Great tutorial. But I have a question: I know you were showing the merge tool in this case and not necessarily presenting all the ways to solve the tracking of these shots... But for tracking like this, wouldn't it be ideal to use the X+ tool? Since I can click multiple tracking shapes on the same layer, making sure none of them get lost because when one is hidden, it still uses the information from the other?
Yes, you could do it that way. Any time you're managing multiple splines across time, things can get complex. I used to do a lot of activating and deactivating spline points, but that's a lot of stuff to mentally manage. This works without that mental overhead, and if you have to tweak one section, it's a bit more straightforward.
Is it possible to merge layers that track perpendicular surfaces? Say, you have a video of a drone orbiting a building. So you decide to track one wall, then the next wall perpendicular to the first one, than 3rd and 4rth walls. So you end up with four layers each tracking its own wall. And then you want to stabilize the footage as a whole. Is it possible?
It's possible, but I'm not sure how the transition frames would work in practice. It's not something I have personally tried. It's worth a test though!
Do you have In/Out points set on your top layer? Just reset the range to full length of the clip and the tracking data will be there. If that's not it, please get in touch with Support and they can work with you to figure out what's happening : support.borisfx.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
I did this for a large panning motion (sports broadcast footage) and in Mocha it shows the three shapes all sitting where they should be, but when I export the data it ends up only keeping the top layer's data. I have the frame in and out markers all lined up correctly. I'm only actually using the surface data from that layer at the moment (I want to add another insert for the other end of the range once I get the first part working), but my insert stops tracking when it hits the end range of the frames, and then the surface/insert just sits there like it's not tracked at all - in other words like the merge never actually took place. The keyframes markers in Davinci Resolve are all present and suggest that it's getting track data, but just not meaningful/changing track data. In other words, the export doesn't seem to preserve the other two layers' data.
Make sure that the layer you are merging down doesn't have an In/Out range set. Or after you have completed the merge, hit the Set In/Out Points to Tracked Region on the Merged layer. Hope that helps.
I must be doing something wrong, or i don't understand a concept. I have a panorama video like yours but more shakey, i did track it with x-spline layers, with each layer tracking some prominent object on screen until it goes off, i overlapped them a few frames into each other. I merged my layers and when i try to stabilize them in Mocha with smooth motion, even in my merged layer it's like tries to keep each of former layers motionless in the center then jumps to another one etc, so it doesn't look smooth at all. How should i approach it? Should i export that data to AE and stabilize there?
These kind of questions are best answered on the forum for more detail and sharing of screen shots: forum.borisfx.com/c/mochapro/6 In short however, are your tracked layers all of the same motion type (i.e all perspective, shear etc) or do you mix and match types? If new motion keys are introduced they can cause a jump as they blend in. If tracked objects are in different planes or parallax to each other, you may also get a shift due to the relative offset of motion. If you can share the project file on the forum above and/or talk a bit more about your setup, we can have a better idea of what is going on.
You'll need to be in Mocha Pro 2023 or higher to have a merge layers button. Mocha AE and earlier versions of Mocha Pro did not have this feature I'm afraid.
You need to be on Mocha Pro 2023 for the Merge Layers feature. If you are and it is still not showing up, please get in touch with Support and they will be happy to help : support.borisfx.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
Sorry about that! (It does say Mocha Pro in the title) But all is not lost. You've done all the work, so you can do it the old school way. For each track that you've created in Mocha AE, apply that data to a Null in AE. Then when you're done, chain all those tracking nulls together using parenting. Bingo! One long tracking chain. This only really works with transform data not corner pins though. But it's a time-honored technique.
![Create Longer Tracks by Merging Tracked Layers in Mocha Pro [Boris FX]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
