4-point motion tracking and object follow

DustVoice wrote on 8/26/2019, 5:03 PM

Long time lurker, first time poster, so please go easy on me 😅. Also I'm not a native speaker but I'll do my best to explain the purpose of these scripts.

I have also had the same problem as you guys, which means that the planar motion tracking features currently available in VEGAS Pro are not perfect.
You can of course use the "VEGAS Bézier Masking" plugin to create a curve mask and track that and then use the script provided with VEGAS to apply this data on to a free form Picture in Picture effect.

But let's be honest. For this to work all the stars have to be aligned and often enough it is a pain in the butt to get right. I often get jitter and distortion and it just doesn't feel right.

Because I'm a do it yourself type of guy, I wrote a script that enables you to do planar motion tracking perfectly. No special plugin, nothing. ("Copy Mask PiP Corner.cs")

It works like Hitfilms 4-point corner motion tracking. So you would apply the Bézier Masking plugin on to the video track and then create a rectangular mask for every corner you want to have tracked. Pay close attention that each center of your four masks is exactly at the location where you want the corresponding corner of your "target video"/PiP to be. After that use my script to "paste" the motion tracking data onto the PiP corner and you're done. Pretty easy and reliable. Also my plugin includes multiple dialogues, ensuring the correct use of my plugins and dialogues that let you choose which mask to use and more. This is very helpful in order for the script to stay as generic as possible.

I have also developed another script ("Copy Mask to Crop Center.cs") which enables you to follow an object, for example a head with your frame. This is currently not easily achievable in VEGAS. What I mean with "follow an object with your frame" is shown in this video: Until now one would have to do everything by hand. With my script this is now peanuts.

More explanation is given in my YouTube video (skip to 16:10 & 20:32 for what to expect) I made about my scripts, so anyone can learn to use it. I would be pleased to see it getting used and other people improving it. Hope it helps you as much as it helps me.

Please credit me, if you modify and redistribute this script.

Let me know what you think!

Download Link (GitHub page): h ttps://vegas.dustvoice.de

Greetings,
DustVoice

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Comments

ScrapyardFilms wrote on 9/12/2019, 8:57 PM

I'm in Texas but you don't need to trouble yourself over this. I'm going to try copying the project file that worked over to my desktop and see if that allows me to do it here in a bit. If possible, I read above you told the script to look for the specific internal name VEGAS Bezier Masking. Is it possible to make the plugin name it looks for less strict and maybe it'll get away with finding the tracked data info? Just a thought. I'm not much of a programmer so let me know if that's not a good idea lol

DustVoice wrote on 9/13/2019, 5:13 AM

No. That will most certainly be not possible. The Scripting API requires the exact plug in name. I discovered the plug in name by running a script that showed me all the plug in names for a selected event. I can however provide you with kind of a debug script that does exactly that so you can see if the plug in name is the same.

Also the Texas situation explains why it was ass o'clock in Germany 😂

ScrapyardFilms wrote on 9/13/2019, 7:31 AM

Ha. Alright I'd be down to run the script. I just got to work a little bit ago and tried the original method again on my laptop and it works like normal. But I can remote on to my desktop computer and run the script and see if it doesn't detect Bezier again. Wanna add it to your github or something?

DustVoice wrote on 9/13/2019, 9:20 AM

I have added a new signed commit to my GitHub. The script name is `Show FX Names.cs`.

Signature can be verified by using my public key under https://dustvoice.de/#openpgp (look at the bottom of the popup), or using the file under https://dustvoice.de/public-key.asc

Marco. wrote on 9/13/2019, 9:44 AM

DustVoice, that script throws an error here:

Show FX Names.cs(75) : 'string' enthält keinen Konstruktor, der 0-Argumente akzeptiert.

DustVoice wrote on 9/13/2019, 10:12 AM

damn, stupid mistake. will be corrected in a sec

DustVoice wrote on 9/13/2019, 10:20 AM

It's working now

ScrapyardFilms wrote on 9/13/2019, 1:11 PM

I'm not able to run the script until about 4-5 hours from now so @Marco. if you were getting the same error I was for Precise Adjust Mask and all the others, can you provide @DustVoice that info? I will also provide him the same for my machine later on.

lan-mLMC wrote on 9/17/2019, 5:09 AM

When I use precise adjust, the pan/crop shift mistakenly.

screen link

DustVoice wrote on 9/17/2019, 6:11 AM

That's really really weird. I'll have to look into these problems. The only problem is that I have huge exams until mid next week. After that I will have enough time to look into each problem individually.

lan-mLMC wrote on 9/17/2019, 6:54 AM

That's really really weird. I'll have to look into these problems. The only problem is that I have huge exams until mid next week. After that I will have enough time to look into each problem individually.

Actually, there is no plugin-name's error in previous VP16's script "copy mition to PIP". Maybe you can refer to it. I can't understand why previous VP16's script "copy mition to PIP" has no error but your new script has lots errors.

All my error above is in a english version vegas pro. If I change it to CN language version, there is more errors.

DustVoice wrote on 9/17/2019, 7:02 AM

As I said I will have to look into this in particular detail. There seems to be a general problem with the script. Will look into it ASAP

ScrapyardFilms wrote on 9/18/2019, 3:33 PM

Take your time, @DustVoice. I know you'll be able to get it working perfect.

Just so you're aware, I created a Planar Motion Tracking tutorial on my channel and gave you credit since I also featured this script and advised people to check out your channel.

DustVoice wrote on 9/18/2019, 3:36 PM

Thanks. Glad it's useful

DustVoice wrote on 9/18/2019, 3:48 PM

I just watched your video and I really appreciate the detailed explanation from a native speaker. I'll link your video under mine, especially since someone asked me to do a tutorial on the "native" implementation of planar motion tracking in vegas and I haven't had time to do so due to my exams. Your video is the perfect one to combine all the script features in a simple understandably matter as well as showcase the problems with the native tracking. I'll look into the errors next week when I have time. Thanks for all the support

DustVoice wrote on 9/18/2019, 4:03 PM

@ScrapyardFilms Just a quick note:
I have custom github and youtube links which makes it easier (also for me) to remember the URLs.
https://youtube.dustvoice.de (yt channel) and https://vegas.dustvoice.de (github repo). Maybe you would see fit replacing the links in your video description so it isn't a long scary link. I'll replace the link at the beginning of the thread too

ScrapyardFilms wrote on 9/19/2019, 7:18 AM

Glad you approve of it! And sure I'll replace the links, no problem. Keep me updated if you fix up the script and I'll get the new files!

Former user wrote on 9/20/2019, 3:12 AM

@DustVoice Your script is been very useful to me. Thanks!

@ScrapyardFilms Your tutorials are very good. Congratulations!

DustVoice wrote on 9/20/2019, 5:20 AM

Glad you enjoy it. If there is any improvement you want me to make, just drop a comment and I'll see that I'll implement it when I have time

ScrapyardFilms wrote on 9/20/2019, 6:56 AM

Appreciate the kind words as well!