Clip Tools

Overview

Clip Tools is a utility addon for the Movie Clip Editor in Blender.

Tools

Set Start Seq No.

Location: Toolbar > Track Tab > Clip > Set Start Seq No.

• Automatically sets the start frame based on the sequence number from the loaded footage filename.
• Useful for quickly syncing the timeline to the imported sequence.

Setup Camera Solver

Location: Toolbar > Solve Tab > Scene Setup > Setup Camera Solver or Header > Clip Menus

• Adds and configures a Camera Solver Constraint to the active scene camera.
• Useful when you want to set up a Camera Solver without adding extra objects typically created by Blender's Setup Tracking Scene.

Setup Object Solver

Location: Toolbar > Solve Tab > Scene Setup > Setup Object Solver or Header > Clip Menus

• Creates an Empty object named ObjectTrack and sets up an Object Solver Constraint.
• Available only when a Tracking Object has been added to the Movie Clip.
• The constraint is automatically configured to use the active Tracking Object name.

Duplicate Active Clip

Location: Header > Clip Menus > Duplicate Active Clip

• Create a duplicate of the data block of the active movie clip containing all tracking data.
• Ideal when you want to:
  • Split tracking tasks on the same footage.
  • Test different parameter settings independently.
• Optionally, enable Fake User to prevent accidental deletion of the duplicated data block.

Delete Active Clip

Location: Header > Clip Menus > Delete Active Clip

• Deletes the active Movie Clip from the data block.
• Useful for quickly cleaning up unused clips.

3D Markers to Empty

Location: Toolbar > Solve Tab > Geometry or Header > Reconstruction Menus

• Converts 3D tracking markers into actual Empty objects, similar to other matchmoving software.
• Especially useful when exporting to other 3D applications.
• Workflow:
  • A parent Empty named "Trackpoint" will be automatically created.
  • The selected tracking point is parented to "Trackpoint" .
  • The display size of the Empties can be adjusted via the parent’s property and is linked via drivers.

Create Image Plane

Location: Toolbar > Solve Tab > Geometry or Header > Reconstruction Menus

• Creates an actual “image plane” in the 3D view that links the Active Movie Clip to the Active camera.

• Supports:

  • Start frame offset.
  • Camera sensor shift.
  • Image Sequences and Movie Files.

• Useful for workflows similar to Maya's image plane system.

Note for Blender 4.4 and Later:
Due to changes in driver and dependency graph evaluation in Blender 4.4, driver-based setups may become unstable or display visual glitches during playback.

Set Camera Projection

Location: Toolbar > Solve Tab > Geometry or Header > Reconstruction Menus

• Automatically sets up a Camera Projection Shader on the selected mesh using the active Movie Clip and active camera.

• Supports:

  • Start frame offset.
  • Camera sensor shift.
  • Image Sequences and Movie Files.

• Useful for:

  • Checking tracking accuracy.
  • Relighting workflows.

Note:
Texture projection is not displayed in Solid View. Please use Material Preview or Rendered modes.

Orientation Plus

Location: Toolbar > Solve Tab >Orientation Plus

• Orientation Plus provides an extended orientation workflow for solved Movie Clips. Unlike Blender’s standard Floor and Wall tools, it can use one or more selected reconstructed trackers and align their contact plane while preserving the current camera orientation as much as possible.

• Choose the target plane from Target Surface. Use +Z/-Z Floor for floor alignment, or +X/-X/+Y/-Y Wall for wall alignment.

• Use Position Mode to decide how the plane is placed:

  • Move Plane To moves the selected tracker center to the chosen coordinate.
  • Keep Camera XY keeps the camera X/Y position and uses the chosen coordinate’s Z value as the height.

• The coordinate can come from the world origin, the 3D cursor, or a manual XYZ value. For multiple trackers, Track Center can use either Average or Median.

• Tracker selection:

  • 1 tracker: position only
  • 2 trackers: constrained angle correction
  • 3 or more trackers: fitted plane alignment

• Use this after re-tracking or re-solving when you want to re-align the scene contact plane without rebuilding the orientation from scratch.

Track Time Offset

Location: Sidebar > Tool Tab >Track Time Offset

• Offsets tracking marker keys forward or backward in time. Click Get Trackers first to cache the current marker keys, then adjust Frame Offset. Positive values move keys later, and negative values move keys earlier.

Note:
If the cache is lost, markers shifted before frame 1 cannot be restored and may be removed. The camera solve is cleared after applying an offset.
Due to the way this tool applies the offset, the resulting trackers will have marker keys on every captured frame.

Track Bridge

Location: Sidebar > Tool Tab >Track Bridge

• Fills an OFF or missing tracking gap by interpolating new marker positions. Select the track, place the timeline cursor near the gap you want to fill, choose an interpolation method, then click Bridge Gap. The gap closest to the current frame is processed. Enable Join to automatically bridge across short enabled marker islands as part of the same gap.

  • Interpolation Methods
    • Linear: Creates a straight interpolation between the surrounding enabled keys.
    • Ease Linear: Keeps a straight path, but eases the timing near the surrounding keys.
    • Trend Hermite: Creates a curved interpolation that follows the motion trend from nearby reference keys. The Tangent value controls how strongly the curve bends.
    • Natural Cubic: Creates a smooth spline through the reference keys. Good for soft, continuous motion.
    • Akima: Creates a smooth curve with reduced overshoot, useful for uneven or noisy marker motion. The Tangent value controls the curve strength.

Note:
This is a simple interpolation tool. Bridged marker positions may affect the camera solve negatively depending on the shot and tracking quality.

Clear Track Range

Location: Sidebar > Tool Tab >Clear Track Range

• Turns selected tracking markers OFF within the specified frame range. Set the In and Out frames manually or with the arrow buttons, then click Clear Track Range.