Original realistic 3D Tracking from SIGGRAPH festival.

You can easily use Boujou for tracking camera footage but Maya offers a really clean tracking solution as well.  For those who got some sync problems and would like to try full 3D tracking, I´ve discovered a while ago MayaLive which I was surprised to see had very little sources online.

You can also do 2D motion tracking in AfterEffects and Shake but that´s kind of a limited solution for more complex shots. For me, the Maya help files were extremely useful.
So roll up sleeves, don´t forget to make sure MayaLive is loaded in the pluginManager, and give it a try.

And for those truly bored with the same old techniques and styles over and over, I suggest the inspiring SIGGRAPH festival reel?

So… what is SIGGRAPH?
Simple, they define it as a Professional Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group in Computer Graphics.. In other words, geeks!

One of the most amazing tools they have is the 3D clay sculpting program where you use and pen-like mouse tool to carve the clay. The amazing thing is that you can actually feel the resistance of the clay through the mouse. There is also a 3D printer that uses a waxy, yet sturdy substance to slowly build a model of whatever you had built on the computer software. Geeks obviously have the best toys and now, they sure know how to have fun..

SIGGRAPH organizes a kick-ass Computer Animation Festival, with contributions from all over the world and they ask new artists to come forward and participate. If you want to see what no one´s ever seen before I highly recommend basic tickets to New Orleans this August, so you can watch the Festival at the Art Gallery and Electronic Theater. I´m really gonna try to make it this year, so let me know. Their site is at www.SIGGRAPH.org

Have fun exploring!