tutorial camera tracking voodoo,
dazStudio, blender, green screen
Purpose
Study camera tracking tools Daz Studio 1, 2, 3, 3
with an eye one compatibility with Blender
Create new tools along the way
Footage
Download a set of "plates" from
http://www.hollywoodcamerawork.us/greenscreenplates.html
the set named "MATCHMOVE TEST CLOSE"
it contains 307 plates in 1280x1080 format
hcw_mmtest_close.0133.png
Place these images in C:\TeleBlender\greenplates\MM Test Close
Resize those 307 images to the 1280x720 format, this slightly degrades the images but avoids having to deal with non-square pixels
Create a sub-folder named sqpix : C:\TeleBlender\greenplates\sqpix
install the free image processing utility imagemagick in c:\imagemagick
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/download.php
Run this batch file ( if you are not familiar with imagemagick nor with batch files, you'll have to use a video editor )
This batch file resizes all 307 images and places the result in C:\TeleBlender\greenplates\MM Test Close\sqpix
FOR %%a in (*.png) DO c:\imagemagick\convert %%a -resize 1280x720 sqpix\%%a
C:\TeleBlender\greenplates\MM Test Close\sqpix\hcw_mmtest_close.0133.png
hcw_mmtest_close.0133.png
Must be Voodoo
Install Voodoo camera tracker from
http://www.viscoda.com/index.php/en/products/non-commercial/voodoo-camera-tracker
Voodoo Camera Tracker (Version 1.2.0 beta, binary for Windows - Installer-version)
Start Voodoo 1.2.0 beta
Do a File / Open / Sequence
Browse up to the first image of the sequence :
C:\TeleBlender\greenplates\MM Test Close\sqpix\hcw_mmtest_close.0000.png
Specify "Free move" as the "move type" since the camera is not on a tripod
At this point it could be quite important to set the camera and tracking parameters,
( i didn't use Voodoo in a long time .... so i skip it :) )
Click on VooDoo's start button
VooDoo processes the 307 images
Do a File / Save / textFile
and File / Save / Blender .... Blender 2.5 and up
I let it export up to 1500 markers ( default )
name this file MMTestCloseFromVoodoo.py
also export a Text Version
File / Save / Blender
bane this file MMTestCloseFromVoodoo.txt
Using the voodoo-produced python script in Blender
Export a Daz Studio scene ( still, non-animated) to Blender 2.64 using mcjTeleblender
Change the "Editor type" of the bottom panel to "Text Editor"
in Blender's Text Editor, do a Text / open Text Block
Select the .py python script you generated using VooDoo ( MMTestCloseFromVoodoo.py )
Run it by clicking on the "Run Script Button"
visually nothing changed but in the scene hierarchy
there's a new "Voodoo camera" and a "Voodoo point-cloud"
Select the "voodoo_render_cam" camera in the scene hierarchy panel
in the 3DView Panel menus, do a View / Cameras / Select Active Object as Camera
Voodoo's point cloud should now be in-view
Select the point cloud to make it even more visible
Change the Editor type of the bottom panel to "TimeLine" press the play button
( unfortunately we immediately notice sudden jumps, not a good sign )
now we'd like to have the proper background images ..... how do we do that ...
we search youtube for blender animated background
and we find the method here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3Ocr4ubosY
Type N to make the currently-selected-object's properties panel visible
select the voodoo camera
set the background image to the first image in the sequence
We can see that the markers don't really fit, but are not too far off either
remember we did not make efforts ( at all ) to set the camera properties in Voodoo
i'm impatient and want to see results.
we'll pull Aiko ( the daz studio imported character ) into view
i turn off 'background images'
i set the render output to PNG, RGBA and in Film i click on "Transparent"
i render frames 0 to 307
frame 133
Using imagemagick and batchfiles i composited this render on top of the original footage
it gives a good idea on the unusability of this camera tracking data
we'll give it another go
Using correct Camera settings in Voodoo
after loading our image sequence in Voodoo
we go in File / Initial Camera
the default parameters
we change this to a type that better fits our footage
we let Voodoo re-compute the camera animation
export it in Blender format
import it in blender using the method discussed previously
this time ( since i figured it out ) we change the camera settings to get an animated backdrop
unfortunately with the Blender Cycles Renderer, this background doesn't seem to get rendered
but it's an excellent preview
now i render this and composite it using imagemagick script
Here is the result ! not bad not bad
Exporting camera animations from blender
We are able to get Voodoo tracking cameras in Blender,
later we may obtain tracking cameras from Blender's built-in tracking function.
in this section we'll use a brand new script to export Blender's cameras into Daz Studio
Beta Release Beta Release Beta Release Beta Release
you will find the first version of the Blender - to - Daz camera exporter, a Blender python script
place it in the Blender modules folder
typically C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender\2.64\scripts\modules
load it using a Blender "Text Editor"
select a camera in the scene, make it the current view camera
run the script
you will have to supply a filename, for example : camerafromblender.dsa
done
open or drag-and-drop this file in daz studio, it will create an animated camera named voodoocam
this touchy camera path was exported from Studio to Blender
then exported from Blender to studio and rendered in Harware render mode
Voodoo Blender Studio bridge
this time we start with a very controlled shot filmed in Daz Studio
Here is an overview of the shot
the frame rate 10 10 FPS
the camera rotates at a constant angular speed around ( 0, 0, 0 )
the angle range is 0 to -90 degrees
the camera rotates around its local X axis at a constant angular speed
the angle ranges from 0 to 10 degrees
the camera moves along its local Z axis going from 200 cm to 100 cm
Daz Studio has a filmback with a height of 35mm, the focal lengths are given in relation to this
for a 16x9 aspect ratio, this gives us a sensor size of 36 mm x 62.22mm ( 35 * 15 / 9 = 62.22... )
for this shot we maintained a focal length of 62.22 mm
which gives us a field of view of 53 degrees ( 180 * 2 * atan( .5 ) / pi )
by default Blender's sensor is 32 mm wide, the focal lengths are given in relation to this
the focal length in Blender will be 32 mm
----------
here you can see Daz Studio's axis system
Rendering the test footage
an empty Blender scene was created
the Cycles renderer was selected
a world environment was added, equirectangular mapping,
the environment map was set to Ditch-River_Env.hdr from the sIBL archive at http://www.hdrlabs.com/sibl/archive/
the output image type was set to PNG , RGBA, and the Film / Transparent option was turned on
this was saved as "untitled.blend"
The Daz Studio animation was rendered using mcjTeleblender and "untitled.blend"
result : amyGI0000.png, amyGI0001.png ... amyGI0119.png
the Green marker room was rendered using Daz Studio's Hardware renderer
result : amyroom000.png, amyroom001.png ... amyroom119.png
the two sets of images were composited using these two batch files
composite_all.bat
FOR %%a in (amygi*.png) DO call composite_this.bat %%a
composite_this.bat
set b=%1
set a=%b:~-7%
c:\imagemagick\convert amygi0%a% amyroom%a% -background none -compose DstOver -flatten amyref%a%
and i obtain amyref000.png, amyref001.png ... amyref119.png