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Motion Tracking


Tallen

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I'm new to this forum and to reasonably new to VideoPad. I've looked but do not seem to see a motion tracking effect in VP. Is there a feature that would allow me to pin a feature in a frame and add adjacent text that would follow the pinned feature as it moved, for a period of time ... or until the feature went off frame?

If no feature is available, can someone recommend a compatible/inexpensive product that would work with VP....or rendered videos.

 

Thanks, T

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Hi

 

"Is there a feature that would allow me to pin a feature in a frame and add adjacent text that would follow the pinned feature as it moved, for a period of time ... or until the feature went off frame?"

 

 

Whereas you can't automatically setup VP to follow a moving feature within a clip, you can, with some patience achieve something similar with an overlay text or .gif image and the Position effect. In general though, it works best if the target object in the frame moves at a constant speed and a straight line.

 

As an example:-

Imagine you have a clip showing a boat moving across a lake, or a car/person moving across the frame and you want to put a ring around it as it moves

Add the clip to the timeline. For this example I am going to make the "ring" from a large text "O", although you could create a marker of your own choice and shape from a transparent background .gif image created in a third party image program. You can alter the size of the .gif image using the Scale effect.

In this exanmple adjust the "O" in size using the font size setting so it covers the size of your "Target"

 

Place the "O" clip (it is an image clip) onto the overlay track (videotrack 2) and pull it out to match the duration of the main clip. Place the red cursor line at the start of the timeline so you can now see the "O" superimposed on the main clip in the preview window. Of course it won't line up yet.

Select the overlay track, and select the Position effect.

 

Check you are at the start of the clip and In the effects preview window you can grab the "O" and drag it about so that it outlines your "Target"

Click all the green cross to fix your first keyframe (The start position of the movement for your "O")

Now scroll the clip along using the red cursor line in the effects preview window to another point in the sequence and then drag the "O" along to again mark the "Target" . Click the green crosses again to fix another keyframe. You can do this as many times as necessary to fix the "O" on the tarket where direction or speed changes. If the motion of the target is steady and straight you would only need two keyframes, one at the start and the other at the finish of the clip. Be patient as it may take VP a few seconds to generate the extra images each time you move the overlay.

 

So-Wait for VP to generate all the frames and then "Apply" the effect. You should see when the whole clip is played, your target enter the frame outlined with the "O", move across the frame continually outlined until the end of the clip. Note you can use the effect to move the "O" out of the frame on either side provided it is smaller than the actual frame..

 

If things are not quite as you want when you review it, you can easily amend the effect.

There are many ways you could use this idea but this is just an outline you can experiment with.

 

If you want to accurately track a target that moves about at different speeds and directions you need to fix your first keyframe and then step through your clip a frame or two at a time using the <> tabs in the effects preview window and adjust your "O" after each step to keep the target framed. Further keyframes will automatically be created with adjustment as the red cursor line moves past the previous little keyframe block.

 

Nat

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