Tutorial on how to "Protracer" your swing video

[nevets88]

This isn't applying a real Protracer arc to your video (don't you wish?), it's not the actual real ball flight, but your approximation of it. Still, neat to have if you're looking at a video years from now and forget how the shot went. It's using Adobe After Effects.

Spoiler

People suck. The guy posts a helpful video and reddit gives him grief for his swing. Nice.

 

[saevel25]

I wonder if you can write some code to have the program trace the ball automatically. Like, turn the sky black so you can see the contrast then follow the white ball. 

[nevets88]

40 minutes ago, saevel25 said:

I wonder if you can write some code to have the program trace the ball automatically. Like, turn the sky black so you can see the contrast then follow the white ball. 

There's a tweet out there saying someone is writing an app that will make this easier. So if anyone is hesitant to delve in, might want to wait a little to see if it gets released.

[SavvySwede]

1 hour ago, saevel25 said:

I wonder if you can write some code to have the program trace the ball automatically. Like, turn the sky black so you can see the contrast then follow the white ball. 

Or go to the driving range at night. 

[RFKFREAK]

This is pretty cool but seems like it takes a quite a bit of time for only one swing so I probably wouldn't do it. 

Besides, for a long hitter, not sure how effective it'd be to find the ball when they hit a driver.

[DutchGolf]

https://twitter.com/gcw/status/611647447337684993

It reminds me of this tweet, now I can finally show people my wicked slices!

On a more serious note, it seems quite time consuming, would be fun if they can make an app that does this.

 

Edited November 12, 2015 by DutchGolf
Do not understand how to embed tweet :(

[DrvFrShow]

And you can do it for only $9.99 per month!

[curryinthehole]

On 11/11/2015, 8:56:02, nevets88 said:

This isn't applying a real Protracer arc to your video (don't you wish?), it's not the actual real ball flight, but your approximation of it. Still, neat to have if you're looking at a video years from now and forget how the shot went. It's using Adobe After Effects.

  Reveal hidden contents

People suck. The guy posts a helpful video and reddit gives him grief for his swing. Nice.

 

Hey so I just went on my google analytics and saw someone posted my video here (I'm the uploader of this video) so wanted to create an account here and answer any questions if y'all had any; obviously the real protracer is 99% accurate but if you take as many points as I do and select the point in the middle of the ball by zooming in, this will actually be very accurate.

On 11/11/2015, 8:48:42, RFKFREAK said:

This is pretty cool but seems like it takes a quite a bit of time for only one swing so I probably wouldn't do it. 

Besides, for a long hitter, not sure how effective it'd be to find the ball when they hit a driver.

The first time and probably the second time you do it it will take a while since you probably will need to rewatch and see what to exactly do, but once you do that it really doesn't take that long. The main parts is importing the video, adding a solid color, clicking the points of the various balls positions and then adjusting the times. You don't need to do as many points as I do, if you let the video play and then choose less points, you can then go back and adjust points but a lot of times the curve will be pretty much on point and only need a few extra points to be exact.

And to your point about driver, it all depends on your camera. I chose a short shot because it was easy to find the ball throughout, but there are times where depending on the lighting and also where the ball is going towards it can be hard to find the ball (I was trying this with a video where my ball went towards but not into some trees and I couldn't find the ball since it blended in as it was too far from the camera, so it really depends on the quality of the camera). 

[iacas]

Thanks for making the video, @curryinthehole, and for joining to post here.

Since you play golf, stick around, and poke around the other sections of the site. I think you'll have a good time and learn a lot, as we have learned from you already!

[DrvFrShow]

Yes, please stick around!

[RFKFREAK]

On 11/14/2015, 1:51:11, curryinthehole said:

Hey so I just went on my google analytics and saw someone posted my video here (I'm the uploader of this video) so wanted to create an account here and answer any questions if y'all had any; obviously the real protracer is 99% accurate but if you take as many points as I do and select the point in the middle of the ball by zooming in, this will actually be very accurate.

The first time and probably the second time you do it it will take a while since you probably will need to rewatch and see what to exactly do, but once you do that it really doesn't take that long. The main parts is importing the video, adding a solid color, clicking the points of the various balls positions and then adjusting the times. You don't need to do as many points as I do, if you let the video play and then choose less points, you can then go back and adjust points but a lot of times the curve will be pretty much on point and only need a few extra points to be exact.

And to your point about driver, it all depends on your camera. I chose a short shot because it was easy to find the ball throughout, but there are times where depending on the lighting and also where the ball is going towards it can be hard to find the ball (I was trying this with a video where my ball went towards but not into some trees and I couldn't find the ball since it blended in as it was too far from the camera, so it really depends on the quality of the camera). 

Hi, @curryinthehole.

Thanks for joining the site and taking the time to make your video and post ITT.  I think this is pretty cool and I you're probably right as to the camera.  I was just thinking of my own experience using a camera phone and a point & shoot camera that with the driver, you wouldn't be able to see the ball after it had traveled a certain distance.  Either way, it's still cool and I'm sure for shorter shots, like you suggested, the ball would be easy to find and it could still be helpful.