Object motion tracking in Camtasia | Motion Tracking Tutorial
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 พ.ค. 2021
- How to track a moving object in Camtasia 2021. Camtasia doesn't have motion tracking natively and I don't know if they're going to introduce that anytime soon, but I want to show you how you can actually still track an object to an acceptable level, depending on the movement you want to track, the length of your video and the desired precision.
It is a manual process, but if you're stuck or you are in a bind or you need to do a tracking on an object to follow something or to add blur to an area on your video that is moving, can still do it using plain old animations in Camtasia. in this video I am going to walk you through a few things that you can use to make this tracking job easier, some options and preferences to change to make it smoother, and then I'm going to show you how to track movement across a video clip with another object.
If you think about it, even in Adobe Premiere or other video editing programs that do have motion tracking, what happens is the tracking is the same - the object is moved frame by frame to a new location, and all that the tracking does is really just follow something, notices the shift in pixels to make sure that it's moving that object to the new coordinates. So ultimately, even these more professional video editors do end up generating key frames for every single frame.
What we will be doing in this Camtasia tutorial, we will be approximating the movement of the object from frame to frame, but depending on your movement, we can get away with not actually doing it frame by frame, because Camtasia can create all the frames in-between.
We need to change the default easing for the animation. By default, Camtasia creates what is called easing, and it doesn't create linear easing - it creates an exponential in and out, so we are changing that to avoid having to change it for every little segment, and prevent our tracking object from stuttering during the motion.
After we create a general animation from the start and end of our tracked segment, we then proceed to cut it halfway every time, until the movement becomes more accurate and tracks the object closer and closer.
Finally, we employ the use of the keyboard to really dive deep and create frame by frame keyframes where we need it to track the object more closely. Now, depending on the length of your video, obviously, this may be too tedious to do so I am aware it may not work for all situations, but as I said, all of the other software does exactly the same, except it does it automatically.
This is one way to create manual object tracking in Camtasia. Obviously, you need to decide on a specific point to follow, and you have a tracking object tracking another object. So this can be useful if you need to maybe blur out some areas in your clip somewhere, you have some confidential information or something that cannot be seen like someone's face or something else that you want to track across a video clip. Depending on the length of that, just create your object and just keep moving it. And if you need to blur out some areas, you may not even need this much of, accuracy on tracking, you just need it to be roughly in the area it needs to be, and just keep moving it with the keys and create these frames automatically by enabling that easing that is linear.
I know Camtasia doesn't have tracking and it's not automatic, but if you really need to do it and incorporate this in your project, this is one way to do it. I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
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You have provided a very clear explanation of how to do things that Camtasia 2021 does not - as yet - provide appropriate solutions for. Well done.
Thank you, I appreciate your feedback. It's encouraging!
I am so glad you started doing more Camtasia videos! I can’t understand why getting a good amount of views are so hard for great teachers like you and a few others. There are hundreds of thousands running Camtasia and they only learn the basics (and their work shows it) when if they subscribed and watched more videos they would so improve their work! Thank you and looking forward to your videos.
Thanks for your feedback, Joe! I think 'views' will grow. I just enjoy making quality videos. I have a few great ones planned and ready to produce, will be releasing them over the coming weeks. Let me know if you have any Camtasia questions, maybe there are some ideas there for videos. Thanks again for watching!
I wouldn't've thought of fiddling with Camtasia like this myself. A nice, fancy tool to add to my toolbox. T'anks.
Thank you. It does get you out of a bind when you need it.
So helpful. I could use this technique for tracking a blur as I scroll on the computer screen when I’m demonstrating software.
Exactly!
I loved this one! Many thanks! I don't usually use motion tracking in my videos, but from now on I will be able to have the effect in them through this manual trick. I have been thinking of an extra feature while watching your video - the speech bubble could have been transforming too, as the car was rotating on the road.
Oh, and you gave us a very clean, exciting step-by-step explanation. (As always, I might say.)
Thank you, I am grateful for the feedback! I am glad the video is useful. Rotating the object is a good idea (and I will have a video on something like that shortly, by the way), but it makes things more complicated because when you do that, you must also account for the rotation and size of the object, at key points. But it's not impossible!
You, Sir, ar e a Camtasia God - thanks for making this, it's the only video I've been able to find addressing this effect. Laborious, but worth it, and easier than using After Effects.
Aww, thanks a lot! I am glad you found this helpful!
very helpful video, Thanks a lot !
Glad it was helpful! Thank you for watching!
I used to move it frame by frame.... this will take way less time, thank you :)
Yeah, it's easier to let Camtasia build the interpolated frames.
Very helpful, thanks. For small clips this is almost faster than setting tracking up in another video editor. Especially when using those shortcuts.
Yeah, it depends on your needs. Plus, you don't lose more quality by re-encoding your video twice.
Excellent. So simple but very well explained thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
0oh wow, I hadn't thought to use it like this! Tedious or not, this is a great little manual technique and will keep me out of having to go between programs for super short 'tracking' needs. Thanks!
Glad it was helpful! Thank you for your comment.
Two enthusiastic thumbs up! You rock, man :)
Thanks! Appreciate the feedback!
Well done once again. Thanks!
Thank you too! My pleasure!
bro, I just came across your channel the other day and your videos are f'ing DOPE.
Thank you, that's good to hear! More videos coming! Feel free to join the FB support group too if you want: cotovan.com/group
Thanks Christy - your videos are always very helpful
You are so welcome! Please let me know if you have questions or things you are struggling with in Camtasia. I will try to help and make a tutorial. Appreciate it!
Very well explained, thank you very much!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks!
bro this is amazing and you made it very simple... thanks i have been trying to track golf balls but just couldn't get it, can't wait to try with this method!
Super! Hope it works for tracking them. It takes a bit of work but in the end, I am sure the results will be great.
Merci beaucoup !!! Avant de voir votre vidéo, je passais tellement de temps à réaliser la même chose ! Quel gain de temps. Merci, merci, merci !
Merci!
That was a very helpful video, Thanks for point out how that by using the < > keys along with the arrow keys you can have even more control in tracking objects
You're welcome! I am glad it was helpful. Thank you for your feedback. I have more videos like this already recorded and ready to be published. I think you will like them. Let me know if you have questions.
This is so clever, thanks for another great explanation!
You're very welcome!
This is a fantastic video.
Glad you think so!
Pretty awesome. Thanks
Thanks for watching!
Superb. Thanks Mr. Cristi
You are very welcome
great video!!! super useful!
Glad you think so! Thank you for the feedback and for watching! If you want to join us, we have a Camtasia Group for Beginners on Facebook: cotovan.com/group
Fantastic, really well explained 👍
Glad you liked it and thanks for the feedback!
Amaaaaziiing, I really love this tutorial, thank you so much 😊🌸
You’re welcome 😊Thanks for your feedback!
@@Graphicious You’re welcome 😊🌸
Great Info bro love it...
Glad you liked it
That was awesome!
Thank you!
Really helpful. Thanks!
Glad to hear it! Thanks for watching!
This was great. Thank you~!
Glad you enjoyed it!
It's really helpful. Thanks a lot
Most welcome! Glad to hear that!
Really well done. Thanks!
Thank you too!
@@Graphicious By the way, I tried your technique, and for whatever reason the auto keyframe points (when moving the object) are not created. It is a bit odd.
@@Graphicious FYI: The Mac version of Camtasia works a bit differently. Not as convenient as the Windows counterpart. Great tutorial though. Cheers!
Dude you rock!!!!
Thank you! I'm glad you found it useful.
JUST AMAZING LECTURES SIR...BUNCH OF THANKS....
So nice of you
thanks this is very helpful
You're welcome! Thank you for watching!
great video. Thanks
Glad you liked it!
Thank you
Welcome!
Great tip as always. I was hoping we get the path animation in 2022 but it turns out it was just for the cursor for some reason. Boy was I angry this year.
That would have been awesome. And they are so close. If they take the current 'path builder' for the cursor and let you change the image or object that is animated along that path -- boom! Path animation! Maybe next year.
A remark and another question.
Remark for your great job !
I did use your trick and a move with regular speed and a fixe angle. It's quite cool and thanks you tips, quite simple to do. It's needing some time but you can do something else while doing the finishing like looking the news or whatching any good program.
I try to use it with a drone. height 400 feet, movement 360 degres. Then i wanted to quote most of the interest point (cities, island, buiilding, nature). Difficult the speed or the rotation was no always the same, at the sea side, the height was moving a bit. Then is quite difficult to keep a smooth movement. It's OK for an amator movie (i mean domestic). For simple tracking it's working very well !
My other question concerns another topics. WIth the covid i m beginning to use the chapter and quizz option of camtasia (for this, almost no competiion ! :-). I'm using the smartplayer which is very simple.
I've cut my video's for each chapter or important idea's fort he student. Then it's very long to locate the mark between 2 scene manually and to write again the name of the chapter. I name the scene with a number and full title on my scene directly.
Question 1: is it possible then to mark each scene at the begining with the title of each scene (it would be more accurate and much more faster thant manually choose the postion and the rewrite the text).
Question 2: Is it possible (the i would understand) to change the police and add big chapter like BEFORE, PROJECT, AFTER. Then each part off the question 1 would be included. It would be the very clear for the student (young are adult) to learn a practice step by step. Of course, the those chapter shoulf be included and designed manually.
Question 3: For the quizz: is it possible to have a sentence with several space and fill with written word (or open text) or proposed option.
IF Yes how, if no, i think it would be a great improvement and you can propose the idea to techsmith and ask a fee. But perhaps it's a native option ? If not keep the fee for you :-) . The i will buy this
It's quite long and not perfecly english i guess. But i'm sure that a master of camtasia will appreciate the challenge if there is any :-) Then i would understand that we reach the limit of free advise.
Best regards.
Patrick
Patrick, I appreciate your reply and I am glad my video has taught you some skills. But your questions are very long and complex! It would be difficult to reply to all of them here, in a single field. Why not join our Camtasia Help group and let's discuss there? It seems like you have a lot of questions and I might have answered some of them already. See you there? cotovan.com/group
Thank you for the video! It was very helpful since Camtasia 2023 still doesn’t have motion tracking lol
Glad it helped! I’m pretty sure motion tracking isn’t even on Techsmith’s radar yet. It’s not that kind of software
@@Graphicious Yeah! I works as a system admin but I am upskilling in camtasia because it is used in the tech space for enablement and tech training and I want to land an LED or tech enablement role.
I still have Camtasia 2020 which is already great, your channel increase the potential a lot. I did practice you motion tracking tips. Excellent and quite easy to do. A question though. I wanted to change the shape at the end. The kepp the adjustment on my object i just wanted to make the box more transparent (the red is quate strong). But it seems, it's going back at the orginal red at each keyframe... Is it possible to do something, or your must keep the exactely the same shape after the first movement ? Many thanks.
Thank you for your feedback! In order to change something throughout the whole keyframes (such as color) you can turn on 'Global animation'. With the object selected, in the top-right bar in the properties of the clip there is a small icon that has the animation keyframes on it (it is gray). Click on it and it activates. Now, whatever you change on your clip, will apply to all the keyframes. Don't forget to turn it off once you are done to prevent other unwanted edits from being made.
Another idea is before you start animating your object, GROUP it with itself. This way, your object is inside the group, and outside, you animate the group, not the object. This way, if you decide to go in the group and change anything on the object (even REPLACE the entire object with another graphic), it will work just fine, because it's the group that is animated, not the object. Makes sense?
@@Graphicious Many thanks Cristi. A big step fir me in camtasia. Your tracking méthod is simple to adjust. Thanks...camtasia its easy to follower where to find the linear option. Next step i would like to adjust the "box" with a more élégant frame like a word , and white lines (easy then to adjust)...but i did not find the way.
Best regards. P
@@boninpatrick6065 Glad it helps! Like I said, if you want to change the object, you have to group it before you animate it, and animate the group. Then, after animating the group, you go inside the group and can change anything. It will stay animated.
Do you know is there any automation to make this happen? It takes so much work.
No automation but I believe there's a way to leverage the cursor path animation for easier workflow. I know it's not what it was meant for but I tested and it works! Watch out for a video on that soon!
Perhaps you should you have covered 'Easing'. I found 'Linear' is the only way to get predictable frames between keys. You probably made the tracking much more difficult than needed.
Easing doesn't work. It is important that you do linear so that the animation doesn't speed up and slow down as you add more and more keyframes along the way.
I cant get the keyframe in 2020. Is this an upgrade for 2021?
No, this should work the same way in 2020. Use custom animation on the annotation
Is there a way to correct a dead pixel in camtasia? thanks
If it's always in the same place, you could use the freeze region function to mask it out and have it copy from the pixel right next to it. See this video for a tutorial on that: th-cam.com/video/t7t4twEN1u0/w-d-xo.html
Dose not work on mac , I add custom animation but when move object in middle camtasia does not add that point, in 11:29 your video you said camtasia add that point automatically !!
What about pressing shift-a when in the middle? Does that add a keyframe?
@@Graphicious Thanks Cristi for help but still did not work :(
@@Graphicious Did not work, I have latest version
bro i have camtasia 8 which is really old and its different than that so can you make a video about camtasia 8?
Sorry, I don't have Camtasia 8. Time for an upgrade perhaps? Today is the last day to get 25% off!
@@Graphicioushow much?
ok
i dont have $250
lol
Primitive mode. Program does not have object tracking
I know! It sounds like they might add it soon
You wasted our time
That’s too bad. Hope you find better one somewhere else.