Tracking markers photos!
The guy who’s making the tracking markers for me got me a couple to check - just to make sure everything was good…
As I said before, he’s doing 10 with wires, and 10 without. Something I didn’t mention last time is that, of the 10 without wires, 5 would have the LED straight on from the battery pack, and 5 would be at right angles.
Well, I’ve got one each of the types without wires through, so here are some pictures: (note: the batteries are AAA, not the larger AA. They are still bulkier than the usual professional LED tracking markers, but I’m sure these will do perfectly well for what I want them for!)
The straight-on one:
And with the LED at right-angles:
The shoot (just to get some tests done) has been put back a week to next weekend rather than this one, so they’ll get their first outing then.
There is no ’switch’ as such - to turn them off, one of the batteries has to be taken out. As far as I’m concerned, this isn’t a problem - when shooting, I’ll just have a large number of batteries in my pocket (and leave each marker with one battery in at any time…)
April 16th, 2005 at 17:11
Out of curiosity, what’s the reasoning with using two AAA batteries, instead of something like a button battery? Couldn’t you get the same juice, as well as a smaller profile?
April 16th, 2005 at 17:20
Cost, mainly, and easy availability of bits. These ones are costing me just over UKP1 each (approx $2).
I do realise that the larger battery packs may cause problems with removal later, but that was the main reason for the ones with wires - if I’m careful, I can hide the batteries and get the wire to be near-invisible by following a seam or something like that…
A lot of tracking markers seem to be placed purely with a view to how well the matchmoving will work. I’ve had far too many shots where it would have made my life (as a 2D prep artist, removing the tracking markers) much easier to have repositioned a marker very slightly, without any problems for the matchmoving.
April 16th, 2005 at 18:32
Ah, that’s pretty cheap, and I’m assuming that’s without the batteries. I guess you can always coat the battery pack in green or blue if you’re shooting on a stage as well. But at that point it’s probably not even necessary since you have to remove the light anyway!
April 16th, 2005 at 18:36
That’s actually including the batteries!
They’re not the best batteries around, but they’re about 10p (20c) each - the guy who’s making them for me got a large amount off eBay (new, though).
Out of interest, how much would you expect ‘proper’ tracking markers to go for? Or are they pretty much always custom made?
April 16th, 2005 at 21:09
When I read this entry a few days ago I was wondering (as I am still) what are you going to be tracking with those. I mean those are really huge. They are cheap, but huge. I know I was talking with a few guys at a firm where I had a job interview about tracking markers, and they were talking about a music video where they had to track the singers head. and since the head was half in the dark, they’ve used LED markers. And these markers were tiny. I believe they were made with a button battery.
(if this image won’t show, here’s the link http://testube.net/3dtests/insntests09.jpg )
Well after filming that they obviously had to remove the markers and he said it was a pain in the ass even though these (and those green ones) were relatively tiny markers.
So I have no idea how you’re going to remove these. but also I don’t have a clue for what you’ll be using them…so…
but it’s a nice thing. They do look larger (like AA) on the images than they probably are.
April 16th, 2005 at 21:18
They are going to be for tracking the set - one of the sequences (the super-hero fight) is set on a roof-top, so I’ll be placing markers at points around there to help with the tracking. Nothing too close to camera (and I certainly wouldn’t use these for the kind of thing you posted there)
Here’s a picture to give you a better indication of the size:
They’re not small, by any means, but I’m expecting them to do the job fine….
Also, because I do have experience removing tracking markers later, I will be bearing this in mind when placing them - obviously points that are good for the matchmover has to be the first consideration, but I’m hoping I’ll make the compositor’s life easier, too (well, the compositor may well be me, so I will certainly try my best!)
April 16th, 2005 at 21:30
OH…that sounds more logical…I thought you were going to use them to track people… ^_^
For the set, I think they’ll do just fine
I myself haven’t worked with these types of markers much, so I gotta ask you. Don’t they “glow” to much? I mean, it has to be as tiny spot as it can without excesive glow around it, so the tracking is easier and more accurate?
Oh..Nice wacom tablet by the way.
April 16th, 2005 at 22:01
The works part of removing tracking markers is when you’ve got bits of hair in front of them - the hair glows nicely and you lose anything of it that you could use to re-build it.
Usually, though, they aren’t a problem - as long as they aren’t too close to the camera.
And I like my wacom, too…. It just happened to be the plainest background by my computer when I took the first photos….
April 18th, 2005 at 6:39
I don’t really know how much tracking markers go for. All the jobs I’ve been on, they’ve all been custom built for the application! Is there an option in this blog to ‘remember me’ so I don’t have to enter all this information every time I leave a reply?
April 18th, 2005 at 7:32
Yup - there should be a “Register” link in the “Meta” section at the bottom of the sidebar on the main page…. (and, once you’ve registered, you should be able to stay logged in…)