SynthEyes

Precision Matchmoving Unleashed.

SynthEyes 2024.5

Expanded Compatibility & Enhanced Workflow

SynthEyes

Advanced 3D Solving and Tracking

Everything you need to get started

SynthEyes Tutorials

Trusted by VFX Artists Worldwide

SynthEyes empowers VFX artists with its robust standalone application optimized for camera, object, geometry, and planar tracking. Experience unparalleled tracking power and performance, offering complete control, fast processing, and a comprehensive feature set — all at an affordable price. Achieve professional control over tracking and solving processes with extensive lens distortion analysis, including radial and anamorphic models. Export projects seamlessly to leading 3D and compositing applications like Maya, 3ds Max, Nuke, and Flame.

Why SynthEyes?

Professional 3D Tracking for Any Challenge

Master every tracking challenge with SynthEyes’ extensive feature set, including automatic tracking, 3D planar tracking, stabilization, and geometric hierarchy capabilities. Optimize your workflow with tools designed for precision and control across a wide variety of footage types.

Streamlined Export and Compatibility

Export seamlessly to a wide range of 3D and compositing software such as Blender, Houdini, Lightwave, Nuke, or After Effects. Support for various formats, including USD, FBX, and OBJ ensures SynthEyes fits perfectly into your production pipeline.

Expert Lens Calibration and Precise Scene Configuration

Achieve accurate tracking with sophisticated lens calibration tools for all types, including anamorphic and fisheye. Utilize advanced scene alignment tools to ensure correct world scale and coordinates, enhancing the realism and precision of your projects.

Empowering Creators with Value and Knowledge

Benefit from SynthEyes’ competitive pricing and comprehensive educational resources.

Gain expertise through detailed tutorials and user guides that provide newcomers with handy essential training and give professionals the level of detail necessary to tackle the most complex tasks.

Behind The Scenes

Why I Love SynthEyes

Power user Matt Merkovich discusses what makes the 3D tracking and matching tools stand out and why he’s been hooked since Minority Report.

Work in standalone

macOS

Windows

Linux

Export to Your Favorite Application

System requirements

Mac OS
Operating System
  • MacOS Catalina (10.15) or later
  • MacOS Sonoma (14), Ventura (13), Monterey (12), Big Sur (11), Catalina (10.15). Big Sur or later required for Blackmagic RAW
IMPORTANT
  • Cheese-grater Mac Pros from 2012 and earlier won’t work! SynthEyes requires the AVX instruction set. (SynthEyes may notify you about this at startup.) Look for AVX in the output of the terminal command “sysctl machdep.cpu.features”. If SynthEyes crashes at startup and you have an older processor, that is the problem. SynthEyes uses AVX for performance not possible with old CPUs. SynthEyes 1905 can be run on older CPUs
System Memory (RAM)
  • Memory: 2 GB RAM minimum. 4+ GB is strongly recommended. 8-32 GB or more typical for pro, 360VR, and film users
Graphics Processor (GPU)
  • Universal build for Apple Silicon (M1/M2/etc) or Intel Mac with AVX support (“Sandy Bridge” or later), see above
Windows
Operating System
  • Windows 10 or later
IMPORTANT
  • SynthEyes requires the AVX instruction set. (SynthEyes may notify you about this at startup.) Check Microsoft’s cpuinfo64 tool for a plethora of information. SynthEyes uses AVX for performance not possible with old CPUs. SynthEyes 1905 can be run on older CPUs
Processor (CPU)
  • Intel or AMD “x64” processor with AVX (“Sandy Bridge” or later or comparable AMD, no Atom-based processors.) See above
System Memory (RAM)
  • Memory: 2 GB RAM minimum. 4+ GB is strongly recommended. 8-32 GB or more typical for pro, 360VR, and film users
Graphics Processor (GPU)
  • 64-bit Intel version of Windows 10 or 11. Windows 10 version 1903 or later is required for full globalization support. HEVC/h.265
Linux
Operating System
  • CentOS 7+ or compatible Linux distribution on x86_64
IMPORTANT
  • SynthEyes requires the AVX instruction set. (SynthEyes may notify you about this at startup.) SynthEyes uses AVX for performance not possible with old CPUs. SynthEyes 1905 can be run on older CPUs
Processor (CPU)
  • Intel or AMD “x64” processor with AVX (“Sandy Bridge” or later or comparable AMD, no Atom-based processors.)
System Memory (RAM)
  • Memory: 2 GB RAM minimum. 4+ GB is strongly recommended. 8-32 GB or more typical for pro, 360VR, and film users
Graphics Processor (GPU)
  • 1280x768 or larger display with OpenGL support. High-DPI displays supported (100% or 200% scaling), 32-bit 8bpc RGBA format required. Large multi-head configurations require graphics cards with sufficient memory. RED GPU decode assist requires 2+ GB video RAM.

New For 2024.5

  • Revamped Flame Exporter

    Boosts functionality and integrates smoothly with updated workflows.
  • Resize Rectangle Tool

    Easily reposition any edge to align planes and surfaces fast.
  • Blender Exporter Update

    Ensures compatibility with current Blender versions, optimizing continuity.
  • Enhanced Library: Blackmagic Design, RED, ARRI

    New camera model support includes URSA Cine12K LF and RED V-Raptor X.

The Flame Exporter

Revolutionize the way you work as a Flame artist.

The new Flame Exporter for SynthEyes enhances your VFX workflow with seamless integration between SynthEyes and Autodesk Flame 2025+.

This powerful tool simplifies the transfer of tracking data, lens distortion information, and 3D elements, ensuring a smooth and efficient creative process.

Artists can effortlessly send and receive data with intuitive right-click menus and automated setups, reducing the time spent on technical tasks and allowing more creativity focus.

    See full list of updates

  • Seamless Data Transfer: Easily send and receive tracking data, lens distortion information, and 3D elements between SynthEyes and Flame.
  • Intuitive Right-Click Menus: Quick access to essential functions, streamlining your workflow.
  • Automated Setup: Simplifies the initial configuration, saving time and effort.
  • Robust Lens Distortion Handling: Supports standard radial and anamorphic lens distortion models for precise results.
  • Automated Overscan Adjustments: Ensures no image clipping by calculating and applying the necessary overscan.
  • Effortless Track Updates: Update tracking data seamlessly without losing your work in Flame.
  • Support for 3D Planes: Export cards and surfaces from SynthEyes to Flame with accurate sizing and positioning.

Rectangle Resizing Tool

Effortlessly reposition any edge in local coordinates for planes, cards, surfaces, and other meshes with precision and ease.

In the perspective view, the mesh resizing rectangle allows you to shift-drag to maintain aspect ratio, control-shift to resize height, and control-drag to rotate. This is perfect for quickly aligning planes and surfaces with your applied imagery, ensuring precise shot resolution matching.

Effortlessly and precisely reposition any edge in local coordinates for planes, cards, surfaces, and other meshes.

Blender Exporter Update

A comprehensive Blender Exporter update delivers a smoother, more efficient workflow to visual effects artists.

  • Compatibility with Blender 4.0
  • Streamlines the export process
  • Improves error handling

SynthEyes continues to support its users by staying current with Blender’s frequent updates. Integrate the latest features into your projects without any interruptions.

Enhanced Camera Compatibility

The library adds essential Blackmagic Design, RED, and ARRI camera updates, ensuring compatibility with the latest models, including URSA Cine12K LF and RED V-Raptor X.

SynthEyes’ ability to read raw camera formats, coupled with its high performance, makes it ideal for on-set tracking and quick previsualization turnaround.

Improved Tools & Increased Productivity

  • Silhouette Exporter Update: SynthEyes Silhouette Exporter now supports distortion prediction and tracker color export, enabling seamless 2D/3D tracking data transfer from SynthEyes to Silhouette, minimizing manual adjustments and boosting productivity.
  • Support for Focal Length Metadata: Import camera focal length data directly from shot metadata, ideal for zoom scenes. This feature ensures approximate values based on sensor size.
  • Enhanced Logic for Exporting Trackers: SynthEyes detects if more trackers can be included and prompts you to decide whether to export them or keep the current selection, automatically adjusting the max tracker value.

    See full list of features

  • Limit Number of Trackers: The "Maximum Trackers" control is now available in Flame, Fusion, Houdini, and Nuke, allowing users to limit the number of trackers being exported.
  • New Timeshift Command in Synthia: Easily time-shift a camera by a specific number of frames without altering the images.
  • Exporter Alignment: Updated export controls across Fusion and Nuke provide a consistent and intuitive user experience, streamlining workflow and improving usability.

Production Grade Tracking and Solving

SynthEyes features an extensive supervised tracking feature set with high-performance automatic tracking, 3D planar tracking, AprilTags, cleanup, and add-tracker tools.

  • Advanced tracking capabilities, including automatic tracking, 3D planar tracking, and AprilTags, with tools for cleanup and adding trackers
  • Track cameras and moving objects using geometric hierarchy tracking for complex relationships, with support for stereoscopic 3D tracking
  • Precise 3D and 2D planar tracking with mask options and neural-based methods for handling multiple supervised trackers simultaneously

    See full feature list

  • Calibration of various lens types for accurate tracking, supporting different models including radial-4th and anamorphic-6th, with animated lens distortion parameters for realistic tracking
  • Ideal for 360° VR shots, motion capture, and solving complex, long shots, with the ability to stabilize 360° VR footage
  • Control camera and object paths for precise solves, achieve stable results with tripod-mounted cameras, and utilize flexible solver settings with post-solve tools for cleanup and fine-tuning
  • Match to 3D set models such as lidar scans

Scene Exports

SynthEyes can export the tracked scene to a large number of other packages and formats, supporting formats such as USD, FBX, OBJ, and Alembic.
  • Export native project data to 3D packages including Maya, 3ds Max, Blender, Lightwave, and Cinema 4D
  • Create project scenes in compositing applications, including After Effects, Nuke, Fusion/Resolve, Flame, and Houdini
  • Animated stabilization and distortion maps can be exported using distortion maps (on packages supporting them)
  • More advanced pipelines: Take advantage of flexible ASCII text exporters for tracker 2D paths and 3D positions, camera/object paths, and animated illumination

Coordinate System Setup

SynthEyes offers powerful tools to position, align, and size the entire scene in a 3D environment, so you can ensure the world scale and coordinates of your scene match the rest of your workflow.

  • Auto-placement tool analyzes scene structure to create a good initial coordinate system
  • Quick precision setup wizard: click 3 trackers, then realign
  • Easy manual re-positioning and scaling of the entire scene

    See full feature list

  • Line-based alignment system for nodal-tripod and lock-off shots, or use the mesh pinning tool in its camera setting
  • Flexible coordinate system alignment controls and coordinate placement methods based on camera positioning
  • Constrained points (axis control) view to quickly examine and modify coordinate system settings of all trackers
  • Select solutions using coordinate polarity controls when multiple solutions are possible
  • Exact and distance constraints for survey data, including infrequent GPS waypoints and on-set sizing measurements
  • Coordinate system setup available before or after solving

Lens Calibration

SynthEyes has extensive tools not only for calculating distortion during solving, but also for lens calibration from lens grids. Rectify lens grid for “just fix it” unmodeled lens distortion correction, especially for complex lens types. Tilt detection and correction if grid spacing and camera-to-grid measurements are available. Lens master calibration system handles linear, inverse linear, anamorphic lenses, and four fisheye lens variants.
  • Rectify lens grid for distortion correction
  • Calibration for various lens types
  • Calibration methods including random-dot calibration
  • Lens distortion presets for different workflows

Geometric Hierarchy Tracking

Spectacularly powerful and flexible toolset for 3D tracking multi-level constrained hierarchies of moving parts, directly tracking supplied meshes, or using normal (supervised) trackers.
  • Toolset for tracking moving parts in 3D
  • Tracking of kinematic chains and secondary animation
  • Integration with motion capture for BVH export

Stabilization

SynthEyes features integrated stabilization for normal and 360VR shots driven by 3D solves, including creating a “physical” rig for export.
  • Stabilization capabilities are built into the image preprocessor including normal (with lens distortion) and 360VR shots
  • Stabilization driven by full 3D solves, or approximate 2D tracking data
  • Manual adjustments as needed
  • Automatic “zoom” determination for normal shots (multiple modes)
  • Stabilization rig creator for non-360VR shots creates a “physical” equivalent for the stabilization, so downstream 3D packages can perform the actual stabilization
  • Export of 360VR stabilization data directly to supported packages including After Effects, Fusion, and Hitfilm
  • Setup of 360VR stabilization as an animated textured sphere for alternative export
  • Integrated resampling to other output resolutions and aspects

Object Separation

SynthEyes has user-friendly tools to separate elements and exclude them from tracking.
  • Automatically select trackers only within a green screen region
  • Set up regions for each moving object or garbage mattes for actors, for example
  • Keyframe-animated splines to define regions
  • Quick square and circle spline setup
  • Import spline control points from tracker paths for rapid setup
  • Animated enables for splines
  • Use a rotoscoped alpha-channel

ViewShift System

Use ViewShift for complex object removals, combining split takes, generating animated texture maps, and more!
  • Camera mapping and rendering system
  • Uses matchmoved 3D camera paths and set models
  • Removes objects against various reflector meshes (not just planes)
  • Quick setup tools for working from a clean plate
  • Illumination compensation for better matching
  • Multiple timing modes
  • Control via animated splines or mesh outlines
  • Various output modes for previews and compositing
  • Matte generation with softening
  • Animated texture maps from meshes
  • Multiple independent ViewShift outputs

Meshes In/Out

SynthEyes can read and write a variety of mesh and vertex cache formats, supporting most commonly used 3D / compositing applications used in the industry.
  • Import and export industry standard 3D mesh formats: OBJ, C4D, COLLADA (DAE), DXF, PTS, LWO and XYZ Lidar, SynthEyes SBM, 3DS (import only)
  • Custom Mesh options for quick insertion into SynthEyes scenes on par with basic cubes, spheres, etc.
  • Vertex caches in/out: Alembic .abc, Maya .mcx, Lightwave .mdd, 3dsmax .pc2

Scripting

Feel the awesome next-generation power and flexibility of typed or spoken natural language control with the Synthia instructible assistant. Automate frequent tasks using Synthia, Sizzle, or Python scripting.
  • Use native Sizzle scripting language or Python API/SDK
  • The Synthia natural language intelligent assistant turns plain language into powerful script commands
  • Use scripts to modify and extend SynthEyes functionality, including access to scene and image preprocessing

Get started right away

Whether you’re new to SynthEyes or a seasoned pro, our extensive collection of video tutorials offers insights for all skill levels. Explore both new and classic guides to master every facet of SynthEyes.

Tutorials

Need Help? We've Got You!

Forum

A place for SynthEyes users to ask more complex questions and request new features.

Forum

Discord

Join our SynthEyes Discord to exchange tips, get quick help, and connect with fellow VFX artists.

Discord

Help Center

Search technical questions or open a ticket with our knowledgeable support team.

Support

Frequently asked questions

How do I find the SynthEyes manual?
The manuals for SynthEyes are accessible through the Help menu of the application. For macOS users, avoid using the Help menu’s search box as it only searches macOS help, not the application documentation.
How do I install SynthEyes?
Download and install the Boris FX Hub from Boris FX Downloads. Follow the provided instructions to complete the installation of SynthEyes.
How do I uninstall SynthEyes?
Windows: Right-click the Start button, open the Control Panel, and select ‘Programs and Features’ (or ‘Uninstall a Program’ if in Category view). Find Boris FX SynthEyes in the list, select it, and click ‘Uninstall’.

macOS: Navigate to the Applications folder, find the Boris FX folder, locate the SynthEyes installation, and use the ‘Uninstall SynthEyes’ application.
What should I do if I encounter problems with SynthEyes?
SynthEyes is generally reliable, but if you encounter specific issues, visit the SynthEyes Help Center Here you can search for technical questions or open a ticket with the support team.
Can’t see your question listed above? Visit our Help Center

Not ready to purchase yet? 
Get started with SynthEyes now

Need some hands on time with SynthEyes before purchasing? No problem. Simply download the Boris FX Hub and install SynthEyes. After installation, you can register for a free 14 day trial. You’re immediately ready to begin matchmoving with SynthEyes.