Track Workspace, AdjustTrack, and Add To Existing Camera

Requires the Max or Studio license

The Track Workspace is the dedicated window behind Planar Tracking. It has its own layer list, shape tools, timeline, curve editor, and Output panel, so every surface in a shot lives in one project. AdjustTrack fixes a drifting solve by hand without overwriting it, Track Error (Measured) shows where a track really struggles, and Add To Existing Camera lets one solved camera carry as many surfaces as the shot needs.

How to use it

  1. 1 Click Open Track Workspace in the Planar & Tripod Trackers panel, or Open Saved Workspace... to resume a shot. Reopening any single layer file restores every layer that belonged to the workspace.
  2. 2 Draw a shape for each surface you want to track. Each surface is a layer; layers above can hold out the layers below, so a foreground sign can be excluded from the wall track behind it.
  3. 3 Track a layer forward, backward, or both. Watch the Track Error (Measured) curve: flat and low means locked, a spike means look at that frame.
  4. 4 Where a corner has slipped, enable AdjustTrack, place reference points on the corners of the selected shape, and drag them to the true positions on the frames that need it. Toggle the correction off at any time to see the raw solve.
  5. 5 Publish the first layer as Camera Motion to get a solved camera, or as Object Motion to get a camera-parented animated plane.
  6. 6 Track another surface in the same shot, tick Add To Existing Camera, and publish. The new surface lands as a static plane inside the camera the first layer already produced.

Track Workspace Window

New in 1.0.7 · Max

Layers, shapes and saved workspaces

Planar tracking runs in a dedicated MotionMaster 3D Track Workspace window with its own layer list, shape tools, timeline, curve editor and Output panel, so a multi-surface shot is one project instead of scattered results. Draw a shape for each surface; each surface is a layer, and layers above can hold out the layers below, so a foreground sign is excluded from the wall track behind it.

Track a layer forward, backward, or both from the current frame; every accepted frame is committed immediately and periodic checkpoints protect long runs. Manual corner corrections become protected keys that a later segment cannot overwrite, and corners may leave the image. A workspace owns one folder per shot with a track_workspace.json manifest; Open Saved Workspace... reopens it, and reopening any single layer file restores every layer that belonged to it. Back in the panel you can switch between planar surfaces, rename them, and see solved-frame and manual-key counts.

AdjustTrack and Track Error (Measured)

AdjustTrack is a non-destructive correction layer. Where a corner has slipped, enable it, place reference points (they seed on the corners of the selected shape), and drag them to the true positions on the frames that need it. The correction lives in the track's own reference space and is applied when the layer is evaluated or published; the raw solve stays authoritative on disk, so you can change or remove the correction any time without retracking. Corrections apply exactly once no matter how often you publish or reopen.

The curve list adds Track Error (Measured), a photometric measure of how well each frame still matches the plate (each shape warped back onto its reference patch and scored with masked ZNCC; frames under 50 % coverage are skipped). Flat and low means locked, a spike means look at that frame, and an AdjustTrack correction visibly lowers the curve. Use it instead of solver confidence, which decays with distance from the reference frame by construction.

Add To Existing Camera

Track a sign and publish its Camera Motion, then track the ground in the same shot, tick Add To Existing Camera, and publish: the new surface lands as a static plane inside the camera the first layer already produced instead of creating a second camera. The existing camera's poses are treated as ground truth, every tracked corner becomes a multi-view triangulation, and the four corners are solved as one plane so the result is planar by construction. Only frames both layers genuinely tracked are used, and the other layer's camera is never re-keyed, renamed or deleted.

If the camera barely translates, or the best possible static surface still misses this layer's track, the publish stops and reports the measured error and shared frame range. Where focal length is the cause, it also reports the focal length at which the two layers agree, so the camera layer can be republished with that value. Track both layers across the same stretch of frames for the most certain result.

Technical notes

A workspace owns one folder per shot. Every layer is created as its own subfolder and a track_workspace.json manifest records the layer list. Where several manifests reference the same sequence, the most complete one wins, so a stale single-layer manifest can no longer shadow a full workspace. The tracked surface is always drawn; when the Surface viewer toggle is off it becomes a subtle dashed outline rather than disappearing, so you never publish a surface you did not look at.

AdjustTrack is a non-destructive correction layer. Reference points seed on the corners of the active shape and are animated by hand; the correction is expressed in the track's own reference space and applied when the layer is evaluated or published, while the raw solve stays authoritative on disk. Corrections are idempotent: publishing, reopening the workspace, and republishing apply them exactly once, and a corrected publish is never re-imported as manual keyframes.

Track Error (Measured) warps each enabled shape back onto its reference patch and scores it with masked ZNCC; the reported error is the mean across shapes, frames below 50 percent coverage are skipped, and an AdjustTrack correction visibly lowers the curve. It replaces solver confidence as the diagnostic for finding where a track fails, because confidence decays with distance from the reference frame by construction.

Add To Existing Camera treats the existing camera's animated poses as ground truth. Every tracked corner becomes a multi-view triangulation, the four corners are solved as a single plane so the result is planar by construction, and the surface is parented to that camera's depth rig so Plane Depth keeps moving surface and camera together. Only frames both layers genuinely tracked are used; gap-filled hold frames are excluded. The other layer's camera is never re-keyed, renamed, or deleted.

The attach publish is honest about failure. A camera that barely translates cannot place a new surface in depth, so the publish stops rather than returning geometry at an arbitrary depth. If the best possible static surface still misses this layer's track, the publish stops and reports the measured error and the shared frame range; where the cause is focal length, it names the focal length at which the two layers agree so the camera layer can be republished with that value. Track both layers across the same stretch of frames for the most certain result.

Docs Planar Tracking

Planar Tracking solves the perspective motion of a flat surface such as a screen, sign, wall, card, or set-extension plane. You draw an editable four-corner quad over the surface in the MotionMaster 3D Track Workspace, track it forward or backward, correct drift non-destructively, and publish a native Blender Plane Track, a compositor Corner Pin, and a 3D plane or an animated camera.

Docs Tripod Tracking

Tripod Tracking is a true rotation-only camera solver for footage where the optical center stays fixed and the camera pans, tilts, or rolls. It estimates focal length automatically, creates a Blender camera parented to an MM3D Tripod Adjustment Empty, and preserves every accepted keyframe if a later frame fails.

Docs Import Results

Import Results separates processing from scene import. Scan one folder to choose among indexed Quick, Heavy, Tripod, Planar, Dense, or Mesh results and to scope the solved-lens source used by calibration and STMap export.

 Guide Planar tracking addon for Blender

Planar tracking in Blender without leaving Blender