Introduction

This script for Daz Studio takes the data from the camera tracker named Voodoo and makes it usable in Daz Studio

Second version : Now supports outputs from VooCat ( http://www.viscoda.com/index.php/en/products/voocat ),

which is Mac compatible, better and faster

Unfortunately, Voodoo has difficulty processing more than 200 or 300 frames

so, you could use this occasion to reduce the number of images

If your video was shot on a tripod, ( or almost as if on a tripod) then tselect the Movie Type : "rotation (Camera on a Tripod"

results are better and faster in this mode.

If instead you were walking around with your camera, select the Movie Type "free move".

Results will be better if you avoid zooming in and out while filming in "free move" mode.

While at frame 0, do a File / Initial camera

i show my video in HD720p format so i chose the HDV 720p 16:9 Type

Click on the [Track] button and wait for the (long) process to complete

Do a File / Export / Textfile

Specify a location and name for your file, i chose to save it as 4200.txt in the same folder where i store the image sequence

I elected to Export all the data points instead of the 1500 points limit

Close Voodoo

Moving on to Daz Studio

Start Daz studio

Make sure the aspect ratio of Daz Studio's view-port is the same as the aspect ratio of your video footage ex:1280x720,

This is set in Studio's Render/Render Settings menu

Make sure you are at Frame 0 on Daz's timeline

Launch mcjVooDooDaz

Click the [(Re)build VooDoo Camera] button

a new camera named VooDooCam should now exist

Make it the current view cam (instead of Perspective)

Click the [Build and Save point-cloud object file] button

Specify a name like \"example.obj\" as the filename

Click the [Load last saved point-cloud object file] button

Use the Hexagon import preset : 1 unit = 1 cm

Right in front of your camera there should now be

hundreds of little cones. They are the feature points

that were tracked by VooDoo while analysing your video

Optional: Click the [Play (render preview)] button

this gives you a good idea of the resulting render

New in 2013 : vertex clouds

Pressing the "Build and Save vertex-cloud" will let you save to disk the markers as an obj file.

Instead of having 1 tiny pyramid per marker it will have 1 vertex per marker ( chains of 10 vertices )

Use the "Load last saved cloud" button to load the vertex cloud.

The vertex cloud will look like a mess

The other way to make the vertex-cloud look like a vertex cloud is to use mcjTracer

The mcjTracer plugin is only available for Daz Studio version 3, but should soon be ported to DS 4.5

- Select the vertex cloud

- create an mcjTracer (from the Studio's 'Create' menu)

- in mcjTracer's parameters tab, make the edges invisible

it should look like this

Use the cones to position your characters and props

Click the [First Rendered Image] button and

specify the name and location of the first image to be

rendered, example: \"C:\\VooDooDazOut\\pic.jpg\" ...

... will produce the series of images:

pic0.jpg, pic1.jpg ...pic149.jpg in the VooDooDazOut folder.

Click the [Render as Numbered Images] button.

mcjVooDooDaz will render each frame with the proper backdrop

Convert the resulting series of images into a video file

using a program like virtualDub, ffmpeg etc .."