Positioning of hands on top of | Forum

Positioning of hands on top of news desk

One difficulty I often encounter when using virtual News sets, including those done using Aximmetry DE is the correct positioning of the talent's hands on the top of a desk . Very often one has to settle for cropping the talent's torso , giving an unnatural look and feel to the set and giving away illusion of the virtual set.

I saw recently a post where someone achieved this within an Unreal set , with amazing realism. I understand that this was accomplished by placing a second Aruco marker on the desk, and when this was triggered it positioned the desk at the correct position for the talent's hands or positioned an AR object correctly where the marker was placed.

While this is possible within an Unreal set, I need to have the same feature executable on the Aximmetry side, so I can have the full functionality of Aximmetry while working in a live environment. Is there a way that a second marker can be used in Aximmetry DE to accomplish this .

Linford

TwentyStudios

The solution has nothing to do with that second Aruco marker. They simply use that to adjust the virtual camera perspective to the at of the table. Are you using tracked or virtual cameras? Remember that regardless if the camera is tracked or virtual, the video is still just a 2D plane that can only exist at a single depth, so you can’t place it both behind the back of the table as well as over the table top. This isn’t an Aximmetry limitation but the fundamental nature of the technology.

The solution is to use a physical desk, either as a visible set piece or fully green. With a green table you place the billboard just in front of the virtual table to avoid it clipping into it or disable the B-mask to avoid it clipping the billboard when you place it behind the virtual desks. If you align the perspective of the real and virtual camera (or have a properly calibrated camera) everything will align realistically. With a tracked camera you of course need to match the height and depth of the green desk to that of the virtual desk. Does that make sense?

Linford

@TwentyStudios: Indeed it makes sense. You didn't say though if there was a second marker could be used in Aximmetry to easier set the virtual camera perspective to that of the position of the hands on the table. That would certainly help in quick setup. I am using a green desk as using a real desk eats into the available space. Part of the rationale for doing a virtual set was to use space more efficiently. I have tried this with a virtual camera, I am yet to do it with a tracked cam with Billboard.

I find that positioning is critical to avoid having the talent appearing too far in front, behind or inside the desk. Even when appearing OK on a closeup, adjusting to a new virtual position zoomed in or panned, sometimes results in a change between the talent's image and the desk.

A thought here. Is it an option to have the virtual zero of the set be the top of the desk, which in turn would coincide with the height of the green desk. In that way when the Aruco marker is triggered the virtual perspective should snap to the top of the desk.

I will try with tracked cam . Thanks

TwentyStudios

Yes, you can definitely set the virtual zero on top of the desk.
The reason the effect breaks when you’re moving the virtual camera is probably that you have the Look at Camera enabled. That won’t work when you have a plane like the table that shouldn’t rotate to face the camera.

Positioning of hands on top of news desk

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