Power window tracking

When I track a power window, for example follow a face, moving it along the way when it goes off track using the pause and play buttons in the Tracker window, once I have tracked throughout the entire clip I play the clio from the beginning and often the window appears in a different place from when I set the tracking. It will then move roughly with the motion I edited, but as it starts in the wrong place now it is all off. I have tried redoing the tracking several times when this occurs yet it happens the same way each time. What am I missing?

I have tried redoing the tracking several times when this occurs yet it happens the same way each time. What am I missing?

Tracking is not automatic, no matter what the instructions might say. You're going to find that in the real world, you have to use a combination of manual tracking to fix what automatic tracking can't do. I almost always erase part of the Tracker lines, then go back to where the problem began and then just work through it by hand, manually moving the window(s) where it needs to go. This is particularly necessary when another actor or object momentarily obscures the person or thing you're trying to track.

All of this is covered in the manual, but this is one of those things you have to wrap your head around over time. From my perspective, it's a lot better than where we were 10-15 years ago, where a lot of tracking was 100% manual, and we had to do the entire thing with our fingers. I'm thrilled that now, at least 60%-70% of the work is pretty close to perfect just with the automatic tools.

Note also that sometimes the Point Tracker is more useful than the Cloud Tracker, particularly when you need to "stick" something to a wall in the background. I'm generally not a fan of the 3D Tracker, but I confess there are situations where it can be absolutely perfect, even when a character turns sideways. There's a real art to doing this well, and I'm in awe of the VFX people who do this for a living every day and make it seamless.

What you're doing wrong is that you probably don't have automatic keyframing enabled, so you're modifying the whole track instead of the track at the specific time of your change only...

Try making a separate node for your PW > make the tracking > go to the lower right place of the color panel you're in (dedicated to keyframing) and click on the diamond placed near the node name (or number) in which you put your power windows (tot turn it into orange) > then only modify your PW placements