5.5

1161Motion User Guide
Tracking retimed footage in Motion
When working in a project that combines tracking behaviors and retiming operations, use
the following guidelines for more successful results:
• Because the Motion tracker analyzes in a project’s frame rate, ensure that the frame
rate of the footage you plan to track matches the frame rate of your project. For
example, to track 24 frames-per-second (fps) footage, your project’s frame rate should
be 24 fps. When the tracking analysis is completed, retime the clip using the Retiming
parameters in the Media list or by using the Retiming behaviors.
• Do not retime the footage before the tracking analysis.
• Do not retime the footage, perform a tracking analysis, then retime the footage again.
This may adversely affect your tracking analysis.
Note: To track the motion of a clip after it’s retimed, export the retimed clip, then import it
back into your project before you perform the tracking analysis.
Improve stabilization in Motion
The automatic motion analysis (analysis without trackers) used by the Stabilize behavior
works best with real images. Artificial images, such as those with no texture, are not
recommended for use with the Stabilize behavior’s automatic mode. Shots with very strong
pans are also not recommended.
Use the following techniques to improve the results of footage stabilization:
Add trackers to a portion of a stabilize operation
If a stabilized clip has a bumpy section that’s not getting smoothed, you can add trackers
to noncontiguous sections of a clip. Any stabilize data from the automatic motion analysis
is overwritten by the portions of the clip analyzed using the onscreen trackers.
1. In Motion, after the Stabilize motion analysis is complete, play the clip to determine the
section you want to add trackers to.
2. Set an Out point for the tracker analysis by positioning the playhead at the frame where
you want to stop the analysis, then choosing Mark > Mark Play Range Out.
3. Position the playhead at the frame where you want to start the tracker analysis, then do
one of the following:
• To analyze X and Y position changes in the footage, click the Add button in the
Behaviors Inspector to add an Anchor tracker.
• To analyze changes in X and Y position as well as rotation and scale in the footage,
click the Add button in the Behaviors Inspector two times to add an Anchor tracker
and a Rotation-Scale tracker.
4. Position the newly added tracker on the reference pattern you want to track in the
canvas, then click the Analyze button in the Behaviors Inspector.
The specified play range is tracked, creating track points in the canvas and tracking
keyframes in the Keyframe Editor.
Note: When using this strategy to track multiple noncontiguous sections of the clip, use
the same tracker to simplify the track and to avoid clutter in the Keyframe Editor.
To yield the best results, this strategy requires a large range of frames.