As a video editor with over 5 years of experience using various video editing apps like CapCut, I often get asked how to track moving objects in videos using the motion tracking feature. This powerful feature in CapCut allows you to pin graphics, text, images, and more to moving objects in your clip.
Table of Contents
An Overview of Motion Tracking in CapCut
The motion tracking tool in CapCut analyzes a selected area of your video clip frame by frame to track its movement. You simply select the object you want to track, and CapCut creates an attachment point that follows the object as it moves around within the video frame.
This opens up lots of creative possibilities. For example, you can:
- Add text or graphics that follow a person or vehicle as they move
- Blur or pixelate faces or logos on moving objects
- Emphasize parts of a moving object with circles, arrows, or other graphics
The motion tracking feature works best on objects with clear edges and high contrast against their background. It can track translation (movement across the frame), rotation, and size changes.
Step-by-Step Guide
Here is a step-by-step guide to using motion tracking in CapCut:
1. Import your clip
Import the video clip containing the moving object you want to track into your CapCut project.
2. Select the tracking tool
Tap the “Sticker” icon, then select “Track”. This activates the motion tracking tool.
3. Choose object to track
Tap the object in your video clip that you want to track. CapCut will display a box around it.
4. Adjust tracking area
Use the corner handles to adjust the tracking box so that it closely surrounds the object you want to track.
5. Analyze the clip
Tap the “Analyze” button. CapCut will now analyze your video clip frame by frame to track the selected object.
6. Add a graphic element
Once analysis is complete, you can add a graphic element like text, an image, shape, or sticker. This element will now follow the movement of the tracked object.
7. Adjust anchor point
Use the anchor point tool to adjust where on the tracked object your added graphic is pinned. For example, you may want an arrow pointing directly at a certain feature.
8. Edit the graphic
Customize the size, rotation, color, transparency and other properties of your added graphic as needed.
9. Review and adjust
Scrub through your clip using the editor timeline to review the tracking results. If needed, you can tap “Analyze” again to improve accuracy.
And that’s it! With these simple steps you can track moving objects in your videos using CapCut. This opens up lots of creative possibilities for highlighting parts of a moving scene or adding dynamic motion graphics.
Tips for Better Motion Tracking
Here are some tips to get better motion tracking results in CapCut:
- Choose clear objects: Track objects with well-defined edges and high contrast from the background. Avoid blurry or semi-transparent objects.
- Surround tightly: Make sure the tracking box hugs closely around the object you want to track. Exclude extra background area.
- Track rigid parts: For articulated objects like people or animals, track rigid parts like heads rather than flexible limbs.
- Allow padding: Leave some padding around your tracked object to accommodate size/perspective changes.
- Analyze multiple times: Re-analyzing can improve accuracy as lighting changes. Analyze once per major lighting shift.
- Keyframes are your friends: You can manually adjust the position of graphics in keyframes where tracking falters.
Advanced Tracking Techniques
With a bit more effort, you can pull off some more advanced motion tracking techniques like:
- Multi-point tracking: Add more track points to accommodate perspective shifts for 3D objects rotating in space.
- Masking: Layer a mask shape over your graphic so it only appears on top of the tracked region and blends into the background.
- Rotoscoping: Manually animate masks frame-by-frame to isolate foreground objects from complex backgrounds.
- Camera tracking: Track static background elements to recreate 3D camera moves. Works well for adding overlays to drone or action cam footage.
While basic object tracking is easy to do in CapCut, these more complex techniques take some practice. But the creative possibilities are endless!
Examples of Motion Tracking Use Cases
Here are just a few examples of creative ways you can use motion tracking in your videos:
- Put a logo, chyron, or text box over a person’s shirt as they walk across frame
- Blur or pixelate faces, signs, or other identifiable objects
- Add animated effects like fire or lighting bolts trailing a moving vehicle
- Create a custom animation effect to emphasize important objects
- Attach tooltips, text boxes, or arrow callouts to moving machinery
- Recreate the famous “bullet time” effect from The Matrix
As you can see, motion tracking opens up a whole world of possibilities! With a bit of creativity, you can use it to grab attention, obscure identities, or just add a bit of flare to moving elements in your clip.
Conclusion
Learning the motion tracking tool in CapCut takes your video editing skills to the next level. As you can see, tracking moving objects is easy to set up, yet enables so many creative effects.
The key is choosing high-contrast objects, carefully surrounding them with tracking boxes, and analyzing multiple times to accommodate lighting and perspective changes.
With practice, you’ll be able to track complex camera moves and rotating objects. And the editing possibilities are endless once you can pin graphics to any moving element.
