All these plates are A LOT easier to track with Planar Tracking — which is currently dominated by Imagineer Systems. See if you have the Mocha plug-in — it comes with some Adobe packages.

ISSUES: You have to place some trackers, or this would be a downright impossible shot. Generally, you don't want to place markers for Planar Tracking, because you'll just have to paint them out. But if there's zero to track, you simply have to.

TRY THIS: As you've seen in the Sample Clips (scroll to the bottom of the page), you don't have to track corners, just stuff that's on the same plane. So it doesn't matter how the markers are placed or what shape or color they are. Try doing this shot for yourself.

TECH SPECS: 1080p, 30fps, hardware store paint, Sharpness -7, Cine-Like Matrix.

Since Planar Tracking tracks texture, the outline of the cloud is more than enough to track how the plane moves.

ISSUES: This would be incredibly frustrating to track with regular 2D tracking.

TRY THIS: Just for the heck of it, how would you go about doing this with 2D tracking? If you can figure it out, we'd love to hear it.

TECH SPECS: 1080p, 30fps, hardware store paint, Sharpness -7, Cine-Like Matrix.

ISSUES: The license plate leaves the frame. If you're doing 2D tracking, you'll have to fake the license plate's motion outside the frame. With Planar Tracking, this is automatic.

TRY THIS: If you've never, ever done a track before, this is sort of the most basic track you can do.

TECH SPECS: 1080p, 30fps, Sharpness -7, Cine-Like Matrix.

This shot would be very difficult to do without Planar Tracking.

ISSUES: The actor sweeps across the entire frame, so if you're 2D tracking, she's sure to break your trackers no matter where you place them. You'd have to use multiple trackers for each point and fade between them, so you can afford to lose a few. This is not a problem with Planar Tracking.

TRY THIS: Place an image to replace the side of the UHaul truck. You'll also have to matte the actor. Have fun with the hair!

TECH SPECS: 1080p, 30fps, Sharpness -7, Cine-Like Matrix.

This is a very typical shot to do, but we've made it harder by having her point on the screen.

ISSUES: If you're doing 2D tracking and Corner Pinning, you again have the problem that her hand crosses over the corners. We made the screen green so it would be easier to mask around her hand when inserting the new graphic.

TRY THIS: It would take a master 2D tracking-person to do this, and we're not exactly sure how you'd do it. Another option would be to matchmove it by matchmoving the entire scene and placing the insert in 3D. But Planar Tracking is the easiest.

TECH SPECS: 1080p, 30fps, LCD green, Sharpness -7, Cine-Like Matrix.

Again a very typical shot. We've made the backing of the picture-frame black, so all you have to do is Screen the new picture on top.

ISSUES: The "Baby" lettering goes out over the picture frame, so you'll have to paint a garbage matte for that as well. But even with Corner Pinning, this should be straightforward.

TECH SPECS: 1080p, 30fps, Sharpness -7, Cine-Like Matrix.

From a matchmoving perspective, this is an extremely simple plate. It's really just included here in case you want to play around with the composite.

ISSUES: We put in tracking markers to demonstrate putting in tracking markers, but that means that they have to be painted out. Also, this shot was done on DV a long time ago, so the background plate isn't in a very good quality, with especially the sky being burned completely out.

TRY THIS: Try compositing it.

TECH SPECS: 480p, 30fps.

These plates are all exercises in Object Tracking, which is the same as matchmoving, only the object is moving instead of the camera.

ISSUES: The marker balls are too big, so some of them don't resolve too well at some angles, even though they are different colors. So you'll have to track it with fewer markers.

TRY THIS: Use the Survey Shot to extract data about each marker, then track the shot using only 4 or 5 surveyed markers.

TECH SPECS: 1080p, 30fps, Sharpness -7, Cine-Like Matrix.

It's impossible to shoot meaningful reflections on a green screen, so they have to be faked in post. The best way is to turn the glasses into a 3D object and do real 3D reflections.

ISSUES: The markers are very close together, so the software doesn't have a lot of parallax to extract. The camera is also set at a long focal length, so the matchmoving software can have a hard time figuring out if we're in front of or behind the glasses (this is due to the shot being too orthographic).

TRY THIS: Use the Survey Shot to extract coordinates for each marker, or use the Extract Dots to extract the Focal Length — you should be able to get a solid solve using only one or the other. You may sometimes be able to do it without these aids. But sometimes you won't, and then you're screwed!

TECH SPECS: 1080p, 30fps, Rosco DigiComp, Sharpness -7, Cine-Like Matrix.

This plate depends on a Survey Shot for solving.

ISSUES: Many of the markers occlude other markers, and since she turns the sword a lot, the markers don't "live" for a long time. The background is also very detailed, which makes it harder to track the markers.

TRY THIS: Pick which markers you will track in the main shot, then use the Survey Shot to get data for those markers.

TECH SPECS: 1080p, 30fps, Sharpness -7, Cine-Like Matrix.

This plate doesn't have a Survey Shot, and it's a long focal length, so this is a difficult track without more data. Luckily, we have Extraction Dots, so we can know the exact focal length.

ISSUES: The long focal length makers harder — not impossible — to track without some sort of survey.

TRY THIS: Measure the time it takes to do this shot with and without the Extraction Dots.

TECH SPECS: 1080p, 30fps, hardware store paint, Sharpness -7, Cine-Like Matrix.

It's not recommended to track body parts using Object Tracking, because it depends on the points being absolutely static.

ISSUES: If you absolutely must track a person this way, make sure that she doesn't grimmace her face, not even a millimeter — the points have to be absolutely static. Also make sure to get a Survey Shot, or you'll need twice as many good markers on her face. But she must be completely frozen in the Survey Shot, because nothing can move in the Survey either.

TRY THIS: Try to do all of this from scratch, shooting your own plates.

TECH SPECS: 1080p, 30fps, Sharpness -7, Cine-Like Matrix.

Many matchmoving packages are starting to have motion capture functionality. We did this with Movimento from AutoDesk, which allows the main camera to move — something not all packages allow.

ISSUES: In-shot motion capture is not for kids. As you've seen (or will see) in Visual Effects For Directors, there are a whole lot of things that have to be done right, and even then it can be tricky.

TRY THIS: If you forget about the motion capture aspect for a second, we've included all the plates below, so you can try compositing it. If you know how to use Maya, and you'd like to attach different stuff to her body, we've included the fully tracked Maya scene below.

TECH SPECS: 1080p, 30fps, Sharpness -7, Cine-Like Matrix.

If the face deforms — which all faces do if the actors use them — then Object Tracking falls apart, and it has to be a motion capture.

ISSUES: Matchmoving depends on the scene being fully static, but motion capture does not, because due to the multiple cameras, the computer can understand the 3D position for each individual point, regardless of how it moves.

TRY THIS: If you feel like playing with an already-tracked motion capture, download the Maya file below. If you want to experiment with compositing it, such as removing the markers, all the SD files are below.

TECH SPECS: 1080p, 30fps, Sharpness -7, Cine-Like Matrix.

These plates are elements for crowd replication — where each character is copied out thousands of times. Each character should be pre-keyed and placed into a 3D matchmoved scene. See how in the Sample Clips section.

ISSUES: The green screen is uneven. This is typical of outdoor cycs, and is due to the fact that the light from above is much more powerful than the light from the front. This can be fixed with bounce-boards, so this is sloppy on our part. These elements were shot to get a certain angle to the sun (to match a live-action plate), so we unfortunately get a bit of side-lit wrinkles. Since we're matching lighting, we're forgiven.

TRY THIS: Create multiple versions of each character by changing the start offset. Even just 15 frames can make it seem like a different take, so you can make 3-4 versions from each take.

ALL PLATES MUST BE STRETCHED TO 795x980 BEFORE USE (1.5 on the x-axis)

TECH SPECS: 1080p, 30fps, unknown green screen cloth, Sharpness -7, Cine-Like Matrix

Planar Tracking can remove objects by finding a clear background at a different time and shearing it to fit into the current time. Quite miraculous when you see it for the first time.

ISSUES: Since we're using Planar Tracking to remove the sticks, there has to be something stable to track in the background. We're able to do a perfect remove on this shot, but grass is never a guaranteed track.

TRY THIS: If you have access to Planar Tracking, particularly Imagineer Systems Mokey, do the removal. If you don't, see if you can do it some other way. The best thing is to not place markers like this unless you absolutely have to.

TECH SPECS: 1080p, 30fps, Sharpness -7, Cine-Like Matrix.