Good footage gives CreativeTrack more detail to work with. A continuous shot with stable scene features makes camera movement easier to solve and the result easier to verify. Test a short representative range before processing the full take.
Give the tracker useful detail
- Track one continuous shot at a time. Split clips at cuts.
- Include textured, stationary features at different distances.
- Move through or across the scene where possible. This parallax helps reveal its 3D structure.
- Keep scene features visible across successive frames.
- Reduce strong motion blur, severe defocus and large exposure changes when you can control the capture.
Pure rotation, blank surfaces, reflections, moving backgrounds and repeated patterns can make tracking more difficult. They do not automatically rule out a shot. Test a representative section and inspect the solve.
Prepare a video
The footage browser lists MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, MXF, WEBM and BRAW. The extension alone does not guarantee support for every codec or encoding profile. Preview an unfamiliar format and run a short test before processing a full production clip.
Keep the original file. If you transcode, work from a separate copy and preserve the frame rate, duration and framing. Check for added frames or an unexpected crop before tracking.
Prepare an image sequence
- Keep one shot’s frames in a dedicated folder.
- Use consistent dimensions and image formats. Zero-padded filenames such as
shot_000001.exrmake the order clear. - Choose File > Import Image Sequence… and select the folder.
- Set Image Sequence Frame Rate to the source rate. Image files alone do not define playback timing.
- Preview the first and last frames and check the processing range.
The image-sequence browser recognizes EXR, PNG, JPG/JPEG and BMP. Lens and plate stages may support a narrower set, so EXR, PNG or JPEG are useful choices when one sequence will feed several outputs.
Track the frames you need
Use the timeline’s In and Out points to choose the first and last frames. Remove setup footage, edits and unusable frames that do not belong in the solve. Keep the range consistent when comparing exports.
The camera, plate, masks and depth must use matching frame rates and ranges. Do not retime one sequence on its own after import. If you process a reduced set of frames, check the camera and media timing together in Sequencer.
Mask the subjects you want excluded
Turn on Enable Masks and enter your targets in Mask Phrases, separated by commas, such as person, car. Add sky only if you want sky considered for masking.
Check the result before using it in a final composite. Exported PNGs contain instance IDs and labels; they are not necessarily finished compositing mattes. An empty phrase list does not identify a subject to mask.
Compare one change at a time
Use the same short range and change one setting or optional stage at a time. Save separate Job Folders when you want both versions. Check the camera solve first, then assess depth, reconstruction or lens correction.
See media playback for preview controls. Then track your first shot or review it in Unreal.
