The Pixel Farm Announces PFTrack 5.0

The Pixel Farm, a leading developer of innovative Film and Television digital post-production tools, pushes matchmove technology on again, offering a new dimension in Tracking: PFTrack 5.0. Just 12 months after the groundbreaking release of version 4.0, PFTrack 5.0 reasserts itself as the most advanced camera tracking and motion analysis solution available. Already considered an industry standard, PFTrack now reaches new heights of functionality, operability and ease of use, with exclusive new features including: true stereoscopic tracking with the ability to export anaglyphs, a totally new camera solver providing greater accuracy and improved Z calibration, reference frame support, more robust Z-Depth Extraction, pattern-based User Feature tracking and many UI and workflow improvements.

The Stereo Camera functionality in PFTrack 5.0 allows independent camera motions to be generated for both left and right eye images. Each “eye” is solved as a distinct motion path and presented as a “stereo” camera, providing much more accurate results than other approaches. The inter-occular distance, convergence distance and camera angle may also be user-defined, allowing PFTrack to accommodate non-standard stereo camera rigs. Once solved, PFTrack can pass data downstream to third party applications that support stereoscopic cameras, and export anaglyphs.

PFTrack 5.0 supports the use of reference frames. High-resolution stills can be imported and used to define points in space and improve camera solves. Such reference images can also be used as textures offering a superior resolution than a native plate for use with PFTrack’s advanced imagebased modelling tools.

PFTrack’s per-pixel Z-Depth Extraction has also been substantially improved to provide much more accurate results. 3D feature positions and camera information combine to produce an estimate for the position of each pixel in X, Y and Z in relation to the 3D camera. Once solved, the result can be visualized in 3D and exported as either a point cloud or triangular mesh for import into 3D applications.

Pricing and Availability
Shipping in September 2008, PFTrack 5.0 is free for current PFTrack users under support.
For full commercial license, £3000, $5500, €4000.
Upgrades from earlier versions cost £750, $1100, €950.