Match moving part 2 - Maya

The next part of tracking geometry took us into Maya, where we imported the 3D nodes of the camera track and the camera port into a 3D space. The first thing to do was to open up NukeX and then open the file I used last time. This has to be done in this order otherwise the file will open up in Nuke and not NukeX.

After that, we export out the track into Maya.

When it's first exported into Maya it's very small, but it can be sized up accurately by selecting the group in the left bar and using the scaling tool.

You can see all three fields of view from this port. This is useful to see what the project is looking like from all sides. As I'm trying to put in a piece of geometry to match the track, I need to have a good view of what I'm doing at all times.

I then scaled the nodes before adding a cube into the plane. I needed to move it to the correct node behind it. To do this, I changed the cube's centre of rotation to the lower left vertex. This will match it up to the node perfectly. Before this is done, the cube looks out of place, and will most likely clip inside the camera when the video is played.

Here I've started moving it into place, snapping it to the node on the bottom left corner of the computer. Once it's in place, all that's left to do is rotate it. As there is another node for top back corners, it's easy to get it in position.

Turning the cube to wireframe is easier to see what I'm doing, so I gave it a try. This really helped when rotating it around and putting it into position.

This is the finished version. Because the track in NukeX was somewhat inaccurate and incorrect, the computer geometry slides around when the video is played. However, I think it was more important that we learned this process and went through with it than getting it perfect the first time.

This was a relatively easy process for me, as following a video with visuals is easier than following a written guide. Had it been written it would've taken me a lot longer to grasp. Despite this, I enjoyed the method behind the steps and hope to use this again.