Introduction to Camera Tracking

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A complete introduction to one of Blender’s newest features: Camera Tracking.

Length:
57 minutes
Software:
Blender 2.62
Difficulty:
Intermediate
Rate:
VN:F [1.9.17_1161]
Rating: 4.9/5 (238 votes cast)

In case you didn’t hear, Blender recently came bundled with an awesome new feature called Camera Tracking. This tutorial will give you a complete beginners introduction to what it is and how to start using it right now.

In this tutorial you will discover:

  • The basics of camera tracking
  • How to track your very first video
  • How to create a sweet sinkhole hoax

Finished Result

Did I fool you? This video was posted on Youtube, Twitter and Facebook 24 hours ago. Many of you rightly called it fake, but a few thought it was real. So if that’s you, no hard feelings! Welcome to the wonderful world of camera tracking ;)

Download the Source Files  Download the Final .blend

What is Camera Tracking?

Camera Tracking is a process which involves taking a video that has been filmed with a real live camera and tracking it’s motion so that 3d elements can be added to it.

This process is used countless times throughout movies and tv shows to add special effects, backdrops, robots, you name it. A perfect example is the Transformers 3 trailer. Anytime there’s a moving camera shot, and there’s a cg element, camera tracking has been used.

Traditionally this process is done using a dedicated camera tracker like Syntheyes. But third party software is expensive, and also quite awkward to work with as you have to deal with the whole export/import issue.

But now, Blender has it’s own camera tracker… and it’s built right into the program.

Now you can track a video, add 3d elements and render it, all without ever leaving Blender.

At a Glance

Screenshots from the video:


Further Inspiration

Not sure where to go with this tutorial? Check out these videos for more camera tracking ideas:

I hope you enjoyed the tutorial! Create something cool? Post it in the comments below.
Introduction to Camera Tracking, 4.9 out of 5 based on 238 ratings

About Andrew Price

User of Blender for 9+ years. I've written tutorials for 3d World Magazine and spoken at three Blender conferences. My goal is to help artists get employed in the industry by making training accessible and easy to understand. I'm an Aussie and I live in South Korea ;)
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  • Robitron

    LOL okay, so I checked out that cabinporn site (would have missed it if you hadn’t pointed it out) but anyway, the first cabin listed is not far from my house! Yes, I live in West Virginia. :D

    Anyway, great tut (of course, after all, yours always are) and very insightful. Thanks!

  • sirri

    here is my result btw : ) (not a sinkhole an easier stuff :) )
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP5ANZ3C8u4

  • sirri

    “deconstruction mode” :) i loved it : ) thanks for the tutorial btw, it is awesome ! i wish to see more video fx features in blender just like a “boss” ; )

  • fergus

    I filmed my track with an iPod camera, can I still find the width focal sense and whatever on the internet?

  • learner

    PROBLEM PLS RESPOND QUICKLY!!!

    Ok, so I made a few camera tracking vids in blender 2.65 which I recently downloaded. I decide to make a sinkhole in my driveway, so I make a vid, and track it and everything, I set it to backround image too, but whenever I render it, the backround vid is not the one I was useing. It is still the same one from my last project… Pls help, and great tutorial Andrew.

  • 주형 이

    in blender2.64, “tracking settings” menu is different from this video(2.62)
    theres no “tracker” but “motion model”.
    so i failed. what shoud i do? back to earlier version?

  • Tom

    I’m trying to track your movie in 2.65 RC, and get solve error way above 100000. There are so many changes in the tracking pannel since 2.61. Is there a chance that you update your tutorial?

  • Florian

    Hello, I’m a Franch boy and I don’t undersand who you do the image of the broken road effect
    can you help me?

    • Florian

      french*

  • Jon

    Utterly brilliant camera tracking tut to your usual high standard. You’re doing great work here Andrew, can’t wait for the next tutorial.

    My first track is in progress. Had a couple of issues though, fixed one and the tip for this is below, but I’m stuck on another and really hope you guys can help me with it. On playback (for only around ten or so frames), the scene inverts (flips on its head in the Z axis, I’m farly new to blender and can’t see anything on any forums relating to this, please help, its driving me crazy. }:^{

    Tip 1 – Solve error
    For my Cannon 7D with 17mm focal length I had a huge error of over 300.000!
    Solution:
    I simply adjusted K1 to -0.09 and K2 to 0.04, I then set the refine in the solve menu to the Focal length, Optical Center, K1 and K2, then I cleared my previous solution and re-solved the camera, it returned an average error of 0.336 – not to shabby.

    Tip 2 – Tracker positioning
    In the track area where you have the thumb nail of the image area being tracked, you can click and drag the image to centre and fine-tune the tracker position real quick.

    These tips may have been covered before so don’t have a go if you’ve seen these already :^)

    Blender 2.6

    Mac Pro, 8 core, 8GB OSX10.6

  • ZeloZelos

    Here is Mine http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkQSRbGa23o&feature=youtu.be
    Not sure if the previous post posted so i did it again :)

  • ZeloZelos

    The Navigator is back, Thanks to this tutorial that is :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkQSRbGa23o&feature=youtu.be

  • Jurekoon

    If i click on camera motion it says “At least 8 common Tracks on both of Keyframes are needed for reconstruction” . What does that mean?

    • fergus

      I had this problem but I set the end keyframe (the one underneath the solve panel shown at 24:35 ) to the point the video ends.

  • Jaderson

    I do not understand, as did the video. But my result is totally different after I click “track selected markes – ctrl + t”.
    My Result – http://imageshack.us/a/img708/4882/blender1.png
    Video result – http://imageshack.us/a/img88/5707/andrewprice.png
    Blender 2.63

    • fergus

      the markers have lost all the trackers on the screen. you could try setting the search and pattern size to higher settings.

  • Uranoxyd

    you asked for our results … here is one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltb_XLk8EiI i think i ruined the realism with the pipes, its quite unrealistic even the texture of the hole is not what the ground here looks like (theres no rock directly under us :-D ) but im realy impressed and just playing around, i started with blender 3 days ago and can produce better results as with 3d software i am working since years with :)

  • Uranoxyd

    Hi, first i have to thank you ver much for your work here! And sorry for my pour english. So, all worked fine and i tryed to switch to the cycles renderer and as the result i just get a black and white image with no background video. I tried it again and switched to cycles renderer before i click “Setup Tracking Scene” but this dosnt work, can someone tell me how to do this with cycles renderer?
    greets David

    • fergus

      perhaps you need to start from the beginning set to cyccles rendering engine.

  • Mythclue

    i hate youtube tutorials :(

  • Matthiaslehnen

    The Tracking worked just fine, but when I add a Camera with the constraint, it doesn’t point into the right direction. It’s as if it were looking at some point next to the tracked Video, I don’t know why.   Can anybody help me??

  • http://www.facebook.com/ChocolateBoyDBfL Byron Mendoza

    I’ve got an issue when things go off the screen, but the tracking thinks it’s still there, and just picks a few random spots for a couple frames before it figures out it’s gone. How an I delete the tracking for those frames specifically so it stops trying to track at that point?

    • http://www.facebook.com/jefferson.donald Jefferson Edward Donald

      You can use the Clean Before or Clean After buttons depending on which you want to do in combination with disabling the tracking marker just prior to it going of screen.

  • Edu G. M.

    This kind of work gives sense to the words “free software” and “free knowledge”.

    Thanks for this great tutorial.

  • Andrei Nemes

    Brilliant!

    I was looking for something like this for a long time now, did a few tests myself way back in the tomato branch but I kept getting nasty perspective errors – a distance of what should have been a meter in the footage was ~1000 in actual geometry.
    Thanks for clearing this out for me, and for the awesome tutorial.

    Keep up the good work Mr.Price!

  • Frank Zambeck

    Here is my result. Didn’t go for a sinkhole but instead drew my inspiration off of Minecraft :) .

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCD1DGsBTUM&feature=share&list=UUF_hgnJ0nVd50p2hR2Gwz2g

  • lomhing

    Can camera tracking tell the distance between the camera and the object being tracked? how?

  • Albert Thomas

    The error message ” AT LEAST 8 COMMON TRACKS ON BOTH OF KEYFRAMES ARE NEEDED FOR RECONSTRUCTION” appears repeatedly when I try to track.How to solve this problem.
    Thanks

    • Drison

      I had this problem, make sure you have more than 8 match movers/tracking points (These points must be all in the Keyframe A to B section) :)

  • Mandarinabrain

    The error message ” AT LEAST 8 COMMON TRACKS ON BOTH OF KEYFRAMES ARE NEEDED FOR RECONSTRUCTION” appears repeatedly when I try to track. I have like 25 constant tracks so obviously that’s not the problem. Any idea what may be happening? I did a track before, and it work, but all of a sudden I must have touched something and cannot get it back to work.
    Help

  • Nonso

    I’m a noob to most of this but is it possible to use a video footage from unprofessional cameras like that of a smartphone??

    • Drison

      Yes, but the blur of the video footage may effect your track :)

    • Batman

      The rolling shutter would effect it more, making it almost imposible to track.

  • chlowden

    Andrew
    Thank you for all the great tutorials that you offer. They are extremely useful for a neophyte like me. I am looking for a similar tutorial subject but using an IBL to light a tracked video scene. Is there anyway you could show me how as I am really struggling to get both working successfully. (Particularly getting an IBL and the video plate to synchronise)
    Many thanks

  • chlowden

    Andrew
    Thank you for all the great tutorials that you offer. They are extremely useful for a neophyte like me. I am looking for a similar tutorial subject but using an IBL to light the a tracked video scene. Is there anyway you could show me how as I am really struggling to get both working successfully. (Particularly getting an IBL and the video plate to synchronise)
    Many thanks

  • B

    If you make a image that dose not cover up all the tracking dots how can you piant over them. Or do you just put less dots?

    Thanks

  • DYKEMAN

    Hi please i want to know how to add 3d model(not in-built model like box,monkey face) but downloaded blend models into your scene(cars,robots e.t.c).Thanks

  • help

    Hi ANDREW

    I try make Camera tracking and it’s work, but if i try change a box different object, i dont see shadows :l where is problem….

  • help

    Hi ANDREW

    I try make Camera tracking and it’s work, but if i try change a box different object, i dont see shadows :l where is problem..

  • http://grafiquero.wordpress.com Fabian

    hi every body, here is my test for this tutorial. tks, andrew.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYDhGiQnack

    • http://blenderguru.com Andrew Price

      Very nice! Good job mate.

  • http://solarcities.blogspot.com Thomas Culhane

    You are an inspiration to us all! Thanks for your characteristically clear and exciting tutorials!

  • glynn

    Hi, I have the same issue as stephnae. The background footage is correctly oriented, the Blender camera appears to be oriented the same way up.. but setting floor always creates a ceiling and looking at my mt’s from the side they are reversed on the z axiz i.e. lower objects in the foreground are highest mt’s from the side view in the 3D window. If I “gz1″ the cube it vanishes (it’s hanging under the floor plane – once I’ve jiggled the floor plane into place). Otherwise the cube hangs from the “ceiling”.

    It gives the impression that the Blender camera and footage are inverted particularly as the lamp hangs from the ceiling and shines up onto it. Fun.

    Perhaps the Nikon P5100 that I used is designed with some sort of inversion??

    My average solve error was 0.3312 so I was optimistic.

  • Smalidou

    Hi everyone, i just want to know the width of the Samsung l830, thanks ^^

  • Park Jong Seon

    Hi!
    Thanks for Good Tutorial :-)

    Here is my result:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tJi62QWw9U&feature=plcp

    Park Jong Seon

  • stephnae

    Hi ! I followed your tutorial in every details (I got trough about 4 times), I always get a mix up scene = I can’t correctly align 3D objects with the camera solver. I always start with a new scene, camera solver error= 0.465 with 12 trackers, camera settings checked…

    The camera is always turn upside down after adding the camera solver constraint. What am I doing rong here ?

  • http://mrsmiliexD.de.tl mrsmiliexD

    Ok…..Average solve error: 184.6314…..

  • andrew

    Hey GREAT TUT,but one thing with me every time when it get done with it’s tracking i go to press the motion cam button and it always say “8 tracker need to be reconstruction” can you help me with that?

    • http://youtube.com/philipmodin Philip

      Yeah, you need to have at least 8 tracked markers at all times in frame for the algorithm to solve the camera.

  • zed

    Hi all,

    I had an issue with this tuto and then figured out what was going on. In fact if you want to achieve good results you have to set the optical center (in camera settings) with the value that are displayed in the video (640,360). By default they were at (0, 0) on my config of blender, getting very distorted results.
    You can press the button center to have those values automatically filled.

  • http://youtube.com/philipmodin Philip

    Here’s what I came up with for a school art project:
    http://youtu.be/YckOKmTnPn8

    Thanks for the tutorial Andrew!

  • Justin

    Here is my successful attempt at camera tracking but it is no sink hole.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cN2lUFH35Ww

  • Nigel

    I have been trying to use the camera tracking to reduce camera shake. I know – call me old fashioned! I tracked the footage (error around point 1) Then set the floor using a poster in the scene. Set up a plane on the grid added a texture (the footage. Parented the plane to one of the empties. Then scrolled through the time line. Plane moves as eratically as the original cam shake. Rendered scene. Cam shake still there! Before the smart alecs come back and say use a tripod…I did the shot was on the longest lens and it was a very windy day!! Where am I going wrong OR is there a better way of doing this? PS my experience of Blender is two months so go easy on me! Thanks for getting this far with your tutorials.
    Nigel

  • http://www.facebook.com/paulomarcelo.goncalves Paulo Marcelo

    Olá Andrew, seu trabalho é muito bom, adoro ele, você poderia fazer um tutorial mais simples do camera tracking? Obrigado

  • http://stevenshearingslife.blogspot.co.uk/ Steven Shearing

    Finally after finding many camera tracking tutorials this one gave me good results.
    Good job Andrew , how about a motion capture tutorial next ? so we can animate with our videos ;) .

    • http://stevenshearingslife.blogspot.co.uk/ Steven Shearing

      Opps that should say object tracking not motion capture.

  • https://www.youtube.com/user/peiler0815 PeiLer

    I think I can explain the Match settings, which you do not know in the tut:

    Keyframe .. the tracking will compare each pattern with the pattern of the first frame (if you start there tracking)
    -> rotation an shear will affect the shape so the tracking will stop sometimes

    Previous frame .. the tracking will compare each patern with the pattern of the previous frame (reference pattern changes every frame).
    -> pixelcoordinates of a point will drift during the scene, because of a reproductive variance

  • jimmy

    Awesome thanks

  • Amogh

    pls update the final blend file with the orignal footage cuz there are some problems there. Thank You Andrew Price for your wonderful tutorials.

  • mily20001

    I tried to make smoke simulation with camera tracking but it won’t work. Smoke don’t have alpha. Materials IOR doesn’t work too. Any idea?

  • wagner

    my average solve error on my first motion tracking was over than 600 , i thinked it was good…

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