What is 2D Motion Tracking and what can it do?

What 2D tracking can do:

• track 2D positions – the X and Y axis
• allow you to add and attach assets to another layer or moving object
• track colour and luminance

What 2D tracking cannot do:

• track pixels if they are obscured by another object
• track pixels if they are obscured by motion blur (make sure film is shot with high shutter speed)
• track the 3D position – Z axis

Below is a quote to help understand the meaning of 2D motion tracking:

“…Because you are following a 2D image, an image projected on the flat screen, you can really follow only the position of pixels as they move around it. The screen and the image have no depth- remember, they are flat. This situation results in nothing but 2D data and 2D transformations.”

Ganbar, R. 2014.

 

One example of 2D tracking is adding an asset to a moving object. The clip below shows someone moving a box around. Using 2D tracking I have added an image taken from google to make it look like a pattern on the box.

The original video:

Edited 2D tracking video: