Matchmovers

What does a good matchmover show in his or her portfolio?

Matchmovers should demonstrate a solid understanding of basic principles of 3D graphics, especially linear perspective and other properties of 3D space, the properties of camera parameters such as focus and focal length, 3D modeling and deformation tools, local coordinate versus world coordinate space, 3D hierarchies, matrices, rotations, translations, scale, and gimbal lock. Past successful candidates have demonstrated this understanding by match move experience, or a combination of photography, computer animation, and programming experience.

A matchmover also needs the ability and willingness to perform repetitive, highly detailed and tedious tasks and the ability to perform visual and analytical problem solving in 3 dimensional virtual space.

What do matchmovers do at Rhythm & Hues?

The matchmover's major responsibility is to meticulously and accurately animate virtual camera motion and parameters to match to live-action camera movement. A good matchmover will be able to distinguish between a pan vs a dolly, a zoom vs a truck-in from the live-action plates alone. Besides cameras, matchmovers will also track moving objects within a shot. Sometimes these objects are rigid bodies, other times they are dynamically changing, such as animals.