Viewer question: 3D tracking and motion blur

Thought this was a good question to post here and maybe one of our tracking guys can elaborate my comments.Michiel writes:

I work in 3D myself, and some friends asked me if I could do some 3D tracking for a small project. Now, I've dabbled in 3D tracking for a little while and have gotten some good results on MiniDV. However, the images were shot on a Canon 5D mkII and besides the skewing (which I've warned them about ) I have some problems with motion blur that tends to screw up the tracking.

My question is this...Is better to shoot at a higher shutter speed for tracking ( which I think is better ) or can you just leave the shutter speed as it is and put the extra work in the 3D tracking itself?

I replied:

Hi Michiel,

I'm no expert, but my thoughts are you can go
either way depending on what you are filming and what you want it to look
like in the final comp.

To make it easier on yourself, first I would try to limit camera movement to
reduce blur. If you're shots allow it, only do slow pans. And or I would
shoot a higher shutter, say max 1/250 and get a cleaner image to track. You can add your blur back in pst with a good blur plugin like Real Smart Motion Blur Pro

One thing some say is an issue with faster shitters is you can get strobing and stuttering artifacts
shooting high shutter speeds in certain conditions. I haven't seen it in my
shots, but some say it happens with Fluorescent lighting, fast moving actors
in frame. Just make sure to check your footage onsite to be sure you don't see weird stuff lik that...just incase. :)

Also, something I often forget to do on location when I am rushed> You probably already do this, but make sure
you shoot a distortion grid and write down your lens settings.

That's about it...after that, if your shot needs it, run the footage
through something to remove the rolling shutter.

Then start tracking....oh and make sure you are actually shooting for 3D
track, which means you need to have good foreground and background track
objects and camera motion to get enough parallax for 3D. Otherwise you just
get a 2d track and your point cloud looks all out of shape...which makes it
difficult (but not impossible) to place/build 3D geometry.

Hope that helps a bit....and please let me know how you make out!

sd

If he send any updates I'll post them here too.

Any Tracking guys reading this? add your thoughts in the comments.

thx

PS: We 'e working on a tracking tutorial project for 3DWorld that includes the whole process and files fro some of our shoots and tracking by people like Victor Wolansky of FXPhd.com and Rob O'dea who is working on our factory shots.