Los Angeles-based Lightcraft Technology recently released their Tracking Refinement with SynthEyes workflow and tutorial, working from a Sony FX3 take captured with Lightcrafts Jetset Cine virtual production app all the way into a sub-pixel tracked composite.The speed and ease of this workflow was immediately used by the YouTube production team Andyax in the Norwegian pilot production of Moonland, a childrens science fiction series set in space.Episodic OriginsLightcraft knew from their previous Emmy-award winning work on episodic productions like Once Upon a Time that getting high quality sub-pixel tracking quickly was the primary bottleneck in episodic VFX. This traditionally forced camera movement in greenscreen shots to be either locked-off or very conservative (avoiding visible ground contact), limiting the visual energy of the project.Jetset Cine already provided real time, on-set camera tracking, cine lens calibration, rapid 3D set scans, and live shot visualization.By building an automated data bridge between Jetset Cine and the SynthEyes post production tracking application, Andyax could use Jetsets fast on-set data capture systems to seed the post production tracking process in an entirely new way. This dramatically reduced tracking time for sub-pixel quality and thereby lowered production costs.Unleashing the CameraThe results were so fast and easy to work with that the Andyax YouTube production team used Jetset Cine to completely change the cinematography of Moonland, a childrens TV show set in space.The production originally planned to use locked-off cameras for the VFX shots outside and inside the spaceship, for all the reasons mentioned previously.By using Jetset Cine and the tracking refinement pipeline, they were able to change their cinematic approach to embrace fast, handheld camera moves with visible ground contact, which opened up the visual energy needed for a childrens show.How It WorksAs seen in the above video, the process consists of 3 phases:The import script constructs a shot with the Jetset on-set tracking data, rotomattes, and set scan already imported and aligned.2D trackers are detected and then projected onto the 3D mesh, creating survey data that locks SynthEyes solver to the original on-set tracking scale, orientation, and position.After the initial solve, we clean up bad trackers with a click, and refine the solve a couple of times. In less than 2 minutes, were already at a sub-pixel level of tracking accuracy!Whats NextIn addition to using Jetset Cine, the Andyax team used Blender for 3D modeling and rendering, and Resolve/Fusion for compositing the large sequence of shots. This use of a nodal compositing workflow inside Resolve enabled rapid re-use of compositing node groups between multiple shots.Lightcraft is expanding the sub-pixel workflow integration to include Unreal, Fusion, and other common DCC applications to make this kind of high-speed, high quality VFX shot processing workable by small teams no matter which tools they use.We want our users to think in terms of making shows, instead of shots, says Eliot Mack, founder & CEO of Lightcraft. All of our tools are made so that a small team can make something fantastic.Find out more at lightcraft.proBrought to you by Lightcraft Technology:This article is part of the befores & afters VFX Insight series. If youd like to promote your VFX/animation/CG tech or service, you can find out more about the VFX Insight series here.The post Lightcraft Jetset Opens Creative Doors for Andyax with Sub-Pixel Tracking Refinement appeared first on befores & afters.