After working on the simple tracking shot with Dom- the skateboarding track with the R2D2 3D model animated in- I’ve started working on a more dynamic shot. He chose this video for me because the camera angle and bumps on the road will prove to be a challenge of my skills, sharpening my knowledge of the software and producing a better shot for my showreel when the time comes to potentially look for jobs in 3DE.
Every week, we’ve been having check-ins so that he can critique the tracking I’ve done and offer tips. I’ve learned how to use time weight blending in the timeline editor on points that turn off suddenly, and have been using this to smooth dips in the average curve of the deviation graph.
He’s also shown me some other useful advice on tricky shots to track, such as creating keyframes on either frame of a point that jumps and splining it in the middle.
At this point, after refining my track a couple of times, I’m much more confident in my ability to remember the steps for calculation and parameter adjustment. Dom’s positive reinforcement in my work has really helped me gain a better understanding of the purpose of each step as well as ways that I can improve the track. This used to merely be memorized head knowledge, but now that I understand why the steps are necessary, it’s easier for me to get an idea of what I need to refine and what can be left alone as is.
The next step in working on this project is to track the buildings along the side. There is no object to track in this shot, so as soon as I’m done working on my camera lens adjustment, I can go ahead and throw the shot into Maya to put in whatever 3D object or animated rig I like. I was thinking that a good starting point would be a helicopter approaching over the sides of the buildings and landing in the foreground. It would give a good sense of the depth of my track, and the only animation would be quite simple.
That being said, if I want to take it to the next level, I may even incorporate a flying creature rather than a helicopter. This would require rather complex animation, though, and I may wait until we’ve talked about creature animation to get into that.