WORKBENCH USER GUIDE
Normalize Track v1.1
12 Jul 2020
Normalize Track v1.1 2 of 6
Installing Normalize Track
Normalize Track.jsxbin must be placed in the Scripts directory in the After Effects
folder.That folder will be named “Adobe After Effects [version]” which has been
replaced with “AE” below.
Mac OS X
/Applications/AE/Scripts/ScriptUI Panels
Windows
\Program Files\AE\Support Files\Scripts\ScriptUI Panels
If After Effects was running when you installed the script, you’ll need to restart it.
Launching Normalize Track
When properly installed, you will find Normalize Track.jsxbin under the Window
menu in After Effects.
Normalize Track v1.1 3 of 6
Introduction to Normalize Track
What does Normalize Track do?
You ever track a camera in After Effects and find that the scene scale is stupidly
large or ridiculously small? Well, thanks to Daniel Hashimoto—you might know
him as Action Movie Dad—we have a technique to normalize tracks so that you
can drop in elements, pop on that 3D switch and not have your elements push out
to infinity or beyond. And thanks to Aharon Rabinowitz for connecting us, we now
have this script that does it automatically.
How to use Normalize Track
Step 1: Prep
Using Hashi’s technique, we track our scene with AE’s camera tracker. Then we set
up a ground/wall plane, making sure to name it Ground, Floor, or Wall. Add in nulls
or planes for areas that you need to reference.
Step 2: Normalize
Select all of those planes/nulls and the ground/wall plane. Click on the 1st button
in the panel—the axes button. This will normalize your scene and save a locked
Normalize Track v1.1 4 of 6
null at the bottom of the comp so that you can add to or remove the normalization.
Step 3: Add
As you’re working, you’re probably going to need to add more points of reference.
No problem. Just add a new plane or null. Don’t panic when it comes in strangely.
Just select it, and hit the plus button. This will make sure that it fits the
normalized space properly.
Step 4: Remove
If for any reason you need to go back to the original sizing, just select all
the normalized layers and hit the minus button. This will remove all of the
normalization and delete the null we saved at the beginning.
Normalize Track v1.1 5 of 6
Changelog
v1.1 12 July 2020
Added logic for doing wall tracking
Fixed camera size changing when removing normalization
v1.0 12 May 2020
Release version
Added ability to have base planes with arbitrary scale
Added functionality to add new layers to an existing normalized setup
v1.0b 10 May 2020
Initial working version
THANK YOU!
Thank you so much for grabbing Normalize Track! We hope that it will help save
you time in your work! Feel free to write us at hi@workbench.tv to tell us about
the awesome stuff you’ve used Normalize Track on. And if you need any help, hit
us up at support@workbench.tv so we can do our best to help you! Thanks again!
-The team at Workbench
