Export & Basic Pipeline (Phase 3)
- Ethen Dent
- Feb 27
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 10
A successful solve is only useful once it can be successfully exported and integrated into a production pipeline. In Phase 03, I cover the funcamentals of exporting matchmoving data and focus on introducing the data into a production pipeline that allow tracked cameras and scene data to move between softwares used in VFX workflows.
26/02/26
EXPORT TO MAYA
Since last working with 3DEqualizer, many things have been updated and moved around. Exporting is mostly the same with additional features such as distortion meta data being included with the export and keyframed within Maya. What was interesting was importing undistorted plates. I discovered that Warp4 has been discontinued in 3DE4 v7.0 and now the undistorted plates can now be done through ‘Save out Rendered Frames… v2.8’ in the Overview Controls. The next step is to test this and get the track into Maya when I have access to the software again.
[FIRST - REMOVED DISTORTION / SECOND - ORIGINAL PLATE]
27/02/26
LENS DISTORTION PIPELINE - EXPORT DISTORTION DATA TO NUKE
As I was just about to start this tutorial, the teacher mentioned that the methods are reliant on the camera solve which is demonstrated in the ‘Dynamic distortion without grid shot’ tutorial (see PHASE 05 - ADVANCED LENS & DISTORTION). I therefore completed that one first before returning to this one.
Grid Warp - It appears that exporting distortion to Nuke Grid Warp has been combined with the Rolling Shutter attribute. For the sake of this tutorial, I’ve enabled the rolling shutter compensation in the attribute editor but changed no parameters.
I genuinely struggled with this. The tutorial is in release 4 and I’m working on release 8. It was such a struggle locating and figuring out what techniques had replaced what was demonstrated in the tutorial. But I figured it out. And I’m able to undistort with overscan and redistort at the correct resolution.
Lens Distortion Plugin Kit - Again, this is quite interesting to go through these tutorials. Slight changes to scripts and feature locations means I have to spend time researching where the feature is or using alternative methods. But I manage to get the shot distorted and undistorted fine.
STMaps - This process was much quicker to go through and had not changed much from release 4 to release 8.
CONCLUSION
There are pros and cons to each distortion workflow:
METHOD | PROS | CONS |
Grid Warp | No setup required | Resolution Dependent |
LDPK | Easy to Use Resoultion Independent | Slow Installation Required |
STMaps | High Speed Suitable for Proxy Shots | File Management (large file numbers) |
What I’ve been listening to:
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