Tracking with The Offset Reference

Hi everyone, Grant Kay here for the Flame Premium Learning Channel. In this video, weíll look at OFFSET REFERENCE functionality available inside the stabilizer. This function allows you to track a specific part of your image but using a different portion of your image to perform the track. This technique makes it easier to track occluded targets, targets going off-screen and even track areas that donít appear to be trackable. This is definitely a game-changing feature so keep watching! Now existing users of Flame Premium and Smoke Advanced might be thinking that there is already a way to do all this. And you would be correct. However, the mechanism of adding points for repositioning the reference has always been a bit obscure. The other point is that there were no indications that any offsetting was taking place. So in order to make offsetting easier and more user friendly, a new option has been added into the stabilizer modes called OFFSET REFERENCE. This is mapped to the O hotkey for Flame Premium and Smoke Advanced. So to start this example, letís say I would like to track an area in my picture with no definable tracking patterns. Any analysis of these areas would fail. However, you can now offset the tracker to another point of reference to track this untrackable point. As a small operational tip, ensure your offset reference track is more or less in the same z-plane. This will avoid slipping in the track if there is loads of parallax in the shot. Now letís look at how it works. Change the mode from Select to Offset Reference. Now when you click and drag from the center of the tracker boxes, you will see a circle and dotted line appear as you move the tracker. As before you can also hold CONTROL and click anywhere on the screen and it will pick up the offset reference. The circle represents your tracking target. If the tracking data was carried into action, this is the exact point that will be applied to an axis node in the composite. The dotted line is the Offset between the target and the offset reference point. The pixel values of this offset are displayed under the Offset heading in the main controls for your information. All you need to do now is press Analyze. Iíll stop the track before it finishes. So you can see that tracking data is being generated for a specific point. If you needed to change the reference in the middle of track for any reason, just ensure you are in OFFSET REFERENCE mode. Hold CONTROL and drag on the screen. The offset reference moves and you can position it again to a new tracking offset. Start the Analysis again and the track should pick up as expected. Scrubbing the time-bar, you will see the offset reference update. So you can see where and when you changed the offset reference. You can also change and adjust these offset references at any time and re-analyse the frames. So with the OFFSET REFERENCE, itís easier to set offsets for dealing with occlusions, off-screen and difficult tracking targets. It is worth pointing out that you can use this in forward and backward analyzing modes. You could use this in the middle of a sequence. And during the entire time, you can monitor the offset reference. You can use this with your every day tracking tasks but you will also find this incredibly beneficial as you take on bigger tracking tasks like extended bicubic tracking. This will be covered in a future video. And finally, please bear in mind that this is applicable for any instance where you find the Stabilizer for any tracking or stabilizing tasks. Comments, feedback and suggestions are always welcome and appreciated. Thank you for watching and please subscribe to the Flame Premium Learning Channel for future videos.