I expect the plugin to do what it has to do. And best for the first time.

1. select a tracking object.
2. In the settings I select the method of tracking
3. Start calculation
4. Good result.

It is not my eternal duty to learn unofficial procedures to achieve a satisfactory outcome.

There is no one-click-tracks-everyting-perfect-tool in the whole production market. Take Mocha Pro, it's even a 2.5d tracker and costs 695 bucks – but you won't get that.

From my point of view video tracking still needs a good portion of handcraft and the insight you can't track everything. So again - we should focus on examples which should be a solid base for a 2d planar tracker, not the ones which are fated to fail.

@Marco. here is my test shots.
I want to track flat screen from TV and top of orange box

Fingers crossed

@musko It is impossible to track a simple black screen without key points in VEGAS 17, Mocha or any other software. Start the TV with a image. Your orange box only have 2 trackable points (minimum would be 8 or 9 points to calculate the movement, more are better to eliminate outliers). Finally... you need a texture with details or trackable points (example).

Like in this example with the small photograph (not adequate but made in 10 sec.). Please try. 😁

@VEGASPascal thank for explanation.
I will try other shoot TV with image.

I will respond with my result.

It would need a still image on the screen, not a movie (just to be sure).

I've spent 2 days trying to get it to work in an attempt at making a tutorial to show folks here how it is done, and I can't get it to work at all. When I go to copy motion data to PIP, It complains about wanting the bezier mask applied to an event, but it will only track (poorly) if i apply it at the media level. This rigged approach of having to jump through hoops of fire to do simple tasks isn't working, we need all this consolidated into one plugin that works at any fx level, no extra scripts to make it work the way it should. I've fought for days just to get a working track, and the few times I've managed to successfully get PIP working with the tracking, it's rotating all over the place in the wrong directions. I even made a little card with symbols drawn all over it in thick black ink so it would have plenty of points to track, with a black line going around the border of the card to make it easily distinguishable from background objects, and that didn't help.

Edit: Now it won't even work at the media level anymore (i've removed everything to make sure no keyframe data was left over), it won't even track... it just seems to do what it wants.

My suggestions:

1. Motion tracking should be its own thing, do not hide it away in another tool.

2. Motion tracking should then be able to be applied to any mask, track motion or effect's location parameter, including things like lens flare, independently.

3. If there is insufficient tracking points, do not just have the tracker disappear without saying anything. Notify the user the object they are tracking won't work.

4. Fix the inconsistencies... why am I able to track the same clip at the media level, but at the event level it doesn't work, but then if I clear the effect from both levels, then re-apply it at the media level, it no longer will track at all...

I know this is early, but I can't even get the effect (at least the planar aspect) to work at all and never have been able to. Mocha and Resovle's tracking just works, and even when it doesn't, correcting it is easy and the tracking is done in near real time... This shouldn't be such a complicated process that someone who has been using Vegas for 15 years can't figure it out on their own.

I got the info that currently the VP tracker is suitable for affine motion, not for more complex 3D motion.

So summarizing the infos and my own experiences it means objects to be tracked should offer:

- a flat, uncovered, non-reflective surface
- detailed texture (to offer at least 9 tracking points)
- no pulsing or moving lights/colors
- a not too high compression
- an affine motion

Fulfilling all points should offer a good base, missing few points may still output an acceptable result but also may already fail.

Also for your Vegas Pro project:

- avoid any kind of scaling (so render size should match project size, project size should match media size)!!!
- only work with preview set to "Best (Full)"!!!

I did not yet find out if frame rates, resampling, RAM preview value and GPU accelaration matters.

no one-click-tracks-everyting-perfect-tool in the whole production market. Take Mocha Pro, it's even a 2.5d tracker and costs 695 bucks – but you won't get that.

I tried mocha attempting to track the bezels with minimum screen. There's not enough data (black/shinny) although I do think it may be the reflection on bezel/screen that is still the reason for the failure & in mocha's case moving the tracking areas when/where the reflection hits could potentially save track. I attempted to keep track automated (to be fair to vegas) but did reduce screen mask half way through. It still failed

@VEGASPascal I tried planar motion with another shoot by I still don't satisfied with result.
I think what "3D Planar Motion" in VP 17 need some more improvements.
I don't think I'm here alone what he thinks.

It's not 3D tracking, it's planar 2D tracking. Mocha does planar 2.5D tracking. I'm not aware of a consumer 3D tracking tool (maybe Blender). The term "perspective" may confuse here. But in the technical sense of motion tracking simple perspective is not yet 3D.

Even if you pan on a tripod, unless the camera is exactly centered on the sensor (which usually it is not), this would cause a slight perspective movement.

But I agree we'd need some improvements. It's a first generation tool …

Mijn resultaat met tv. Vreselijk!

De Vegas Planar-demo is waarschijnlijk in andere software gemaakt.

 

I did exactly the same as you show in the video. With the same bad result. Not happy about it ......

This is my result and for my it's not RESOLVED.

in the promo it works exactly .... in VP17 it doesn't work exactly

I think we have to wait for the next version and hope that Planar Tracking will improve

@GerY
What you demonstrate in your last demo isn't affine motion which the tracker currently needs to be fed with.

I meanwhile succeeded to shoot some stuff which motion is most simplified (tripod pans) and which tracking objects fulfill the base of planar 2D tracking. These shots work really fine (means: the mask follows precisely) except of that ugly frame-by-frame based jitter. I'll post a video later, just trying to find out the cause of the jitter.

I'd like to add one more suggestion for the Vegas team... in Resolve or Mocha, as the mask tracks, if it falls off track, you can drag its corner points back to where they should be on that frame (and it actually tracks the mask shape, not just a rectangle), and this auto keyframes the track and refines it, so it continues tracking with those parameters in mind the moment you hit play again. This makes getting a nice track very easy and fast, as does the near real time analyzing (analyze as it plays).

As a 2D only tracker, it does great, but when it comes time for that object to start rotating, that's where it still needs some work. That and the GUI/workflow.

+1

Here is a result of my last shots (which were 720p50). Tracking is fine, zero shift. But I can't get rid of that jitter. I tried different resample settings, applied a CMOS fixing, different RAM and GPU settings – but this all does not help.

I would take these simple pans as a start point to find out where we can go with the planar tracker. But I'd really want to get that jitter sorted before.

Applying the PiP FX is a different thing, I'm pretty sure now this would never properly adopt if different source frame and FX sizes are used. That said I think the tracker also needs a masking tool which is not the tracker plane at the same time.

Hier is een resultaat van mijn laatste opnamen (die 720p50 waren). Volgen is prima, nul shift. Maar ik kan die jitter niet kwijt. Ik heb verschillende resample-instellingen geprobeerd, een CMOS-fixing toegepast, verschillende RAM- en GPU-instellingen - maar dit helpt allemaal niet.

Ik zou deze eenvoudige pannen als uitgangspunt nemen om te ontdekken waar we de vlakke tracker naartoe kunnen ontmoeten. Maar ik wil die jitter echt eerder sorteren.

Het toepassen van de PiP FX is iets anders, ik ben er vrij zeker van dat dit nooit goed zou worden overgenomen als verschillende bronframes en FX-formaten worden gebruikt. Dat gezegd hebbende, denk ik dat de tracker ook een maskeergereedschap nodig heeft dat niet eerder het tracker-vlak is.

Yes Marco this looks a lot like my first Tutorial where I regularly got the comment that it was not a Planar Tracking Motion, that was true .... but the result was exactly the same. Gr Ger

The reason I said it was not planar tracking was because you did not use "Shape & Location" as mode.

And the reason I'm back to a most simplified movement is to get the real issues of the tracking tool sorted out. My last demo is not a demo on how to use planar tracking. It just shows planar tracking using the mode "Shape & Location" can work fine and at the same time it shows this jitter which maybe is kind of a bug (which non-working reflecting surfaces or non-working complex 3D movements are not).

I'd like to add one more suggestion for the Vegas team... in Resolve or Mocha, as the mask tracks, if it falls off track, you can drag its corner points back to where they should be on that frame (and it actually tracks the mask shape, not just a rectangle), and this auto keyframes the track and refines it, so it continues tracking with those parameters in mind the moment you hit play again. This makes getting a nice track very easy and fast, as does the near real time analyzing (analyze as it plays).

As a 2D only tracker, it does great, but when it comes time for that object to start rotating, that's where it still needs some work. That and the GUI/workflow.

And other suggestion is:

- possibility to track backward like other mask tool when I find best frame for making mask and then I can track forward or backward

- zoom in preview window to better find point where I want to place mask point

For a small company like magix I thought it would make more sense to licence a basic version of mocha. Final cut, premiere, after effects, hitfilm all do. Davinci resolve made their own planar tracker but they have a huge development team.

Even though hitfilm pro buyers get it for free I'd bet plenty would pay the $50 add-on price available to hitfilm express users. Think about it magix, easy fix

Here is a result of my last shots (which were 720p50). Tracking is fine, zero shift. But I can't get rid of that jitter. I tried different resample settings, applied a CMOS fixing, different RAM and GPU settings – but this all does not help.

I would take these simple pans as a start point to find out where we can go with the planar tracker. But I'd really want to get that jitter sorted before.

Applying the PiP FX is a different thing, I'm pretty sure now this would never properly adopt if different source frame and FX sizes are used. That said I think the tracker also needs a masking tool which is not the tracker plane at the same time.

I bet it's because of them blocking artifacts. 🤔