Blackmagic Forum

Newbie question so my terms might be wrong, so feel free to correct me.
My Requirement
I have some drone footages that is essentially staying on one spot and rotating around to capture something close to 360 footage. I would like to be able to draw line overlay on the ground to show where old roads and rivers were positions.

Point Tracker fail
I initially used point trackers but since many of them go out of shot, and a line requires at least two points, it was a pain to create - and not a great result.

3D Camera Track
What I think I need is the 3D Camera as that will keep points in 3D space and, in my head, that will allow me to draw between two points in 3D space. Therefore the lines will work even if the points are not in the shot.

Question
Does this sound like a viable solution or have I completely misunderstood 3D Camera track? If it does sound like the correct route can anyone recommend any tutorials or hints, etc. I have created a track/solve/export but probably not very well as I'm struggling to a) identify how to match the corresponding points to the footage b) how to use the 3D points as endpoints for a line.

Hey,

Not sure I understood well, but your request looks like you need to take advantage of the ground plane node generated by the camera tracker...
Depending of the specific goal you aim at, you may use a shape 3D withe the ground plane parameters and give it the look you need, like wireframe or similar looks...

This sounds like exactly the thing that 3D track is intended for. A 2D track will only relate to the position of a point on screen, the 3D track will - when done correctly - conform to the actual situation i.e. the points are fixed in the world.

If you need straight lines it's not too difficult, if you need curved lines that conform to the landscape it will be slightly more work to achieve. So depending on what you need we can help you better.

Thanks for replies, sounds like I am at least in the correct area. I do have a ground plane but even though I selected 3 points for it it seems disconnected to the footage to me. To answer you quest, yes I'd prefer curved lines but I'd settle for any connected line at the moment...TBH I'd settle for spheres at the points at the moment!