2D Track to 3D Nodal Pan
Here’s a pair of formulas that convert a 2D tracker’s position to rotation values for a 3D camera. Of course, this only works for nodal pans, and even in that case, it doesn’t handle Z rotation properly.
But if you have a camera that just pans or tilts, this allows you to – for example – add a 3D particle system or camera projection. The focal length can be chosen arbitrarily, as does the aperture (film back). The ratio of aperture values, however, has to match the image aspect!
In Fusion, the tracker provides an output for its stabilized position. Its zero position, however, is 0.5/0.5 which needs to be taken into account. Plus, the camera’s aperture is measured in inches while the focal length is measured in millimeters. Hence the conversion factor or 25.4. Of course, “Tracker1” needs to be replaced with whatever your tracker is called.
//X Rotation: math.atan(25.4 * ApertureH * (Tracker1.SteadyPosition.Y-0.5) / FLength) * (180 / math.pi) //Y Rotation: -math.atan(25.4 * ApertureW * (Tracker1.SteadyPosition.X-0.5) / FLength) * (180 / math.pi)
Here’s an example comp for Fusion.
In Nuke, the tracker returns pixel values, so we need to normalize them to the image width. Also, the tracker needs to be switched to stabilization mode for the return values to be correct. Add these expressions to the camera’s rotation:
//X Rotation: atan(vaperture * (Tracker1.translate.y / Tracker1.height) / focal) * (180 / pi) //Y Rotation: -atan(haperture * (Tracker1.translate.x / Tracker1.width) / focal) * (180 / pi)
edit: in my initial blog entry, vaperture and haperture were swapped. This has been fixed on 2011-05-15.
I won’t bore you with the derivation, but here’s a diagram in case you want to do it yourself 🙂
