Arena vs Tracking Tools Tutorials

[SimonWM]

I am a newbie but as far as I can see seems to me that Arena ,which is your most expensive software, has gotten the end of the stick as far as tutorials go. Tracking tools has very well done specific tutorials that go into each of the options while Arena has very basic tutorials that go quickly thru the wizards but don't discuss specific settings.

[Seth Steiling]

Hi Simon,

This is primarily a product of the depth of customization in Tracking Tools vs. the simplicity of ARENA. Tracking Tools was designed to let you tweak just about every setting involved in the imaging, point tracking, reconstruction, and rigid body solving processes. It's an engineering-oriented application, and has a much higher level of complexity. Accordingly, the video tutorials are more numerous and verbose.

ARENA was designed to be as simple and streamlined as possible, with really only a few primary functions--full body mocap and prop tracking. As a result of the streamlining via wizards and some process automation, it requires less tutorial instruction than Tracking Tools.

Is there a particular feature or activity in ARENA that you feel should be covered by a tutorial video, and currently isn't?

[SimonWM]

Yes, I feel that the camera calibration requires more explaining. I didn't know what settings I needed to tweak when I started doing the camera calibration. I didn't know that I needed to tweak the threshold, intensity and exposure in order to get rid of extra markers; I learned that by trial and error. Your tracking tools video goes into this and more. I also didn't know that metal objects could make an extra marker. I was getting more markers in my skeleton setup and couldn't figure out what it was until I realized it was my glasses metal frame. In your Tracking tools video the tutorial person mentions his wedding ring is producing an extra marker. I just feel the Arena videos are too basic.

[Seth Steiling]

Hi Simon,

Thanks for the feedback. I'll talk with some of the guys here about working on a camera properties/optimization video for the V100:R2 + ARENA.

[SimonWM]

Thanks.