SynthEyes 2011 New Features Summary We show below a break-down of the new features in each release. Sorry the lists are getting so long! We've tried to keep them short by showing only the top features. Existing customers can see more complete lists of details on the customer-only web site (not yet for 2011). SynthEyes™ 2011 Versus 2008+1 Headlining New Features * Texture-extraction system creates new low-noise textures and panoramic backdrops from image sequences * Add-a-card operation adds a card aligned with enclosed trackers, with automatic outlier elimination * SimulTrack window monitors multiple trackers and/or multiple frames on them simultaneously * Automatic key generation and automatic smoothing after key adjustment for new supervised-tracking workflows * Offset channels and cloning for trackers to aid creating trackers for fine mesh details and in problematic locations * Overall Distance constraint for smoother and more controllable solves, especially for object and other low-perspective solves * Controllable post-solve filtering via a new control panel * Projection screens with chroma or alpha key in the perspective view * New outlined-solid and cartoon wireframe shading modes in the camera & perspective views Trackers and Tracking * Radar display in the camera view for visualizing tracker errors * Pan-to-follow in the perspective window * Tracker appearance options: dot-always, dot-only modes, with separate enables for the 3D and perspective views * Tracker names shown in camera/3D/perspective views: all, selected, supervised with enables * Marker shown on key frames in the camera view when a supervised tracker is selected * Stay-alive preference for number of frames before a lost/disabled tracker's search box is hidden * Camera view automatically shows per-frame markers on tracker trails when the view is zoomed in * Script to color trackers based on RMS error using a secondary color swatch; ability to switch between primary and secondary swatches * Batch "Rename selected trackers" script * New intermediate-sharpness filtering option for the preprocessor, supervised tracking, and texture extraction * Crosshair for 2D-only trackers being drawn in perspective view * Reduced size, increased visibility for the coordinate axis indicating trackers with locks * "Z-drop lock" menu item for quicker gross tracker repositioning Stereo & Motion Capture * New perspective-view mode to quickly create stereo supervised-tracker pairs, including a "C"-key accelerator in the perspective view, as in the camera view * Animated Mesh Vertex export via Motion Designer MDD file for single and multi-camera mocap and stereo * Script to project 2D tracker locations onto a mesh, for creating facial animation with a rigid head model from a single-camera shoot * Interlaced and Luma-only display modes for stereo viewing * Zero-weighted-tracker solving for stereo pairs * Mocap tracker solving sensitive to overall camera weights, so a main camera view can be made to have super-accurate results at the expense of the rest * Control-HOME key centers camera view in available space, to match the perspective view layout for stereo and motion capture viewport configurations Set Reconstruction * Assemble-mesh mode for quick controlled mesh building * "Align mesh with links" dialog for aligning meshes to trackers, or the entire scene to a mesh * Perspective window's Align-grid takes any number of vertices or trackers, and ignores outliers * Quick 3-tracker mesh alignment and sizing mode, for sizing primitives to trackers when vertices do not match exactly * "Punch In" to insert trackers into an existing mesh * Linking of tracker mesh vertices to original trackers, so vertices can be updated if the solve is updated * Improved standard mesh primitive generators (cube, sphere, etc) with UV texture coordinates and the ability to change the number of segments at any time * Texture-coordinate cropping tool to enhance texture map utilization * One-click camera-mapped texture-coordinate assignment menu item * "Far meshes" allow reasonably-sized meshes to hold distant backdrops Texture Extraction * Mesh/mesh and spline/mesh blocking for garbage-matting * Texture alpha-channel painting toolset * Automatic alpha-channel creation tool Perspective View * Expanded navigation options, with 3 ways to dolly/orbit/etc * Textured mesh display, including alpha and alpha only, and hide the indication that a mesh is selected * Configurable overlaid toolbars in the perspective window * "Frame on Selected" for quick re-positioning * Horizon line in perspective window * 2-D Pan/zoom in perspective window (in addition to 3D) * Floating perspective window(s) * Handy "scrub" mode added * Many drawing improvements regarding overlapping selected and unselected objects, edge visibility, backfaces Graph Editor * Camera and object paths now have separate linear/spline controls for each axis of translation * Edit/Copy, Cut, Paste functionality for keys * Distance constraint value and current value display * Sort trackers by total lifetime * View/Group-by-color option to keep groups of trackers together * Camera and object colors shown and changable * Meshes now appear for their texture enable track. The selection, show, and color icons are active there also, which can be handy User Interface * Focus stays within a text edit until you hit return with no change * Support for selecting multiple meshes simultaneously * Shift-drag to select additional trackers in camera view, 3D view as in the perspective view * Scripts can be started using keyboard accelerators * Polygon vs rectangular selects * Checklines now are colored for easier understanding of a setup * You can now set up a keyboard accelerator for "Custom Layout" * The swatch on the 3D panel can change the color of camera, objects, trackers also * Viewport autozoom looks at entire camera/object path, not just current time Import/Export * Full-feature export to AfterEffects using Javascript, supports textured Cards, moving objects, SynthEyes-equivalent undistort and redistort layer effects inside AfterEffects, and automated background setup for powerful workflow. * Native Cinema 4D export using python, supports textured cards, moving objects, and automated background setup. * COLLADA export as a way to export new features, especially textures — readability by other packages currently a work-in-progress! * Animated Mesh Vertex export via Motion Designer MDD file for single and multi-camera mocap and stereo * Added AVI file writing for PC version, 32 and 64-bit, subject to limited third-party codec availability (use xvid?) * OBJ-reader performance increased greatly for large meshes, 12x for example, reads texture-map file names, and suppresses hidden edges on quads * OBJ-writer outputs header information, a texture map name, and handles very large meshes * BMP read/write of alpha channels and non-standard image sizes improved Sizzle * Access to primary view control flags and secondary tracker appearance * Access to mesh vertex/tracker links, making possible (among other things) animated mesh export scripts * Access to the graph editor clipboard via XML node in Scene * 3D Intersect functions from a ray or tracker onto a mesh * User-created-attributes capability for shots, cameras/objects, trackers, meshes, lights, and splines * Scripts folder changable via Folder Presets portion of Preferences * Scene.SetFrame(frm), Tracker.AvgImgColor(), Tracker.Clone() calls * "Extreme scripting" premium licensing for some new and existing workflow-automation Sizzle functions (marked with *) * Listener to accept full UI and SNI file manipulations from a separate app via TCP/IP socket* * ReadOBJ capability in Sizzle* * Scene.Solve() call*