Loading the image sequence

Getting Started > Tutorials > Lesson 1: Tracking an image sequence >

The first step in matchmoving is to load the image sequence you want to track.

NoteYou can bypass this section of the lesson by openningBasic_Sequence.mmf. This file can be found in the Tutorials/Basic directory. You can then proceed to Running the automatic tracker.

To load an image sequence

Select File > Load Sequence or click the Load Sequence icon in the toolbar.
The Load Sequence window appears.
In the Load Sequence window, browse to the location of the MatchMover Tutorials/Basic directory, and select lion000.jpg, which is the first image in the sequence.
Click Details.
Information about the image sequence, such as its length as well as preview images, are displayed in the Details section of the Load Sequence window.

The video you use for this lesson is in the interlaced PAL format, which means you need to set MatchMover sequence options for this type of video.
In the Sequence Options section, select Lower field first from the Interlace drop-down list.
In the Camera Settings section, select 25 fps from the Frame Rate drop-down list.
Leave Motion set to Free because in this example, the camera does not follow any of the motion types specified in the list.

To play the image sequence

Select Sequence > Play or click the play button which is in Play Sequence Toolbar at the bottom of the Workspace.

Note that when you play the beginning of the sequence it is slightly jerky. This is because the sequence is loading into your computer’s RAM. After the images are in the cache, the sequence plays smoothly. The size of the current cache is displayed in the bottom-right corner of MatchMover user interface.

Since the image sequence is only 50 frames, it plays back too quickly to closely examine. Changing the play mode to PingPong will continuously loop the sequence back and forth, making it easier to check the sequence motion.
Select Sequence > Play Mode > PingPong or click the PingPong button in the Play Sequence Toolbar.
To stop the playback, click the Stop button or press Esc.
TipTo play the scene manually, you can press Ctrl, click anywhere in the image, and drag the pointer to the left or to the right.
To go back to the first frame, press Ctrl+Home (Windows) or Command+Home (Mac) or press .