I am trying to use billboards in Broadcast DE with both Virtual and Tracked Cams. With Virtual Cam I record an actor against a green screen and then position that billboard within a virtual set. I have good control over positioning the billboard with the gizmo or Transform and can successfully use the Position and Scale to manipulate it. No issues there.
Its not quite the same with the tracked billboard. I have calibrated a PTZ and fixed lens camera for the tracked cam. Whereas I can see the billboard in my virtual set with the actor, I am having difficulty properly positioning the live actor embedded in the billboard. I can move the billboard background left and right and up and down ( X and Y) however I have difficulty moving it towards or away from the camera, whether Lock To Camera is off or on. I find also that sometimes the billboard moves independently of the actor. I also have difficulty scaling the actor. I assume like in the case of a billboard used for Virtual Cam recorded against green screen, we should have the ability to adjust both the position and scale in the Traced Cam mode with a live actor against green screen. Specifically shouldn't I be able to scale the size of the live actor used in the billboard.
Also , is there a quick and easy way to determine where the Billboard is located in the virtual set when using Tracked Cam.
Grateful for your feedback
I think you’ve misunderstood the concept of billboards with tracked cameras. Unlike billboards with virtual cameras, the tracked billboards are just a projection on a plane from the camera perspective. This is because the tracked video needs to match the perspective with the virtual environment 1:1. If it didn’t, the real and virtual cameras naturally wouldn’t align. This means you can’t scale or position the billboard like you would with a virtual camera. Instead, the billboard is used to place the foreground of the tracked camera at the correct position in 3D space, allowing it to cast accurate virtual shadows and reflections in the 3D scene as well as being correctly occluded by objects in the 3D scene. Note that because it’s still a flat plane without any depth information, the billboard can only be correctly projected from a single depth in the real world. In other words, it works with a single person not moving in z-space, but something like a sofa wouldn’t cast accurate shadows/reflections. This is simply a limitation of tracked cameras in 3D scenes and not a limitation specific to Aximmetry.
Instead of moving the billboard to the desired position you’re offsetting the tracked camera coordinates in relation to the 3D scene. This includes adjusting the scale of the scene. Please refer to the documentation to get a better grasp of how this works.