There is an instructions button located at the top of each preset in this pack that will give you an overview, but you will want to start with the Analyzer preset in the Effects library. Here is a general overview to get started!

Step 1: Setting up the timeline

In order to make sure you get good results we need to prep the timeline. First, you will need to make sure you have a clip to track. This clip should have reference points that stay consistent through out the clips. This means that shots with lots of reflections or constantly changing shapes like shots of ocean waves will not track. You will also want to avoid clips with lots of motion blur as any blurry part of the clips will adversely affect the analyzer’s ability to accurately interpret the scene and provide quality 3D data. Using clips that are shot at a higher frame rate with steady camera shots will provide the best results!

Now that you have your clip the next step is to set up a project in Final Cut Pro to match the resolution and frame rate of the clip that you will be 3D Tracking. Create a project with matching settings and then apply your clip to the timeline.

* We do recommend selecting shorter clips as the longer the clip you use the longer the analyzer will take to solve the clip.

Step 2: Solving in 3D

Look in the Effects library in Final Cut Pro and you will find the PFS – FCPX Auto Tracker 3D plugin folder. Locate the effect called Analyzer and drag and drop the effect onto your clip. You will see a few different buttons including an instructions button that will go over general use of the plugin. Below it is the launch editor button. Press this and wait for the window to open and for the green bar to fully load in the editor window timeline. Once the loading bar has finished let’s take a look at some of the options on the right side of the editor.

The first section is the Shape Mask List. Using this option you can create masks around large subjects that are not part of the environment. Masking out large subjects can help you to get better track results.

The second section is your focal length. This area is optional, but recommended if you know the sensor width and focal length of the footage you are using. If you don’t know this information you can leave this alone and FCPX Auto Tracker 3D will create an estimate during the solving step.

Open the Camera Solve Settings and click the Solve Camera button to begin solving the footage. Please note that this step can take anywhere from a few minutes to over an hour depending on your footage’s length, resolution, frame rate, and complexity. We do recommend using Apple Silicon macs for this process for faster results.

Once this step is done you can review the tracking data with the Render 3D option and view a preview of the points created by the camera’s solve.

If you are happy with the results you can press the Export Data button and close the editor window once prompted.

Step 3: Copying and Pasting the 3D Camera solve data

In your Analyzer effect’s controls you will find a Copy Solve Data button. Press this and then navigate to your Titles library and locate PFS – FCPX Auto Tracker 3D. Apply any one of the over 300 included title presets to your timeline above the clip you have tracked and trim it to match the clip.

Please note when you apply your Title preset to the timeline it may not be visible at first. You will need to go to the controls panel of the Title layer and in the published controls press the Paste Data button.

You can then press the Launch Editor button and then choose any 3 points to triangulate the point where your subject will be placed. Once you are satisfied with the placement press the Export Data button and close the editor window once prompted.

Step 4: Adjustments

Now that you have selected the plane you want your text or object to sit on you can use the Transform controls to alter the position, anchor point, rotation, and scale of the text. We do recommend, however, that if you offset the text you are doing so relative to the same plane that you have selected your 3 points from in the editor.

Finally, you can make further adjustments to the lights, animations, shadows, style and more using the controls provided in each template.

There are over 300 included title presets included with FCPX Auto Tracker 3D, however, these can not be previewed like most other types of plugins in Final Cut Pro. The reason is that they don’t have the data from the 3D Tracker too display correctly.

When you apply your Title preset to the timeline it may not be visible at first. You will need to go to the controls panel of the Title layer and in the published controls press the Paste Data button.

You can then press the Launch Editor button and then choose any 3 points to triangulate the point where your subject will be placed. Once you are satisfied with the placement press the Export Data button and close the editor window once prompted. You should now see your Title preset and can make adjustments as desired.

The purpose of this tool is to help the tracker Analyzer know what information is not necessary to track. For example, you have another moving object in your scene that is not a part of the actual environment. You can create and roughly keyframe a mask around the moving object so the analyzer knows not to use that information while solving the scene.

To use this tool simply press the Create New Mask button and draw your mask points around the moving subject. To finish the mask you can hit the Enter key on your keyboard. Then keyframe the mask’s control points throughout your scene and make sure the mask is around your subject through each frame. The mask can be made roughly so don’t worry about making detailed masks.

Having a scene with smooth camera movements and good contrast will help to get the best track possible as the 3D Analyzer needs consistent reference points in order to provide accurate tracking points. Your footage should not have to many reflections or too much motion blur.

Please note that camera movement is necessary. The camera will not be able to analyze a clip that is too still or does not have enough directional movement as the analyzer needs to more information about the environment that is gathered by the camera moving around. In others words there needs to be clear parallaxing happening in your scene in order to work properly.

This means, that you will want to use scenes where the position of the camera has forward, backward, side to side, or up and down movement. A shot that is stationary or only rotates along an an anchor point, like a camera swiveling on a tripod for example, will not have quality results.

Parallax is a term used to describe how things look different when you look at them from different positions. Have you ever noticed that things look different when you move your head or your eyes? That’s because of parallax!

Imagine you’re looking at a tree with one eye closed. If you move your head a little to the left or right, the tree will appear to move too. This is because your eye is seeing the tree from a slightly different angle, and that causes the tree to look like it’s in a different position.

For 3D tracking, it is important that your media contains enough parallax in order to triangulate the camera that is moving around in the scene. If there is little to no parallax, then the plugin will fail its analysis.

If you don’t know your camera’s parameters, the plugin assigns default values as its “best-guess.” All you then have to do is press the Camera Solve button. The plugin will attempt to estimate your camera’s focal length during analysis, as long as the option “Refine Focal” toggle button has been checked.

The plugin might be having a hard time estimating the camera focal length used in your media. The user will have to put in the best “initial guess” for the either camera sensor width or focal length, or even both. To ease the pain of the amount of trial and error that will need to be done, it is recommended to only analyze a portion of the media via using FCP’s blade tool.

Ensure that the small slice of the media you select contains enough parallax in its scene so the plugin can more accurately perform analysis. Once analysis is done, verify that the results in the Editor Window show a good preview of the reconstruction and camera motion. Copy the value recorded in the Focal Length textbox and go back to the full length media in your timeline and launch its respective Editor Window. Wait for the media to preload, and before pressing the Solve button, paste your copied focal length into the Focal Length text box. Press the solve button after that and wait for the results.

In addition, the plugin comes with a built-in masking tool for the purpose of masking out unwanted objects that can worsen the results of the camera solve.

This varies widely depending on several factors. The duration, resolution, frame rate, and complexity of the clip as well as your mac’s specs all factor into how long the Analyzer requires to solve the camera data.

This can take as little as a few minutes to over an hour depending on your clip and mac hardware.

*Solve times will be faster on Apple Silicon Macs than their Intel counterparts.

If the plugin is taking a long time analyzing your media, it is recommended that you go to your timeline in FCP and trim the media’s length to a range of time that is appropriate for your scene. In addition, the plugin will also take longer analyzing media at 4K resolutions and greater. We also recommend analyzing media in FCP projects using your media’s native frame rate.

FCPX Auto Tracker 3D has now been updated with new Performance Solve settings.
This new feature can drastically improve the speed of our camera solve. The longer our clip, the more improvements we’ll see in its analysis speed.

To activate this feature users can open up their FCPX Auto Tracker 3D editor and locate the Performance checkbox and check it on. Users will then be able to adjust the Seed Frames and Step Value controls. These controls are explained below.

Seed Frames: Adjusting this control dictates the amount of frames to sequentially use that are going to be part of the initialization for the reconstruction. In other words, setting this control will decide how many frames from the first section of your media will be used to set up the camera solver. After this you can adjust the Step Value.

Step Value: Adjusting this control will dictate the amount of frames to skip from frame to frame during solving, from the end frame of the seed all the way up to the end of the clip. This essentially means that if you set the value higher the camera solver will skip that many frames before using the next frame for analyzation and if you set the value lower there will be less skipped frames. The unskipped frames will also be part of camera solver’s initialization phase.

In short:

– High Seed Frame value and a Low Step Value will result in a longer analyzation time (It should be noted that having the Performance checkbox toggled on will not change the speed of the camera solve if you leave the Seed Frame at Maximum Value and Step Value at Minimum Value.

– Low Seed Frame value and a High Step Value will result in a shorter analyzation time.

This can be done with Masking. Please note, masking does take time as this can not currently be done in Final Cut Pro without manually keyframing. In order to blend your tracked 3D text or objects into your scene it may be necessary to utilize masking so your tracked text and objects site behind subjects in your scene. To do this, you will need a duplicate of your main clip to place above your tracked 3D text or object. Apply a Draw Mask effect that is built into Final Cut Pro’s Effects library on top of your duplicate clip and mask out the portion of your video you want to be above your tracked text or objects. Keyframe your mask’s control points on as many frames as necessary to get the desired look.

To resolve this, perform the following steps:

• Select the media clip where the Auto Tracker 3D – Analyzer plugin is attached.
• Launch the Editor Window.
• If the media is preloading, wait for the green bar in the window’s timeline to render all the way to the end.
• Press the Export Data button and close the window.
• Press the Copy Solve Data button.
• Return to your Title preset.
• Press the Paste Data button.
• Launch the Reader’s Editor Window. 

The plugin saves all the analyzed data into a file in your system’s temp folder. Due to the nature of this folder location, the Mac operating system regularly performs clean up on this folder to prevent taking up too much Hard Disk space.

This error can be resolved easily if your Analyzer plugin has existing solve data already. To resolve this error, perform the following steps:

• Select the media clip where the Auto Tracker 3D – Analyzer plugin is attached.
• Launch the Editor Window.
• If the media is preloading, wait for the green bar in the window’s timeline to render all the way to the end.
• Press the Export Data button and close the window.
• Press the Copy Solve Data button.
• Return to your Title preset.
• Press the Paste Data button.
• Launch the Reader’s Editor Window.

This generally means that the clip being used does not have enough parallaxing movement need by the camera solver to analyze the clip properly. In other words, you may not be using a scene that has enough movement.