Case Study: Graffiti

Project Target & Shot Conditions

The primary objective of this project was to perform accurate camera tracking and integration on handheld Nikon D3200 footage. The plate was captured at 1280×720 at 59.94 fps, presenting notable handheld shake and rolling shutter artifacts that required stabilization and rectification before solving.

To provide stable spatial reference nodes in the shot, high-contrast white circular markers were manually placed on the background wall. These markers acted as key triangulation coordinates for the matchmove solver, and were subsequently painted out and removed in post-production.

Adopted Workflow

1. Footage Pre-processing: Correcting rolling shutter distortions and de-noising the Nikon D3200 Kit Lens plate.
2. Manual Marker Solving: Tracking the manually placed circular markers to establish background reference vectors.
3. Camera Path Solving: Executing a variable/estimated focal solve with a solved deviation of 0.5 pixels.
4. Rig & Marker Clean Up: Cloning and painting out the tracking markers frame-by-frame.
5. CG Compositing: Integrating the final composition elements and grading the elements to match the live plate.

Solver Challenges & Solutions

Handheld Jitter & Rolling Shutter: Rapid handheld pan movements created rolling shutter distortion, causing point tracking calculation slippage. Correcting the rolling shutter profile before solving resolved the jitter, maintaining a solid 0.5-pixel solver deviation.

Tracking Marker removal: The circular markers, while essential for a precise coordinate solve, had to be removed to restore the final plate's appearance. A clean plate was generated and rotoscoped back in to paint out the markers seamlessly.