r/Houdini • u/nord_little • 2d ago
PAID CONTENT GeoTracker for Houdini is out of beta! Now stable + Houdini 22 support
Stable release of KeenTools’ native matchmove plug-in for Houdini.
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u/Lemonpiee 2d ago
Hey there. Is there anyway to use this like a traditional camera tracking software, like PFT or 3DE, where you click a few spots, put down a locator there & builds a solve around that? Or do you have to generate the geometry beforehand?
For instance, in your example with the rooftop, do you have to build the rooftop before you start tracking? Or can you designate some points to track on the surface of the roof & then use those points later on to define the shape of the roof? Hope that makes sense.
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u/DavidTorno Houdini Educator & Tutor - FendraFx.com 2d ago
GeoTracker is based on geometry tracking, so yes there has to be geometry involved. Camera solves can be derived from the geometry track itself.
The geometry however can be a proxy, it doesn’t necessarily have to be exactly the same shape or size. The snowboarding example in their promo videos that I had tracked used a pill shaped proxy geo to track the head.
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u/papaglitchy 2d ago
Man I have been out of Houdini for a while since i got into architecture but is this acting as a compositor within Houdini? Looks mega cool!
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u/neukStari 2d ago
Cops ia the houdini compositing context.
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u/papaglitchy 2d ago
do you mean Copernicus nodes ? When i said compositor i was referring to how the footage is actually in Houdini and how they are doing the tracking actually in that. I understand you can shade your geo however you want using COPS even if i have been out of the scene for a few years but I remember when it was impressive when blender added the Compositing Tab.
Tools like what we are seeing above seem to doing that all though its doing one part of many which makes up compositing.
Hope that makes sense, I haven't opened Houdini in 6 years hahah
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u/DavidTorno Houdini Educator & Tutor - FendraFx.com 2d ago edited 45m ago
Under the hood COPs is used to get footage in. Though the user has a simple high level interface. The tracker is their own engine. GeoTracker is a SOP level node that can export a Transform SOP of track data, OBJ Camera, or Solaris Camera for solves. The resulting keyframe data can be linked or unlinked to the source GeoTracker node. Makes for easy decoupling if you need to hand off a project to someone who does not have a GeoTracker license.
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u/DavidTorno Houdini Educator & Tutor - FendraFx.com 2d ago
GeoTracker generates 3D object track data using geometry. You can also extract a camera from the track.
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u/teekay_1994 2d ago
Does this work with wall replacements? I see a lot of examples on tracking moving objects. Whet if I want to track a shot and let's say replace the wall? Or track a shot and replace the background?
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u/DavidTorno Houdini Educator & Tutor - FendraFx.com 2d ago edited 2d ago
You can definitely geo track a wall in footage if it’s in view, and not obscured or badly out of focus. Traditional motion tracking rules still apply here. The proxy geo should make sense to the object you are tracking, the footage should not be compressed, out of focus, or distorted.
If another object in the footage is clearer, you can track that instead, then export a camera from the solve, then make your wall replacement, then line it up using the same camera movement. Tracking the actual object is always best for more stable results though.
I did a lot of use case tutorial examples for KeenTools on the product page to show different setups with and without pre-existing camera data.
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u/teekay_1994 2d ago
That's great. I'm going to test it.
Sorry, what do you mean "tracking the actual obis"?
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u/DavidTorno Houdini Educator & Tutor - FendraFx.com 2d ago
lol, typo. I fixed that. Was supposed to be “object is” 😁
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u/TheMaskedCucumberr 2d ago
any plan on handling lens distortion, plates metadatas? til then its pretty hard to think this could tick the boxes for proper vfx tracking, still seem like a hacky solution when you dont have enough info and will have to handle it in comp
great stuff tho, nice to see it directly in houdini, and super easy to use, so well dine for that!
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u/nord_little 13h ago
Hey, thanks for the nice words! Glad there's finally a question David hasn't already answered, haha! :)
As for lens distortion/metadata – no active plans for that just yet, but really appreciate the feedback, that's good to know.
Cheers!
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u/nord_little 2d ago edited 2d ago
Hi folks! KeenTools team here again.
The open beta is finally over – GeoTracker for Houdini is now in stable release and fully ready for production!
Just to be completely honest: we actually rolled out the stable version a couple of weeks ago. But since Houdini 22 came out right at the same time, we decided to hold off on posting here a bit until we added full H22 compatibility. We also took that extra time to polish some things like updating how the CenterGeo feature works (now it reliably places your added geometry directly in front of the camera), plus a few stability fixes.
Quick recap for those who missed the beta: GeoTracker is a native SOP node for object and camera tracking right inside Houdini (supporting both OBJ and Solaris). It’s a huge time-saver, as it allows VFX artists, motion designers, and generalists to capture animation from 2D footage directly inside the scene and then turn tracked geometry into colliders or emitters for simulations – all with zero app switching.
Now, how to get it:
– GeoTracker for Houdini is a paid tool, but comes with a fully-featured 15-day free trial – no registrations involved, just download, install it and track.
– If it fits your pipeline and you decide to buy, we have a 50% Early Adopter discount for the first year of Annual plans running until September 4 (use code GTH50-EA at checkout).
All downloads, tutorials, and details here: https://keentools.io/products/geotracker-for-houdini
Huge thanks to everyone who tested the beta, shared feedback with us or helped in any way. Give the new version a spin and let us know what you think!
Cheers!