hi all,
i'm baffled by what seems to be a simple problem. i'm trying to use maya live to track hdv footage, which is 1440x1080 "true" pixels, stretched to 1920x1080 on playback. i've converted the quicktime file into a tga sequence while keeping the anamorphic image (i.e. the tga images are squeezed in the horizontal direction).
now, i can track the footage with no problems if i select "same as image aspect" in the predefined filmbacks option of the setup panel (in live). the image is squeezed but the tracking works perfectly. however, if i then try to model anything with the tracked image as a reference background, the proportions are wrong, since a sphere looks like a sphere against a squeezed background plate (instead of looking like an ellipse) and will therefore look too wide when composited over the footage.
if, in the predefined filmbacks, i select "hdtv from video source 16:9", the background image looks like it should (i.e. a 16:9 image with natural, non-squeezed proportions) which allows proper modeling but, unfortunately, maya cannot track this. when i create a tracking point the tracker gets confused and tries to track a different area from the one i've defined.
i tried playing with the "lens squeeze ratio" attribute in the shotCameraShape1 node but this doesn't help either.
the only thing i can think of is to convert my quicktime into a 1920x1080 tga sequence, thereby stretching the pixels into what they should look when played back, track that footage, model against it, and then resqueeze the footage back in after effects. however, i'm worried this might not be the best workflow quality-wise.
any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks.