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Highlight & auto-track player motion in sports reels #

  1. Launch PLAY by Metrica Sports1 → click "New Workspace" → enter desired name for workspace → Save

  2. Click plus symbol under PLAYLISTS2 → enter desired name for playlist (e.g., "Goals")

  3. Hover over the Goals playlist → click three dots at bottom right of playlist entry → click "Add video file as a clip..." → select desired video clip(s)

  4. Click the dropdown arrow under Goals → click and drag video clips to order as desired

  5. Select a video clip in Goals → open the Annotations Module by clicking the crossed pencil and ruler icon (or using the keyboard shortcut, Cmd+5)

  6. Click the large blue button with the white plus symbol → Player Visualizations → select an effect (Spotlight, Ring, Magnifier, etc.)3 → select desired player → click Player Tracking4 button5

  7. When finished, hover over the Goals playlist → click three dots at bottom right → click "Export Playlist as Video..." → check "Annotations" and optionally "Export all clips as a single video file" → browse to desired destination → click Export

Pause and highlight

If tracking proves too tedious, pause and highlight instead:

  1. In step 6 above, rather than "Player Visualizations", click "Pause & Drawings"

  2. Set desired Pause Duration (default is 5 seconds)

  3. Click desired highlighting option:

Remove clips from playlist

  1. Highlight unwanted clip(s)

  2. Hover over playlist name

  3. Click three dots at lower right of playlist

  4. Click "Delete Clips"

Related

Footnotes

  1. Worth skimming their tutorial beforehand. ↩

  2. For importing long videos instead of clips, click the plus symbol under VIDEO MANAGER. ↩

  3. On very brief segments, the exported annotations/effects can start later and linger longer than expected, despite attempts to adjust their duration beforehand. ↩

  4. Only available in the paid LITE plan or higher, though a 7-day free trial (sans credit card) is available (exported videos display a smallish "PLAY by METRICA SPORTS" watermark in the bottom right corner) ↩

  5. Depending on video quality, amount of motion, etc., you may need to backtrack a few frames, manually reposition the visualization, and click "Player Tracking" repeatedly. The keyboard shortcuts come in handy during this process, especially Cmd+Alt+left or right arrow to move 1 frame backwards or forwards, and Shift+Space to start/stop Player Tracking. ↩

/misc | Jun 14, 2024

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