tips welcome user added image

Cheers
Paul

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# 58 29-03-2005 , 07:38 AM

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To get full control over your compositing you'll want to start rendering in layers using render passes. That will give you the best control over color, shading, lighting and shadows.

Dave Baer
Professor of Digital Arts
Digital Media Arts College
Boca Raton, Florida
dbaer@dmac.edu

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# 59 29-03-2005 , 08:22 AM

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Hi there BMS, hope your well.

I think that considering your fairly new to this, those clips are looking really really good. You should def start rendering in layers to get a better look. You could try doing a beauty, diffuse, specular and shadow pass to get you going. There is some info on doing this in the Maya help files. I've used Premiere a few times, but I'm not sure how great it is for good compositing??

Anyway, keep up the good work, its coming along fab!

LisaG user added image

When in doubt......smile!

https://www.x-menthelaststand.com/

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# 60 29-03-2005 , 10:07 AM

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Thanks Dave and Lisa,

I finally worked out how to render layers this Sunday, before then I had no idea how to get shadows on my footage etc. I'm yet to try diffuse, specular passes, but hopefully I'll get there.

I find Maya mind blowing in terms of the volume of information you need to learn.

Hopefully in a few months time I'll have something worthy of posting here. user added image

Cheers
Paul

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