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# Tracking an Object using Shape Tracker

There are two ways to use the Shape Tracker. If you can create a large enough ROI around the object you want to track, you can use the Shape Tracker to track the object and then grade the same geometry. If the object you want to track and grade is small and it does not have enough trackable points to use the Shape Tracker effectively, you need to track a larger ROI, create a graded geometry of the smaller object, and link the ROI geometry to the graded geometry.

The following procedure is used when the object has a large enough ROI to track.

To track an object within a shot:

1. Make sure you are on the first frame of where you want the tracking to start.
2. In the Secondaries menu, right-click a secondary layer to activate it.
3. Click Show
4. Enable the Shape Tracker tool by clicking on Tracker and Shape.
5. Create an ROI by drawing either a basic or free-form geometry around the object you want to track. See Drawing Basic Geometries and Drawing Free-Form Geometries.
   NoteMake sure your ROI is as large as possible, without including too many non-rigid shapes, in order to give Shape Tracker a sufficient area to analyse.
6. Make sure the geometry you want to track is selected.

   The axis of the geometry should be yellow.

7. Set the tolerance slider between 0-10.
8. Click the analyse backward, or analyse forward button, to analyse the shot segment.

   When the analysis is complete, you can grade the geometry.

   NoteIf the analysis stops before the end of the shot or it does not begin at all, the ROI area may be too small to track. Refer to the following procedure below.

The following procedure is used if the object you want to track is small and does not contain enough trackable points.

To track a small object that does not contain enough trackable points:

1. Make sure you are on the first frame of where you want the tracking to start.
2. In the Secondaries menu, right-click a secondary layer button to activate it.
3. Click Show.
4. Enable the Shape Tracker tool by clicking on Tracker and Shape.
5. Create an ROI by drawing a basic geometry around a large area in the shot. See Drawing Basic Geometries.
   NoteDepending upon your shot, the large ROI area may or may not contain the smaller object you want to track.
6. Make sure the geometry you want to track is selected.

   The axis of the geometry should be yellow.

7. Set the tolerance slider between 0-10.
8. Click the analyse backward, or analyse forward button, to analyse the shot segment.

   The analysis is now complete.

9. Click Hide.

   The tracked geometry is now hidden.

10. Create a geometry around the object you want to grade.
11. Grade this new geometry.
12. Press ~ (the tilde key) to enter the Schematic view.

    You should see the axis and geometry of the tracked shape and the graded shape.

    (a) Geometry of graded shape(b) Axis of graded shape(c) Axis of ROI(d) Geometry of ROI

13. Position your cursor over the edge of the circle representing the ROI axis and left-click and drag a line to the edge of the circle representing the graded shape axis.

    The graded shape is now linked to the ROI and therefore follows its tracked path.

14. Press ~ to return to the Player view.