Hi folks:

I'm trying to test calibration with the free trial software, and it looks like I can't adjust the roll of the camera in the scene tab. I can pan, tilt, and orbit, but not roll. Is this a bug, or is it just disabled in the trial software?

The calibration comes out junk without being able to roll the camera.

Thanks,

Michael

I suggest you're doing something else wrong as a process, it has never mattered for me. As long as the video captures it I don't see why it would as long as you're not trying to do extreme angles. Certainly a bit of a slant doesn't make any difference.

Check out the various tutorials as layout out the cameras in the right sequence is important. Having no actor in the scene at the beginning for it to analyse is important and then calibrating the full area is important.

I'm not wishing to presume what you're doing but just waving a light around without marking ground in each corner of the capture volume and then using the software to calibrate your ground points will also fail.

If you can upload a short calibration video attempt, we can probably tell you more.

I use a level on the PS3 cameras. Then I do not need to adjust for the roll.

My tripod heads are ball joint heads, and they can roll. One of my cameras is tilted sideways at about 45 degrees. There is a measurement for "Roll" in the scene tab, but no matter how I try to adjust the preliminary camera position, the Roll value always stays at 0 degrees.

I just want to know if the software will accomodate the real world roll of a ball joint head. Maybe this is only a question the ipisoft people can answer.

Thanks,

Michael

Hi folks:

Please see the post at:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4911&p=7083&sid=2fffd0df81bfdb4b600fa4a0cc9afb16#p7083

Thanks,

Michael

If it's not a silly question, why the need for such a roll for that camera? Looks to me like Roll is a calculated value which is derived from a successful calibration.

If you watch the ipisoft calibration tutorial video (at about 1:30 into the video), there's a place where you roughly align the cameras with orbit and move. If you do this, you can see that the statistics for the camera change - except for roll. I just happen to have a video head that allows roll. Think of a camera like an airplane - it can pitch up and down (tilt), point left or right (pan), or roll. If I have to have the cameras level, and that affects the calibration, I need for that limitation to be documented so I can prepare for my shoot.

So, my question for ipisoft is when I roughly align the camera as they specified, why can't I roll the virtual camera? Is that a bug, a limitation of the trial software, or a limitation of the commercial software also?

Michael

Currently, there is no UI control for camera roll. This is a limitation of all versions of our software.

If "Auto-detect initial camera positions" works for your calibration video then you should not need roll control at all. You should not change camera positions after successful calibration.

If "Auto-detect initial camera positions" fails then you can specify initial camera positions manually. You need not be very accurate. Camera roll of 20-30 degrees may simply be ignored when you specify initial camera positions.

If you still need to specify a tricky initial camera position by hand (like upside down camera) then you can use the following workaround:
1)Save your scene as XML file.
2)Edit scene XML file with text editor (e.g. Notepad). You can specify any sequence of rotations around any axis.
3) Load scene XML file.

Thanks Michael:

I'm used to working with XML files, so that should be fine. I've got a test shoot today, and I just needed to know if I needed to be precise about the roll of my cameras. By the way, I'm using the bogen head on my lightstand:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/3 ... h_056.html

thanks for your rapid reply,

Michael 2