In previous years, this would have meant hours of manual tracking—placing individual points on every rock and window frame. But as he initiated the solve, the software began to populate a dense point cloud. The new machine-learning algorithms snapped onto the features of the lighthouse with a precision he hadn’t seen before.

The glow of the dual monitors was the only light left in the studio. Elias stared at the sequence on his screen: a sweeping drone shot of a crumbling lighthouse at dusk. It was the "hero shot" of the film, and it was a nightmare. Handheld jitter, shifting focal lengths, and heavy motion blur made the match-move nearly impossible.

: If you're new to 3D tracking or looking for alternatives, there are several free and paid software options available, such as Blender, OpenMVG, or commercial solutions like Nuke, which offer tracking features.