Should surface drive spline In Manual Track mode?

#1

My understanding is that in Mocha the default is for data coming in via the tracking spline to dictate what the surface does. Selecting Manual Track flips this, so that one can adjust the surface and that will pass down to the tracking spline. This seems to be the case in Mary’s manual tracking video, where she changes the surface and the tracking spline adjusts along with it. If that is correct, can someone please help me understand what could cause my spline to be independent of my surface in manual tracking mode, and how to fix it. I noticed that Mary mentioned in one post here that we should leave the surface on while in manual mode. Is that the cause? Or am I misunderstanding how things should work?

Thanks,
James

#2

To be clear:

  1. The spline is a child of the tracking data. If you move the spline it will not affect the track or the surface.
  2. The spline is a search area which tells the tracking model where to look. Moving it doesn’t modify the track or surface in any way, but is important for defining where to search next.
  3. The surface is also a child of the tracking data unless it is in Manual Tracking mode, at which point it will keyframe the track.

This video explains it in detail: https://vimeo.com/57347979