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Drone footage and building plot

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katarzynatylko

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Drone footage and building plot

PostMon Aug 23, 2021 9:02 pm

Drone footage and building plot

Hello. I am starting my adventure with DRS. It is mind blowing how much there is to learn, and I am struggling with something

I have got drone footage covering multiple building plots (one big divided to like 10 -50)
My current approach is that I took orthophoto map redrawn new vector layer exported as SVG.
I have used a planar tracker in track mode (Hybid point/area; perspective) and marked the area of my interest. Then I have used planar transform. It works but the orientation of layout is different. Only one thing gave my half result and it was to add another node with a corner positioner between the media and planar transform. But planar transformer reacts in a weird way with it and after a few frames it gets messy.. I suppose it is not a typical situation since they are not square (as in all sign replacement tutorials.

Additionally

Also is there any way to compensate lens distortion (fish eye effect) when moving camera around ?

Should I consider drawing a map inside DaVinci itself instead of importing SVG?
Currently after import it works but there is no shading (added in Affinity Design) which I can add in DRS.

I suppose it will be easier to add that kind of overlay in “calm” shoots without revolving around.

It does not have to be perfect. Aim is to give viewer sense of plots layout.

Thanks in advance I will be still reading documentation.

Edit: Came up with an idea but there can not find anything like that in web. Is there any way to make "corner pin like" function with multiple corners/anchors (eg. on my graphic there are 6) ? For example: make planar tracker > add track points to source wideo > add points to graphic >link source "tracked" points with these on graphic ?
Reference manual describes Corner Positioning Operations and Perspective Positioning Operations
in a way that i think this may be combined to do what i think (except corner positioning supports only 4 points) ... or I am confused.
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Frank Feijen

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Re: Drone footage and building plot

PostTue Aug 24, 2021 8:38 am

Have you tried the camera tracker? Sometimes a 3D-solve works better - sometimes not...
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Sander de Regt

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Re: Drone footage and building plot

PostTue Aug 24, 2021 9:41 am

The closest you'll get with multiple tracking points and positioning is with a grid warp, I'm afraid and that won't work with perspective. If you have multiple points it will result in pushing pulling between them effectively creating a lot of warping. I think that is why most stick to four points, because doing it with more will result in unexpected results.

If you're on Studio Krokodove has something called positioner which is a more user friendly approach to corner/perspective positioning because it has source and result settings.

And of course going for a 3D track might indeed be the best solution in a case like this.

Edit: one of the reasons your planar transform is giving you issues is because the map is a different aspect ratio than your footage. If you merge your map on top of an empty BG with the right resolution, it will improve. It may not fix everything but it will be better.

The planar tracker can do a corner positioner directly in the tool as well, and I think in that case the limitation I mention (use the empty BG) doesn't apply. The planar tracker will deal with by itself, I think.

Is your footage for testing purposes i.e. can you share it with us, so we can help you better.
You mention you're relatively new at this, so that could be part of the reason why not everything turns out the way you want it to.
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katarzynatylko

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Re: Drone footage and building plot

PostTue Aug 24, 2021 2:52 pm

Frank Feijen wrote:Have you tried the camera tracker? Sometimes a 3D-solve works better - sometimes not...


Do You mean something like this:
Track 3d camera movement and assign my image to generated "floor" ?
Like on video from YT :How To Use The 3d Camera Tracker: One of Fusion's Best Tools - Davinci Resolve15 Tutorial:
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katarzynatylko

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Re: Drone footage and building plot

PostTue Aug 24, 2021 3:11 pm

Sander de Regt wrote:The closest you'll get with multiple tracking points and positioning is with a grid warp, I'm afraid and that won't work with perspective. If you have multiple points it will result in pushing pulling between them effectively creating a lot of warping. I think that is why most stick to four points, because doing it with more will result in unexpected results.

If you're on Studio Krokodove has something called positioner which is a more user friendly approach to corner/perspective positioning because it has source and result settings.

And of course going for a 3D track might indeed be the best solution in a case like this.

Edit: one of the reasons your planar transform is giving you issues is because the map is a different aspect ratio than your footage. If you merge your map on top of an empty BG with the right resolution, it will improve. It may not fix everything but it will be better.

The planar tracker can do a corner positioner directly in the tool as well, and I think in that case the limitation I mention (use the empty BG) doesn't apply. The planar tracker will deal with by itself, I think.

Is your footage for testing purposes i.e. can you share it with us, so we can help you better.
You mention you're relatively new at this, so that could be part of the reason why not everything turns out the way you want it to.


Ok so you suggesting that grid warp may be the answear. If i got this right I should use planar tracker then between image and planar tranform I should use grid wrap.

I am to overhelmed by DRS functions so I will probably stick only to it and try to make someting that is acceptable.

Do You mean make background of the SVG itself or background added in DRS ? In fact I wanted to multiply resolution because lines of plots that are closer to camera are pixelated. All I understand that aspect ratio is more important

I took like 2 weeks of studing manuals then got off it for 2 months and I have feeling that it goes slower then at the begining. But getting training lessons done is easier than situation when You have particullar footage and assume what You want to get from it.

If I cannot get over this I will try to upload samples.
PS Planar tracker does pretty good work in my case. Marekd area in track mode is not moving but if I assign image to it it has some displacement after time.
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Bryan Ray

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Re: Drone footage and building plot

PostTue Aug 24, 2021 4:23 pm

I agree that this is an excellent case for a 3d track.

First, on the topic of lens distortion, if you have access to the drone, you should profile its lens. Typically this is done by shooting a printed-out checkerboard at the same zoom level as your shot. Make the board fill the image entirely and make sure the focus is sharp. Take a frame of this into Fusion and use the LensDistort tool in undistort mode to straighten out the lines. Or if you have access to a proper 3d tracker, they'll have more automated ways of estimating the distortion.

Once you have your undistort parameters, save them for later! A given lens will always have the same distortion qualities at a given level of zoom. Note that different lenses of the same model may have different distortion profiles, so you can't rely on the same undistort all the time if a different drone or camera is used, even if it's the same model.

Replace the checkerboard image with your footage, and perform your camera tracking on that. I won't go into the nitty gritty of using CameraTracker because, to be honest, I've barely used it. I have better software available to me, so I've never bothered to learn Fusion's tracker.

Apply your building plot image to a Shape3D, and match the dimensions of the card to the aspect ratio of the image to avoid distortion. You can place the card in the 3d space created by the CameraTracker and photograph it just as though you had the original drone camera.

You can composite directly on the undistorted footage, but it's usually a better idea to make a copy of the LensDistort and put it into Distort mode, then run your rendered 3d through that, compositing the distorted CG on the original plate. This preserves more detail—undistorting will slighly soften the source footage.
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katarzynatylko

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Re: Drone footage and building plot

PostThu Aug 26, 2021 11:16 pm

Profiling one my own was disaster. I will not be able to do it unless I will find dome kind of big construction grid. But i have reaserched internet i have got at least aperature width and height.

After two days of watching videos and reading manual I almost finally got it .
One shot aligns almost perfectly.

Dumb issue is that I have problems in placing svg in 3d space ... Like handles in viewer are working intuitive (but they are not precise) and wheels in inspector are not it almost seems like thei pivot is somewhere else. Making additional transform nodes helps but I think Resolve (or I just dont get it how to do it) should have function that allows You to lock (and alligns) axis of 3d node (for eg. of ImagePlane) to something else (eg. camera). Instead I have only found option that lock whole orientation.
Second thing is that I have seen that some peaple are making LensDistort before undistort and after distort camera tracker node. Some do not use it at all (rely only on camera tracker node capabilities). And some use them only on overlay graphics.
Thing is that drone that I have (DJI Mavic 2 Zoom) is promised as "almost no distortion", from what I have read...


I will take smoe more time to master this. Thanks for all of your replies.

PS Sorry that I did not answear earlier (I did but somehow my previous posts were not posted ...)
PS2 I have some shots of plots that are not on a plain ground this will be fun or nightmare.
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Bryan Ray

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Re: Drone footage and building plot

PostThu Aug 26, 2021 11:34 pm

Yeah, I suppose drones are meant for shooting things very far away. Hard to get a grid that big! :D

You could instead shoot some buildings. They should have plenty of straight lines. If the lens is calibrated in such a way as to minimize distortion, it might not be truly necessary, but there's no such thing as a perfect lens, and a 3d track is much more sensitive to distortion than your eye is. The manufacturer may promise that visible distortion is minimal, but that has the sound of marketing speech that doesn't reflect the realities of VFX production (or geometry).
Bryan Ray
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Sander de Regt

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Re: Drone footage and building plot

PostFri Aug 27, 2021 6:41 am

I'll ask again: can you share one of your samples? Maybe we can then create a sample workflow for you to save you months of searching on the internet.
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katarzynatylko

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Re: Drone footage and building plot

PostFri Aug 27, 2021 4:45 pm

Ok It DRAs are currently uploading (it will take about 2hrs). Sorry how i added link i think it is one way to upload 1GB of attachment. I have put there plot from the 1 post ("Ładne") and 2nd ("Brzuze") which I am afraid will be most difficult.
Edit: Deleted - files already on drive
Edit2: After some more research I can see now that "pan like" movement is not suitable for camera tracking so I am uploading more footage.
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katarzynatylko

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Re: Drone footage and building plot

PostSun Sep 26, 2021 2:15 pm

Sorry for such long response time.

It occured that I got best effect when I leave everything as in Camera Tracker. Only thing I do Camera > Solve Options > Enable Lens Parameters (it shows two more checboxes which last of is eneabled). After solving it gives me weird results (Lens parametrs are not same as phisically present) but effect is if I do not have to do this on plot that is not curved it is almost perfect.
I do not apply any other lens correction in or so on.

Thanks everybody involved.

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