How to Use Voodoo Camera Tracker With Blender
Convincingly integrating animated and live elements in film is an old art. For example, Disney’s “Fantasia” uses this technique to create the illusion of interaction between Mickey Mouse and live actors. Technological advances have made it possible to create such interactions on a computer. You can use Blender and Voodoo Camera Tracker to accurately integrate animated elements into a live video sequence.
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Instructions
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Set Up Sequence
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Launch Blender and enter open the “Editor Type” menu in the lower left corner select “Video Sequence Editor.”
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Open the “Add” menu in the lower left corner and select “Movie.” Blender’s file browser screen appears.
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Locate the movie file you want to use in Blender’s file browser and double-click it. Blender adds the movie file to the project. It appears in its own track in the “Video Sequence Editor” window and is represented as a colored strip representing the playback length of the file. The number on the strip represents the number of frames in the movie file. Note this number.
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Open the “Editor Type” menu and select “3D View Editor.” Blender switches back to its default display.
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Click the "Scene" icon in the lower left part of the screen. Click the “Do Sequence” button in that panel.
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Enter the number of frames in your movie file in the field labeled “End,” directly below the “Do Sequence” button.
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Open the drop-down menu in the “Format” section of the “Scene” panel and select “Targa.” This setting will convert the movie file into a collection of discrete images, each representing a single frame.
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Click the button labeled “Anim” in the “Scene” panel. Blender converts each frame of the movie file into a separate, sequentially numbered Targa-format image file in the same location on your hard drive as the movie file.
Create Tracking Nodes
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Launch Voodoo Camera Tracker. Open the “File” menu and select “Open Sequence.” The “Sequence Select” pop-up window appears.
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Click the “Browse” button. A file browser appears.
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Go to the folder containing the Targa files and click “OK.” Voodoo Camera Tracker scans the Targa files and displays the first image in the sequence.
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Click the “Track” button. Voodoo Camera Tracker automatically tracks the sequence. Ttracking means that the application scans the sequence for points to which it can attach tracking nodes. For example, if your sequence is of a swinging pendulum, Voodoo Camera Tracker attaches nodes to the outline of the pendulum, producing a wireframe 3D mockup of the pendulum as it swings. Blender can use this mockup to produce a rough, 3D version of the sequence. Voodoo Camera Tracker indicates when the tracking process is complete.
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Open the “File” menu and select “Blender Python Script” from the “Save” sub-menu. Place a checkmark in the box labeled “Export All” in the file save box, then select a save location from the drop-down menu.
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Click “OK.” Voodoo Camera Tracker exports the tracking results as a Blender-compatible Python script.
Render Tracking Nodes
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Open Blender and select the “Text Editor” screen from the “Editor Type” menu. Blender’s Text Editor appears.
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Open the “Text” menu in the lower left corner and select “Open.” Blender’s file browser appears.
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Locate the Blender Python script and double-click it. Blender loads and displays the script in the Text Editor window.
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Open the “Text” menu and select “Run Python Script.” Blender runs the script file.
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Open the “Editor Type” menu and select “3D Editor.” Blender switches to its default “3D Editor” view.
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Click and drag the blue arrow in the middle of the “3D Editor” screen. As you drag the arrow around, you see the tracking nodes created in Voodoo Camera Tracker in the distance. Blender creates a rough 3D version of the original movie sequence. The nodes you see now represent the first frame of the sequence.
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Open the “View” menu and select “Background Image.” Blender’s “Background Image” window appears.
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Click “Sequence” and “Auto-Refresh.” These settings will interpolate the movie sequence images into the background, overlaid with the tracking nodes created in Voodoo Camera Tracker.
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Press “Alt” and “A.” Blender plays back the sequence, complete with tracking nodes. Using Blender’s design and animation tools, you can accurately integrate anything you want into the sequence.
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