Too much color variation? (Whiteboard track)

I have some tracks that are stumping me. I put marks on the boards to allow mocha something to grab onto. However the tracks are not sticking very well at all. The whiteboard in the middle comes from way back in frame and then front and center. However along the way there are shadows and variations in light. Possibly that is why it’s failing? Anyone have any thoughts on shots like this?

Links to the images if the embeds don’t work.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g37mpjyb8robil2/mochatrack1.png?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zunig8mg01h53h8/mochatrack2.png?dl=0

Track the frames where you can as well as the tracking points and you should get much better results. You can use the “add to x spline” tool to accomplish this.

Let me know if that works for you!

Cheers,
Mary

So, only make my tracked area the size of the tracking marks? Is that what you mean? In addition to picking up parts of frame?

Also, I’m curious how I should have put tracking marks on the boards to make Mocha respond better? Grids?

Sorry if that was unclear, frames of the board not footage frames. Track the frames of the boards. Not just the tracking markers. The outer frames. Select these parts of the whiteboard frames with the Add to X spline tool along with your markers. It gives you a lot more data to work with and the edges actually help the planar tracker hold on to the object and find the tilt of the track.

Also, make sure you track from areas of largest detail (where the planes are most parallel to the camera, largest, and least blurry) to get better results.

You can also increase your minimum % of pixels used to 100%, and if they’re rotating, you can increase the rotation value to look in a larger area. Both of these adjustments increase track time, but that doesn’t matter if you get a solid track.

Once all that is done if you’re still slipping, use adjust track to fix the tracks. These should be tracks that are doable, they look like bread and butter mocha shots to me. But I haven’t seen them in motion.

Cheers,
Mary

Yeah, I’ve tracked a ton in Mocha so I was surprised the tracks were slipping that much. Attempting some of your methods now.

 

Thanks for the quick response.

No problem, make sure you avoid the reflections as much as possible, don’t be afraid to move to “translation only” in your track where things get difficult for a few frames, it can make all the difference.