EVERYTHING About Blender's Motion Tracking System!

A complete tutorial on EVERYTHING about motion tracking! I cover the basics on how it works, as well as explain every single feature with animated examples and guide you through the camera solving process, so that you're able to track any piece of footage you're given!
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🎶Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound🎶
Also see:
The Technical Tutorial: • Add CGI Characters to ...
How I made Pissbot 9000: • I IMPROVED Michael Ree...
Blend.mp4: • Blend.mp4
Thanks For Watching!
~SharpWind
Intro: (0:00)
Preparation: (0:28)
#1 SETUP: (1:13)
#2 FOOTAGE TRACKING: (4:22)
Match Type: (6:40)
Prepass: (7:22)
Normalize: (7:29)
RGB Channels: (7:44)
Extra: (8:11)
Motion Models: (8:53)
The Process: (9:41)
Graph: (12:27)
Extra Useful Tips: (12:44)
Plane Track: (13:33)
Video Stabilization: (14:26)
Object Tracking: (15:50)
Clean Up: (16:32)
Annotations: (17:01)
#3 CAMERA SOLVING: (17:20)
Setting up the Scene: (19:54)
Outro: (21:13)

[@orcanimal]

This is probably the best Blender Tracking video I've ever seen. You condense so much important information yet it's all clear and simple to understand. Thank you!

[@Littlemobcraft]

I love sharpwind tutorial ❤❤❤

[@cstmichael]

Helpful, informative, and didn't rely on saying "we're just gonna go ahead and - " at every single step. A++ tutorial!

[@Cr34ky]

This is by far the best Tracking tutorial i have seen. Keep going!

[@JeffreyBlakeney]

This was awesome. I've watched quite a few tutorials about motion tracking with Blender but to finally get an explanation of what everything does is just fantastic. Thank you so much.

[@weslicar]

This is the best tutorial so far I have seen for Blender Tracking. Good Job!

[@sottozen]

So much information here! Great tutorial, thanks!

[@seanwilson9630]

This tutorial is incredible. I struggle so much with tracking but I learnt more about camera tracking in these 25 minutes then I ever did before. Again, fantastic tutorial ! 🎉

[@user-lt6sj7sp6s]

For real! Only that guy not just mentioned different modes that tracker can possibly be, but explained where to use those modes

[@PowersVideo3D]

Amazing detail! So many other tutorials are like "do this, then enter this value, then do this," without explaining why!

[@purplealiencaps]

This is the best motion track video for blender i have seen. thanks bro

[@ioncamin5]

ive never seen anyone explain compression better than you, good job

[@earthmatters2869]

Man i spend 2 years on KZbin to search perfect camera tracking in blender your video is pure diamond in history blender camera tracking i never seen so much detail video thank you very much brother And also i downloaded more than 25 videos of camera tracking but this video is whole new level

[@gothfennec]

out of all the videos and guides i went to, this has gotta be the best one i've seen so far! will definitely try some stuff with the things i learned here

[@Kirillnik]

Thank you very much!!! A very cool lesson, clear and quite detailed. Thanks!!!

[@ethangehrke5914]

You mention a lot of things that others do not, and the video quality is very nice.

[@shield7462]

Thank you very much... I struggle with blender motion/camera tracking for more than 7 years now...never find a right tutorial.....thats why i never used it again... But now... I see, that everything is possible even stabilization... 😮

[@johndear1189]

What an awesome video. Perfect tracking introduction! GJ - New sub for that vid.

[@plschaitanyakr7038]

Such a cool tutorial, happy that I found sharpwind

[@abhinmohan6191]

you got the best blender tracking video out there! Subscribed ! Cheers man!

[@SharpWind]

Spent a lot of hours on it, but it looks like i've returned that value to other people! Glad you like it!

[@wificinema]

the best Blender Tracking video👌 thank you

[@j_de_ese]

Awesome video bro!❤

[@lacamendry1731]

I was getting used to the SharpWinds Mine-Imator tutorials few years ago, but since he was move on from MI and started Blender, I was also more focusing on Blender for my film project. Now this tutorial is really what I need for my project. We are really together in this.

[@SharpWind]

I keep saying i am an AI lol The algorithm knows ;)

[@SharpWind]

Also, pls do share the end result in the discord server

[@lacamendry1731]

@@SharpWind I will..

[@dannychatzi4834]

Great video! Thank you so much!

[@EvelinnaAnimation]

Thank you sharp, this might be useful for me in the future :D

[@kevinzacariaszumaeta]

Great and clear explanation 👍🏽 Thanks

[@AvantHorizon]

Incredibly well done tutorial. Learned so damn much

[@penguinwithagun9635]

Amazing video, last time i viewed this channel was back when Divided 4 came out, its great watching you again, friend, hope your doing alright. Also, thanks for the blender tips, i am currently working on a game and i needed just this advice! Great tips that a ton of people need.

[@XDAnimation56]

I miss you teacher 😢😢😢😢

[@egs-zs8-127]

Thank you, this was super helpful!

[@KolLolization]

Actually good video. Returned to tracking from a long pause, refreshed memory perfectly

[@kevoz7656]

congratulation !! perfect video !

[@SilencioInmortal]

Hahah! I love you bro. Excelent tutorial. You won a new subscriber here.

[@seagull2171]

Thank you for the Technical Tutorial, it helped me out from thinking "what is it, what is that, why this not that"

[@X300ish]

LongGOP.. never really thought about it! Thanks! ❤

[@oliath]

I've seen a whole heap of tracking videos across multiple software from pftrack, 3de, nuke and other blender tutorials but this is by far and above the best and most thorough tutorial i've ever seen. Not only do you go over the theory of how 2d tracking and 3d camera solving works but the way you present it and illustrate various examples is incredibly well done. Thanks for putting this all together. It was clearly a large amount of work.

[@SharpWind]

Glad to serve! 🫡

[@DimensionalXStudios]

This is really well explained and contains EVERYTHING. It makes us understand better all the features. Thank you :) You're so good at teaching.

[@DimensionalXStudios]

Also, earned a subscriber and a recommendation.

[@OBALEHVIEW]

Thanks.. i thought i knew about tracking but really, you are good at explaining ... BOOOOOOOM

[@nekogui]

awesome and resumed tutorial, well done sir

[@orcanimal]

Super informative!

[@F4BON3]

Awesome tutorial...Thanks a lot.

[@Parminder_Singh11]

Thank You so much for this video

[@axelassoume6632]

Thanks for the tip sharp

[@igsfilmsupstate]

THIS IS AMAZING.

[@mbsoysal87]

Awesome tutorial

[@EDcase1]

Best explanation of settings 👍

[@RAFLAMOLAO]

Didnt even finished watching. Subscribed.. Now im gonna resume watching

[@naitroit_playz]

Very nice and helpful thx

[@InHouseStudios]

You going far bro!

[@ErangaJanaka]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! your video helpful.

[@suppr_duppr]

GREAT! YOU ROCK!

[@gamesforlife5570]

Good job bro

[@kennethdiaz3611]

Great Video Thanks I will Follow you from now

[@mambaman2007]

This is the best, I repeat, THE BEST tutorial i have come across on blender tracking, I dare anyone to prove me wrong.

[@SharpWind]

Thanks for the kind words - there's definitely more to come in the future!

[@mr.animator3071]

Best instructor

[@PanewsONE]

wow, thanks!

[@ANIM_SHORTS24]

Detailed 🎉👏

[@KryzysX]

You are cool, Sherp🖤

[@BestITintelligence]

Perfect

[@andvfx.]

This is great, bc I went from mc animations to become a full time video editor

[@Tomations-3D]

Thanks!

[@SharpWind]

With pleasure, thank you for the kind donation!

[@DB-uv9ql]

bro did a masterclass in 21 min

[@leecorsack4752]

Ok. You asked for tutorial suggestions so I’d like to see a tutorial on realistic waterfalls - large waterfalls, not small garden waterfalls, with mist as the water falls into a pool of water below. Could be a full 3D scene or composited over a photo or video. Subscribed and notifications are on… 👍

[@minexanimatez123]

Tbh I'll miss you Sharp, you were the best mine imator teacher in ever had, you were also the best mine Imator animator as well, I'll miss you alot, DW I'm still subbed lol

[@SharpWind]

I'm still here, just talking about Blender instead :)

[@minexanimatez123]

@@SharpWind ok sharp cya

[@KryzysX]

He did indeed master animating and specially in Mine Imator, but he kind of knew it's his thing, so him moving out to a bigger workflow and overall platform is an up

[@juanpablonieto5777]

bastante bueno el tutorial, explica mas detalles y pequeñas cosas que algunos otros

[@Mora_VFX]

The best video for traking in blender...

[@BuldogueGameDev]

ISSO É INCRÍVEL.

[@NeonLabsss]

thanks so much this has a lot of super useful extra info I didn't know, also unrelated I was surprised when I saw you have a Nikon DX VR camera because the camera I'm using is my mom's old camera and it's a Nikon DX which is super similar and you even have the same lenses where it displays the focal length

[@SharpWind]

Granted, my camera is pretty old, but i work as a 3D generalist and not so much with cameras, despite having graduated in multimedia, so i haven't felt too much of a need to replace it just yet Im glad you liked the video though :)

[@dumpsky]

tip: PNG uses 'Lossless' compression, so lowering the compression at export makes the files larger, but they will load a bit faster. quality remains the same no matter what. but since 'Prefetch' uncompresses the frames in memory anyways, i would not lower compression.

[@prem.b8912]

You got great knowledge in vfx, i suggest you, despite of the view count just dump your whole knowledge in this channel, please make a tutorial about the composting tab, nodes theory and practical versions , this will become one the greatest blender's community channel

[@ERVALAnimation01]

more blender stuff!! 🔥🔥

[@h.k1218]

Nice

[@legoalityfilms7606]

i love you

[@haydanmziry2]

Can you make a tutorial, put a green screen footage (like a person) in a 3d model room or in a car or somewhere else

[@TheRaptorsGameYT]

idk if you can do this but could you do a video on how to rig minecraft mobs pls (specifically a custom minecraft horse)

[@CTZN1]

UWOOOOOHHH DETAILED INFO thank you! but seems like after effect's track is more easier(?) just hit track camera, tick detailed analysis, grab a coffee, then when its done transfer it back to blender using AE2BLEND addon... hmm...

[@nscent2407]

🔥

[@FootyToonz]

Thanks for the vid ,its a real reference for everyone is looking for Blender VFX ,but I got a problem , if I got a video recorded by a tripod , how can I creat depth between trackers ,I mean whenever I record video the trackers are in the same X axe and no Y axe trackers ?? can I creat depth for tripod videos?

[@SharpWind]

Tripod clips are tricky, because you can't calculate depth without parallax. You'll get all your trackers on a flat plane, but at least you're able to track the camera rotation. Your best option is to manually create any sort of 3D space around it. If you remember how high the camera was, when it was on the tripod, you can place a flat plane as the ground at the same height and that should be a good starting point But sadly, that's the problem with tripod shots

[@bantertv9332]

Really helpful thank you. Quite a distinguished style which stands out from the crowd, enjoyable and amusing to watch. I have a question, before I embark on following the tutorial. I shoot in cinema dng raw with my small blackmagic pocket original in HD, can I use cdng sequence straight into blender or do I have to convert it to something else? Thanks for your time in advance.

[@SharpWind]

Not sure, as i haven't worked with DNG directly in blender before. Try it - and if it doesn't work, just convert it to a png sequence and export your CGI in the raw color space, so you can color grade it the same way with your footage - you might also have to apply the 2.2 gamma correction that Blender uses and Polyfjord made an amazing tutorial on that part, so I'll direct you to him in this case :)

[@bantertv9332]

@@SharpWind appreciate the response, thank you for your time and guidance !! Yes please let me know. I will give it go and see!

[@SharpWind]

Here's the video where he explains it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y4bNe6StrLJ9mZosi=Ur8jYwsHk4spFimE Although you might not need to do that, since it's all raw, but you'll see (Sorry for the slow replies as i'm currently at work, but good luck!)

[@bantertv9332]

@@SharpWind cheers mate, that’s fantastic! Please don’t apologise, any help is much appreciated. I will check this video and try make some what I can. Thanks again!!

[@Evgen_inart_OjO]

The author tries to explain how trackers work, does not forget to show where the necessary values are in the program menu. The author jumps from place to place, chaos!

[@jesusrivas2097]

Can you please make a video on how to make weapons like guns or rocket lonchers and how to make them work please 🙏

[@fanatix3405]

can somebody explain me how i render the tracked camera + the video itself? like in this shot at min 6:04 for example

[@inanis_exe]

If Prefetch does not fetch the whole thing, go to preferences / system and increase cache limits, enable disk cache and stuff like that, just be aware of locations and sizes of this things.

[@SharpWind]

Love useful comments under my videos, you're helping in areas i couldn't think of when i was making this :)

[@thebulletkin8393]

So I'm working on a motion track for footage captured in a game, if a tracker falls off something in a frame, am I supposed to manually move it back and have it track the frames after that? How does it deal with the sudden jump in where the marker is between frames?

[@SharpWind]

Normally, you'd go to the last frame it tracked, change settings if necessary, reposition the track where it needs to be and track from that point on. Or you could add a new tracker in it's place, track from that moment on and merge the two trackers into one

[@TheUltimateEnderling]

@SharpWind I have a question because I feel like I'm doing something less efficiently than I could be. If my animation has multiple locations (say, the Overworld and Nether, for example), how do I switch from the Overworld scene to the Nether scene without having to render each scene seperately, then string them back together? Is there a way to have multiple locations in one animation so I only have to render one long animation instead of each individual part?

[@SharpWind]

If you press "M", while hovering the timeline, you'll add a marker. Then you csn go to the "marker" dropdown on top of the timeline window and "bind selected camera to marker" and the cameras will swap once it reaches that marker I recommend keeping the scenes separate though

[@TheUltimateEnderling]

@@SharpWind Ok. Thank you.

[@valdoltra]

I don't want to do motion tracking but see what it can do. Now I don't wanna do motion tracking in Blender cause I just wanna watch SharpWind tutorials :) Nudiš inštrukcije 1 na 1? :)

[@user-gx6km7cx1o]

13:59 it always says "no active plane track"

[@oversalt4713]

What do you do when you need to track multiple shots using the same cgi objects? Can you put all the shots into a sequence and just control the trackers of each shot via start end frames, or would I need to set a unique camera per shot? I'd also rather not animate across multiple blend files unless necessary.

[@SharpWind]

Usually you'd create a project for each shot and append your CGI element to each one (or link it - in case you make changes to your model, it updates in all of them) You can edit the sequences together in an external software, or use Blender's video editor directly

[@SharpWind]

Was JUST on break at work You could just track the camera again and use a new camera Or to avoid confusion, track in a different project and just import the new camera here 💁‍♂️

[@KryzysX]

Blender is cool👍

[@SamiTheAnxiousBean]

the setup process is essentually "Blender can do it for you"

[@SharpWind]

basically, but it's still good to know those things lol

[@SamiTheAnxiousBean]

​@@SharpWind Ye!

[@Tedinator01]

Is the prefetch supposed to stop at 26%? Each time I try, that's as far as it goes.

[@SharpWind]

I'm guessing your cache is full? Either you're working with a huge file or your disc is pretty filled up Go into Edit -> preferences and increase the cache limit (it's under the "System" tab) if your disc is full, then you might want to consider deleting a few things or move them to an external hard drive to make more room

[@lzaj913]

great tutorial although when i add all frames from the video sequence it only opens 1 frame of the 1400, is there any fix for this?

[@SharpWind]

Are you sure you had all the frames selected before importing the sequence? You can press "A", to select them all faster

[@lzaj913]

Yeah i had all the frames selected with A, also tried manually selecting them, eventually it worked but it was after i clicked on a random number frame from the video sequence and opened it from the file otherwise it was only showing the 1st or last frame on the timeline

[@SharpWind]

@lzaj913 did you import an image sequence, or a single image? Its possible you might have clicked on "add -> image" rather than image sequence Otherwise, im not really sure why this would be happening. You could try making the timeline longer than 1400 frames, before importing, but that shouldn't really be the issue.. 🤔

[@JulsGeekPI]

Can we add 3d objects only with blender without after effects?

[@SharpWind]

Of course, thats what this video is about. To see what the process looks like AFTER tracking, check out the video in the i in the corner and skip ahead a little. I go tbrough it there

[@hasy04legend]

staysharp

[@AcercateaRD]

Great video! too fast, too furious 😁 but still full of very helpful information

[@SharpWind]

I dont waste people's time, and those who pause, still get it all 👉😎👉

[@AcercateaRD]

@@SharpWind 👍You're right

[@Teaimations]

The Enditing and style of the vids has changed (for the better)

[@Kristiancimo]

I think I love you

[@SharpWind]

I love you too, random stranger

[@buddhikajayashanka1655]

👍👍👍

[@indrakomara6966]

thanks...

[@ZsStudio]

Awesome video!! But i have an issue that i cant find the solution. when i tack my footage, it doesnt track the whole video, it does only 550 frames (the video was 923 Frames). and sometimes, when i click the tracker forward button... nothign happens at all. i dont know why, anyone knows the problem?

[@SharpWind]

Tracker is experiencing issues - reposition it, change it's settings, or add a new tracker and merge them This is very common

[@ZsStudio]

@@SharpWind It did work!! Thanks for tips!!!!!

[@YounusYousuf]

easiest option is track in after effects and export the tracking data to blender

[@SharpWind]

- you can still click "detect features" and "solve", which makes it a 2-click process - Blender has a ton more control for the fine-tuning and tools for specific scenarios and better alignment - this tutorial is for Blender's toolkit - it's not the only 3D tracking software in the world, but i chose to do a deep dive on all it's tracking features, because it's some people's personal choice, so they'll find it helpful