Using the Tracker

No matter what sort of tracking you are doing, your workflow takes the following general form.

To use the Tracker:

1. To track motion to a Paint object, select the object in a Paint operator. To track motion to a layer, select the layer in a composite operator.
2. Find the reference feature that has the motion you want to track. Depending on what kind of tracking you are doing, you may need to use more than one reference feature.
3. Determine a good reference frame and position the clip at that frame. This is usually the first frame.
4. On the Tracker panel, select the source of the reference features:
• In a composite operator, the source is the layer that contains the motion you want to track.
• In a Paint operator, the source is either Background Clip, or Background Clip and Objects.
5. Select the element you want to have track the motion.
6. Click Position, Scale, and/or Rotation.

The Trackers are added.

7. Position the Trackers over the reference feature(s).
8. Adjust the options on the Tracker panel as necessary.
9. Make sure all the Trackers are selected.
10. Click one of the Analyze buttons to start the Tracker analysis from the current frame.
11. Pause the analysis if the tracker box loses the reference feature(s).

Press Backspace to delete one keyframe at a time until you are positioned at the frame where the Tracker loses the reference feature.

Make the necessary adjustments to the Tracker. See Advanced Tracking Techniques for ideas on how to handle various tracking situations.

12. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have completed the track.
13. Click the Off button on the Tracker panel to turn off the tracking process.

The element selected in step 1 follows the motion of the reference feature.