PFTrack 25.11.13 - Initial experience
Excited to see this long awaited update to PFTrack. The team has clearly been working hard over the last year to fix bugs and refine workflows, thank you. Like any update, there are things that may impact your workflow “muscle memory”, so be prepared for some minor level of adjustment. Sharing some info for those here to know what to expect if you’re a long time user. I’m sure there are things I haven’t discovered yet, so I would love to hear other’s thoughts or feedback on any of these points. Your experience may differ.
What’s great so far
Built in Camera Database (hope this grows or allows users to contribute and share)
More functionality in the Workpage contextual menu (less traveling for buttons*)
Auto Track - Huge improvements to clean-up and adjustments (less need to fetch from User Track node)
Auto Track - Tracker Motion tab is greatly improved for faster workflow finer control.
User Track - Moving the analysis buttons to the Cinema, great choice for less travel, just going to take time to get used to.
User Track - Adjustment and upstream correction or re-track from the Errors tab in the Camera Solver, so smart. Even adds trimming to Auto track start and end points.
Camera Solver - Will now notify you if you have tracks that are not “hidden” when you go to process
Workpage -Rename added to contextual menu and faster access to the Notes Panel.
Workpage Contextual menu options are now contextual in that when you are working with a node, it will grey out options that can’t be applied.
Lots of BUG FIXES!!!!!
Mixed
Workpage contextual menu now adds options almost all of the functionality of the buttons, so you have less travel to do operations, which is great. However the Connect section now pushes the nodes (what I most often want to access) two levels deep, which feels like a slow down. I can see why the contextual menu is more hierarchical, but it feels like this could still use some refinement? Still, it's improvement for Workpage management.
Not so great
Clip Input - Removal of the “Automatic” setting now means you need remember to go to the Undistort tab and change the mode manually every time for Unknown systems (previously setting Camera to Automatic changed this…automatically). Seems like this will be easy to forget if you’re used to the previous behavior. You will also have to double check the Auto-Undistort tab to make sure estimation solve is enabled because this is only set automatically when you first add the node. Changing the undistort to automatic after the fact does not update the Solve setting.
Solver Node - Now there’s an alert that you always have to click through if you make adjustments or refinements and res-solve already solved if you try to adjust and then solve again. Would love an option for this window to never show again. I know I’m resolving, I have a reason.
Solver Node - Basic Orientation tools removed. I used these all the time to help check my solve before fine tuning in the actual orientation node.
Odd?
Auto-Tracker does not let you set the Target number/Min frames until after running analysis
*Workpage menu now has copy in the contextual menu, but no paste? (Still have to use the button)
Scene Export node was expanded to support more inputs (used to be 10 & thanks to TPF for updating to allow for more inputs), but Footage export is still constrained to 10?
Really happy to see PNG support again for image sequences, but only for exports? Not for import?
Bug?
Auto Track - Adjust mode clamps the zoom level? I am in the Cinema looking at a tracker that needs adjustment so I zoom in to 4527% (or higher) to review the path determine how to alter the path. I click “Adjust" and the Cinema switches to 2009% and I can’t zoom in any further. Turning off the Adjust changes the view to 78% (roughly the Fit value). Toggling the adjust does not return to the same zoom level as when I started. I would expect to be able to zoom in as close as I want want when doing an adjustment for better accuracy. It would also be nice if the the previous zoom level was maintained or returned to from when I first started, before clicking the “Adjust” button.
Things I’d like to see in the future/Wish list
Workpage contextual menu: Add a "new page” option to the “Move” section so you don’t have to create a new page and then move.
ML based roto masks. Now days, I’m generating 90% of masks this way from other applications, exporting the mask and then importing the result to apply in PFTrack. ML roto tools can be far faster and less work than bezier roto tools. It would be awesome to have some ML Roto native in the application.
Thank you again to the team for the release!🙏