LIMNTPS

LIMNMEDIA Three-Point System Application

Make your triangle. Animate your shot. Recover your camera.

LIMNTPS helps stop-motion artists record camera setups, recover from accidental camera movement, and explore matching shots at different scales.

1. Make Your Triangle

Before you start animating, choose three points in your scene: A, B, and C.

These points form your TPS reference triangle.

You have two choices:

Use friendly markers. Place three easy-to-see markers in your scene. They should be stable, easy to measure, and clearly visible to the camera.

Use friendly features. Choose three existing details on the set, such as corners, edges, or recognizable features. No additional markers are needed.

Think about whether you want your triangle visible throughout the animation.

If you leave physical markers in the shot, you'll need to hide or remove them during compositing. Using existing set features may let you animate without any cleanup.

Either way, your three points need to stay fixed relative to the set.

2. Record Your A-Side

Your A-Side is the original camera setup you want to preserve.

1. Import a reference image into LIMNTPS.
2. Mark your three points: A, B, and C.
3. Measure the physical distances between the points.
4. Enter the camera reference distance, tilt, and camera information.
5. Calculate and export your .tps reference.

Your A-Side is now recorded.

You're ready for a bump!

3. Animate Your Shot

Make your movie!

No bump? Excellent. Keep animating.

Camera bumped? Your A-Side reference gives you a way to work toward recovering the original framing.

Rather than relying entirely on guesswork, you have measurements and a reference overlay to guide the lineup.

4. Recover Your Camera — TPS-CRP

The TPS Camera Recovery Procedure (TPS-CRP) is a step-by-step method for using your saved triangle to guide camera alignment.

Start by creating a B-Side reference of your current camera setup.

Now compare your original A-Side triangle with the B-Side triangle.

The goal is to bring the two projected triangles into alignment.

The Recovery Process

Match the tilt.

Start by adjusting the camera's tilt using the recorded A-Side measurement. This establishes a useful starting orientation.

Match the triangle's scale.

Compare the size of the A-Side and B-Side triangles in the image.

Adjust the camera's framing or focal length until their projected sizes are close.

Match the base pair.

Use points A and B to guide the camera's position. Move the camera until the base pair approaches its reference position in the image.

Match the third point.

Now look at point C.

Use small camera adjustments to bring C toward its reference while keeping A and B aligned as closely as possible.

Refine the alignment.

Revisit scale, position, tilt, and roll as necessary.

Small adjustments can affect more than one point, so expect to repeat parts of the process.

Check the complete image.

Once the triangles align, compare the rest of the scene.

The triangle is your geometric reference, but the final visual match is yours to judge.

TPS-CRP is a guided manual procedure, not an automatic camera-positioning system.

5. Try Something Bigger — Or Smaller!

Camera recovery is only the beginning.

What if you wanted to match a shot from a miniature set to a larger version of the same scene?

Start with your original A-Side .tps file.

Create a new B-Side using a triangle with the same proportions, but at a different physical scale.

Use TPS-CRP to guide the camera lineup, comparing the projected triangles until they match as closely as possible.

This gives you a measurable starting point for working across different scales.

6. You Make the Composite

LIMNTPS doesn't automatically composite your images.

You decide how the shots fit together, refine the visual alignment, and create the finished effect using your preferred production tools.

LIMNTPS provides the reference. You make the movie.

LIMNTPS — Aligning physical and digital worlds.

Developed by LIMNMEDIA.