Aerial shot rendering advice

[kopperdrake]

Hi guys - I'd like to pick your collective brains if I may :)

I've a client who may need a presentation built for a school that needs to show it to potential funding agencies in order to build new departments onto the existing building. The client initially thought that we could have some live video footage of the existing school site over which we can lay the various new bits in CG to show where the developments are.

My only concern is I have no experience of using tracking software so has anyone used any and if so, how simple did you find it to get to grips with in conjuntion with Lightwave?

My other thought was to build the school and surrounding environment in 3D with aerial shots used to texture some of it. This way I would get more control over the project and do away with the need to track anything.

My deadline is going to be mid April.

Any thoughts? I'm angling towards suggesting I build the lot :) Which reminds me, would that software that Newtek gave away with the LW8 purchase be any good to use to help build the existing school from photos? (Needless to say I didn't buy the upgrade in time :( )

Dunk

[pixym]

Hi,

Traking depends a lot on the quality of the footage...
I have to integrate a CG sequence in a urban street live footage but it was so bad that I decided to rebuild the whole street in 3D!

In addition even if you have the camera track by using Boujou or another tracking software, you will have to remove some elements of the live footage by using a compositing soft such as After Effect...

Not a simple thing to do indeed.

[Hervé]

for something like this I would consider Image Modeler....

www.realviz.com

cheers ;)

[bjornkn]

If you need to add 3D to aerial video you could use SynthEyes, which IMO is much faster, cheaper and better(?) than the other extremely expensive trackers like BouuuJou, RealViz MatchMover.
Take a look at http://www.bknilssen.no/ftp/test/comptest2e.mov for a very quick test of a couple of SketchUp buildings placed on top of my untidy desk. The video was shot with an Olympus Digicam, tracked in a few minutes in SynthEyes and then imported into Cinema4D (in LightWave format), where the buildings were added, shadow planes etc. It took maybe 1 hour all together.

Another option is using ImageModeler or PhotoModeler, which lets you easily find the camera locations and settings, as well as adding some coarse 3D models. This also works quite well, and will give you a photoreal look with little extra work except compositing/editing in Photoshop or similar.

Or you could model it from scratch, which is also a good option. The attached image shows a SketchUp model with landscape and a few buidlings on top of it modelled from 3D contour lines (with some changes added), and with an ortho photo draped over parts of it. I like the sketchy look of it. There's also a scanned map at the bottom.

[kopperdrake]

Ooh...thanks for the feedback guys :) I was erring towards building the immediate environment in Lightwave and using perhaps ImageModeler or PhotoModeler to build existing environments. My only concern about using untried (by me) software is that I'll probably only end up with a short time-span to get this done once the video footage is produced for me to work with, which is why if I go the total 3D route then I can get started on it sooner :)

Nice tracking though :) Have you used this software much before? Do you think it would take long to get to grips with it? Do you need to know what camera lens was used to capture the video footage (focal length for example).

I'd like to be able to offer them something like this :)

[bjornkn]

Ooh...thanks for the feedback guys :) I was erring towards building the immediate environment in Lightwave and using perhaps ImageModeler or PhotoModeler to build existing environments. My only concern about using untried (by me) software is that I'll probably only end up with a short time-span to get this done once the video footage is produced for me to work with, which is why if I go the total 3D route then I can get started on it sooner :)

Nice tracking though :) Have you used this software much before? Do you think it would take long to get to grips with it? Do you need to know what camera lens was used to capture the video footage (focal length for example).

SynthEyes doesn't have the most intuitive GUI, but there is a DoItAllAutomatically button there, which does the job remarkably well. It can track with both fixed and zooming lenses, and both in full 3D with a moviing camera and in 2D (2.5D?) with a tripod mounted panning camera. It's actually quite easy to learn, compared to LightWave ;-)
I have tried to "sell" it to some of my clients, but so far I haven't had a single commercial tracking project. It has been put aside for quite a while now, but recently I've been in contact with a video producer who may be interested.
I have not spent much time using SynthEyes, but I did spend several weeks using/testing Icarus, which was a similar product from Manchester UK. It was suddenly sold out to Pixelfarm, who multiplied the price by 10 or something :(
I tried with some of the footage I was using for testing Icarus in SynthEyes, and it tracked it automatically in a few minutes :) And that was footage that Icaeus (and probably BouJou and MAtchMover) would spend many hours on. Icarus never got it right, but SynthEyes did - in a fraction of the time :)

If you're going to use PhotoModeler or ImageModeler there's actually more work involved. They both like to have photos shot with the same, fixed lens (no zooming). IM is more buggy than PM IMO, but it does have more flexible polygonal modelling functions. In PM you'll have to build only on referenced/calibrated points, while in IM you can model more freely. It's quite tedious to mark all those points.. PM has a much more scientific approach, but I find that I can get very precise results with IM too. I use it mostly for "re-engineering"/measuring boat hoods though.
Attached is one of the first images I ever rendered in LW. 3 aerial photos were calibrated in ImageModeler, and a few of the surrounding builldings (for reference only - they were not in the final images). The coordinate system and scale was established, and proposed (SketchUp) buildings imported and rendered in LW. Composited in Photoshop.

[kopperdrake]

Nice! Like you I've had no one ask me for this kind of work before, but I think as people become more exposed to digital architectural renderings then they will naturally start asking for this kind of thing - especially when they realise it's more affordable than they realise :)

I've downloaded the demo version of SynthEyes - I just need to find some sample footage I can experiment with to put my mind at rest that I can offer this in the time scale.

Many thanks Bjorn - you've been a great help :)

Dunk