Editing Match moving (section)

{{short description|Visual effects technique allowing the insertion of computer graphics into live-action footage}}
{{Redirect|Camera Tracking|other uses|Motion tracking (disambiguation){{!}}Motion tracking}}
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In [[visual effects]], '''match moving''' is a technique that allows the insertion of 2D elements, other live action elements or CG [[computer graphics]] into [[live-action]] footage with correct position, scale, orientation, and [[motion]] relative to the photographed objects in the [[Shot (filmmaking)|shot]]. It also allows for the removal of live action elements from the live action shot. The term is used loosely to describe several different methods of extracting camera motion information from a [[motion picture]]. Also referred to as '''motion tracking''' or '''camera solving''', match moving is related to [[rotoscoping]] and [[photogrammetry]].
Match moving is sometimes confused with [[motion capture]], which records the motion of objects, often human actors, rather than the camera. Typically, motion capture requires special cameras and sensors and a controlled environment (although recent developments such as the [[Kinect]] camera and [[Apple Inc.|Apple]]'s [[Face ID]] have begun to change this). Match moving is also distinct from [[motion control photography]], which uses mechanical hardware to execute multiple identical camera moves. Match moving, by contrast, is typically a [[software]]-based technology, [[Post-production|applied after the fact]] to normal footage recorded in uncontrolled environments with an ordinary camera.

Match moving is primarily used to track the movement of a camera through a shot so that an identical virtual camera move can be reproduced in a [[3D&nbsp;animation]] program. When new animated elements are composited back into the original [[live-action]] shot, they will appear in perfectly matched perspective and therefore appear seamless.

As it is mostly software-based, match moving has become increasingly affordable as the cost of computer power has declined; it is now an established visual-effects tool and is even [[PVI Virtual Media Services|used in live television broadcasts]] as part of providing effects such as the [[1st & Ten (graphics system)|yellow virtual down-line]] in [[American football]].