Foundation & Preparation Overview
Building in Blender is the middle of the work, not the start. Before you model anything, you must understand the material you were given and fix the world it sits in. This group holds that groundwork.
Every technique here answers one question about the source material. Work them in the order you meet the questions.
What is in this group
| Question | Technique |
|---|---|
| What can this footage support, technically? | Analyzing Footage — resolution, frame rate, rolling shutter, compression |
| How does a camera turn 3D space into a flat image? | Perspective & Camera — focal length, sensor, vanishing points |
| Where was this filmed? | Geolocation — matching terrain, buildings and roads to maps and imagery |
| When was this filmed? | Chronolocation — shadows, sun position, weather and vegetation |
| How do I match a camera to a photograph? | Camera Matching — recovering a camera pose so new geometry lands on the photo |
| What if the camera was moving? | Camera Tracking — solving a moving camera path from footage |
| How big is the thing I am looking at? | Measurements, Scale & Dimension — turning pixels into distances |
| How much can I trust that number? | Scale Estimation & Source Reliability — the reliability tiers and error propagation |
Why the order matters
Each step narrows the next one. Footage analysis tells you which camera model you can solve. Geolocation and chronolocation fix the scene in space and time. Scale gives every later measurement a reference. Skip a step and the error carries forward, usually unseen.
The last two entries are the ones that decide whether a result is defensible. A measurement without a stated uncertainty is a claim you cannot check.
Where to go next
Once the source is understood and the world is fixed, the modeling group and the later stages continue from there. Browse all techniques.