Node Panel
The Node Panel is where all the nodes in PFTrack are listed. From here, nodes can be added to the tracking tree, and tree presets can be created and managed.
Node categories
The Node Panel lists all available nodes in PFTrack, grouped in categories according to their function:
I/O : These nodes are used to import media, and export scene data and footage from PFTrack.
Tracking : These nodes perform 2D tracking tasks, including both automatic or manual point tracking and optical flow, or 3D tracking tasks such as geometry or camera target tracking.
Solving : These nodes analyse the 2D tracking information and generate 3D camera or object motion data.
Geometry: These nodes can be used to add 3D geometry to a scene, or extract 3D geometry and textures from image data.
Photo: This group of nodes can be used to generate a photogrammetry-based survey of a scene, produce a dense point cloud or 3D mesh, and even match a moving camera into the photogrammetry dataset.
Z-Depth: These nodes are used to generate and manipulate z-depth information from a tracked camera.
Spherical: The nodes in this category can be used to track, orient and re-render equirectangular spherical panoramas.
Stereo: These nodes are all related to the tracking of left/right-eye stereo footage.
Utilities: This category provides a general set of utilities that can be used to assist with other operations in tree.
Python: This category contains python scripts and macros that can be used to customize the functionality of PFTrack.
A full list of all nodes and their categories is available in the Node Reference Overview.
Custom category
The Custom category can be used to collect commonly used nodes into a single group to make for quicker access.
The collection of nodes stored in the Custom category is saved to disk as an XML preference file customShelf.xml
, in the user's documents folder /Users/USERNAME/Documents/The Pixel Farm/PFTrack/
. Adding nodes to the Custom category will not remove them from their original category.
: Removes the selected node type from the Custom nodes group. The deleted node type will still be available in its original category.
Mouse controls
Click on a node icon with the left mouse button, and drag-and-drop it into the Workpage to create a new node on the current page.
Double-click on a node icon with the left mouse button to create a new node on the current page.
Drag-and-drop a node icon with the left mouse button into Custom category to add the node to Custom node group.
Tree presets
On the right of the Node Panel are the Tree Presets. Commonly used node layouts can be stored as XML preference files in the presets/tree
folder in the user's application documents folder /Users/USERNAME/Documents/The Pixel Farm/PFTrack/presets/tree
.
Each preset is presented as a icon in the Tree Presets panel. Note that tree presets do not store the individual nodes' parameters, only the tree's composition of node types.
: Adds the selected tree layout to the current page in the Workpage.
: Adds the selected tree layout to a new page in the Workpage.
: Removes the selected tree preset from disk.
Tree Presets can be generated using the controls available in the Workpage.