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Camera tracking integration: Frequently Asked Questions

I've got the same questions asked from different people, so I decided to write most common questions and answers here.

• Q: When i press "Play" on timeline header clip editor isn't updating during playback
• A: Make sure you've got "Clip Editors" enabled in the Playback menu of timelime.

• Q: s Match Move editor or Camera Tracking Editor not a more intuitive name than movie clip editor?
• A: Nope. Hopefully this editor would be also used for such stuff as masking, painting on movies and so on -- it wouldn't be limited to tracking only.

• Q: I've found a bug, how could I report it?
• A: Feel free to mail me directly g.ulairi AT gmail DOT com, or find me with nick nazg-gul (nazgul_afk, naz) in our irc channel #blendercoders at irc.freenode.net. Please do not use private messages for reports -- it's really distracting and not constructive.

• Q: Tracker "lost" object after several frames. How this could be prevented?
• A: The best way for now is not to touch size of pattern and search area. If it doesn't help you could try to make pattern a bit smaller and search larger. This would introduce extra pyramid level while tracking and it could make tracking more stable.

• Q: I can't open my video in Clip Editor.
• A: If you're compiling tomato branch yourself make sure you've switched FFmpeg support ON. If you're using builds from buildbot then probably you're using proprietary codec which can't be supported by Blender due to license issues. If you've got build from non-core developer I can't help you.

• Q: Which formats are supported in Clip Editor?
• A: If you're using builds from our buildbot site then you'll be able to open both of movies and image sequences. And all formats which are available in release builds would be available in salad builds. If you've got problems with opening something in your tomato build, please check if it works with salad build from buildbot. It'll save time for both of me and you.

• Q: Would it be any calibration tools implemented?
• A: Definitely. Some tools are already implemented on libmv side and i'm waiting for time i wouldn't need to bring the whole OpenCV library to Blender's source tree to get calibrations tools available here. OpenCV is 37Mb which is more than our whole sources.

• Q: Why my movie has got aspect ration 16:9 and Clip Editor tells me it's 1:1.
• A: Clip editor defines visual aspect ration which is used to correct aspect ration for footages. Some camera don't write footage in correct aspect measured in pixels and that's where aspect ration will help you.

• Q: Why after reconstruction path in general looks fine, bundles are also fine but sometimes camera is jumping?
• A: This happens when you haven't made accurate 2D tracking. There are some general rules: "fill" footage with markers uniformly in terms of uniform 2D distribution across the frame and uniform distribution in "depth" (to have markers on near, middle and far planes). Also make sure all markers are disabled for frame ranges for which they shouldn't be gotten into account by camera solver.