How to add a figure to a shot while the camera is panning
Ask Vizard Agent to build the figure onto a real frame from the middle of the pan before compositing anything. Matching scale, ground contact and lighting on a still is what makes the moving version hold. The reveal should come from behind something already in the shot, not from the figure fading up.
What do you type into Vizard Agent?
Describe the figure and the moment. A pan lets you choose when the figure comes into view, and that choice is most of the effect. Give its height relative to something in frame and say what must not change. Vizard Agent will say when a described motion is going to fight the tracking.
When the camera pans left, there should be a figure standing by the column, about two metres tall, completely still, lit by the same light as the rest of the courtyard. Do not change the grade or the framing.
What does Vizard Agent actually do?
It builds a still before it builds a shot. Only once the figure looks right on one real frame does anything get applied across the moving frames, because a mismatch is much easier to see on one large frame than in motion. In the session behind this article it:
- Worked to a brief that put the aspect ratio, grade, lighting and environment off limits, and sampled the pan densely to see the camera move and the light.
- Inspected several points through the pan, picked a frame, generated the figure onto it standing on the real tiled ground, and checked placement, scale, grounding and lighting.
- Ran the integration through the moving shot with scene-matched tracking, then checked ground contact, motion blur and drift on the first reveal frame, a mid-pan frame and a later one.
- Re-rendered when the first version had the figure simply appear, which read as a composite, so the camera now discovers it from behind a real foreground column.
- Compared source and final crops at the moment a late review reported the figure overlapping a barrier post, before risking a global fix to an otherwise right shot.
When does this not work well?
When there is nothing in the foreground to reveal from behind. A clean open pan gives no occluder, so the figure has to be in frame from the first moment or fade in, and fading in always looks like an effect. A fast pan with heavy motion blur is hard too, because the figure's blur has to match the scene's. Vizard Agent will tell you what is available rather than inventing an occluder.
Common questions
Does the figure have to be still? No, but still is easier to hold. Vizard Agent will say when described motion fights the pan.
Can I see the still before the full render? Yes, and you should. Vizard Agent builds it first for exactly that reason.
Will the grade change? Not unless you ask. Vizard Agent matches the figure to the existing grade.