---
title: "About the Camera view"
canonical: "https://help.vicon.com/space/Tracker310/13930377/About%20the%20Camera%20view"
format: markdown
---
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View raw 2D motion capture data from an individual Vicon camera.
The **Camera** view pane contains the following components:
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| **Component** | **Description** |
| --- | --- |
| **View** | Manage the way camera data is viewed in the active **Camera** view pane by selecting the following options on the **View** drop-down list:
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| **3D Overlay** | Overlay multiple **Camera** view panes on top of each other, so all camera views are displayed in a single view pane. Each camera is rendered in a unique color. |
| **Rotated** | Rotate the camera view, so it is corrected to the vertical axis defined in the system calibration (which corresponds to the earth's vertical axis). It also enables you to manually rotate the view by dragging the view left or right. Information from the camera calibration is required to present the rotated view. |
| **Combined** | Correctly model lens distortions and display a corrected camera view with the 3D workspace rendered underneath the camera view. |
| **Zoom to Fit** | Zoom the selected **Camera** view pane to fit the full workspace. |
| **Zoom to Window** | Zoom to the displayed sensor window. For more information, see[New sensor windowing display](https://vicon-help.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/Tracker310/pages/13926874/Tracker+3.2+new+features+and+functions), in *What's New in Vicon Tracker*. |
| **Masks** | You can create a mask to hide any unwanted reflections and light sources visible to a Vicon camera (such as stray reflections from other objects or surfaces in the capture volume, opposing strobe units, and direct light sources) with the following buttons in the **Camera** view pane tool bar: |
| **Paint a mask onto the camera**
 | Paint over any cells in the camera grid (displayed when the button is clicked) that contain unwanted reflections. When a cell is painted, its background color changes from black to blue. The camera mask consists of all blue cells obscuring unwanted reflections. |
| **Erase a mask from the camera**
 | Erase a previously painted cell from a mask. When an individual cell is erased, its background color changes from blue to black, and any reflection that had previously been obscured is visible again. |
| **Clear the mask from the camera**
 | Automatically remove a previously painted mask. When the mask is cleared, the background color of any previously painted cells changes from blue to black, and any reflections that had previously been obscured are visible again. |
| Toggle display of centroids/grayscale blobs | **Display grayscale blobs**
 | When selected, grayscale blobs are displayed in the Camera view. |
| **Display centroid circles**
 | When selected, centroids are displayed in the Camera view. |
| **Display camera sensor window**
 | When selected, the windowing of the sensor is represented by a rectangle in the **Camera** view. For more information, see [New sensor windowing display](https://vicon-help.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/Tracker310/pages/13926874/Tracker+3.2+new+features+and+functions), in *What's New in Vicon Tracker*. |
| **Lock / Unlock Selection Set**
 | Lock the current **Camera** view pane, so that it is effectively detached from the selection set and is not affected by any subsequent selections in other open view panes. This is useful for displaying views from different cameras in multiple **Camera** view panes. |
| Camera workspace | You view and manipulate 2D data in the workspace. You can manage the visualization of camera data, for example, you can orbit, truck, dolly, and zoom the displayed data. |
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> For more information, see:
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## Viewing optical data in Camera view
View 2D optical data from Vicon cameras in the **Camera** view pane.
**To view data in a Camera view pane:**
1. Stream live camera data.
2. On the **System** tab in the **Resources** pane, select one or more cameras.
3. Expand the **Vicon Cameras** node and then click on the sub-node for one or more specific Vicon cameras.
4. From the view pane tool bar, select **Camera**.
The 2D data from each camera selected on the **System** tab is displayed in a separate **Camera** view.
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## Creating camera masks automatically
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You can automatically create camera masks using controls on the **Calibrate** tab, in the **Create Camera Masks** section.
The automatic camera mask creation tool automatically creates masks to eliminate any reflections in the capture volume that are visible to the cameras. You can subsequently create masks manually to eliminate any remaining or additional reflections.
> ⚠️ **Important**
> ⚠️ Before using the automatic mask creation tool, ensure that you remove from the capture volume any unnecessary objects, such as calibration objects. For best results, the capture volume should be entirely free from objects likely to cause background interference.
**To automatically create camera masks:**
1. Press F7 to open the **Options** dialog box and under **General View Options,** ensure that **Threshold Map** is selected.
Any reflections are visible in the **Camera** view pane, typically as non-circular areas of grayscale or edge data. Note that reflections can severely affect the camera data rates, and you may find that the camera overloads. In this case, the camera automatically sends edge data instead of full grayscale data.
2. On the **Calibrate** tab, in the **Create Camera Masks** section, click **Start**.
All Vicon cameras are selected and a separate Camera view pane is displayed for each one. The **Start** button changes to display **Stop**. Tracker starts recording the data visible to each of the Vicon cameras connected. Any camera masks that are created are displayed as blue cells in the **Camera** view panes for the affected cameras. If there is no data visible to a particular camera, Tracker does not create any masks for it. About 30 seconds of recording is generally sufficient to enable Tracker to collect the data visible to the cameras.
3. Click **Stop.**
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## Creating camera masks manually
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You can manually create camera masks (a technique used to obscure selectively or hold back parts of an image while allowing other parts to show) with the **Masks** buttons in the **Camera** view pane tool bar, which eliminate any reflections in the capture volume that are visible to the cameras. If you have a large number of reflections in your capture volume, it is a good idea to initially create camera masks automatically.
> ⚠️ **Important**
> ⚠️ Before manually creating any masks, ensure that you remove from the capture volume any unnecessary objects, such as calibration objects. For best results, the capture volume should be entirely free from objects likely to cause background interference.
**To manually create camera masks:**
1. On the **System** tab in the **Resources** pane, select all Vicon cameras.
2. On the view pane tool bar, select **Camera** to display the 2D data being captured by each selected Vicon camera in a separate **Camera** view pane.
3. From the **View** drop-down list in the **Camera** view pane tool bar, make sure that the **3D Overlay** and **Combined** options are cleared.
4. Press F7 to open the **Options** dialog box and under **General View Options**, make sure that **Threshold Map** is selected.
:check_mark: **Tip**: The **Threshold Map** default color is blue, but you can change the color in the **Options** dialog box.
5. Remove any unnecessary objects, such as calibration objects, from the capture volume. For best results, the capture volume should be entirely free from objects likely to cause unwanted reflections.
Any reflections are visible in the **Camera** view pane, typically as non-circular areas of grayscale or edge data. Note that reflections can severely affect the camera data rates, and you may find that the camera overloads. In this case, the camera automatically sends edge data instead of full grayscale data.
6. From the **Camera** view pane tool bar, use the following buttons to hide any unwanted reflections that are visible from the selected camera. (When you click any of these buttons, a grid of small blue tiles is superimposed over the camera image in each **Camera** view pane.)
See the [Mask button table](#table-1) below
:check_mark: **Tip**: To zoom in on the view pane, right-click and drag the mouse pointer forward (to zoom in) or backward (to zoom out). To pan the image, click both mouse buttons and drag. The camera masks are applied in real time and are saved along with your camera calibration.
## Save a configuration
**To save a configuration:**
In the configuration management section at the top of the **System** resources pane, click the **Save** button > Macro (inline-media-image)
to save your system configuration settings to a .system file in one of the following systems configurations folders:
- If you select **Shared** the file will be saved in *C:\Users\Public\Documents\Vicon\Tracker3.x\Configurations\Systems*
- If you select **Private** it will be saved in *C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\Vicon\Tracker3.x\Configurations\Systems*
### Mask button table
> Macro (anchor)
| **Button** | **Usage** |
| --- | --- |
| **Paint a mask onto the camera**
 | Click an individual tile, click and drag across multiple consecutive tiles, or hold down ALT and click while dragging the mouse across an entire area of unwanted reflections visible in the camera grid. You can drag the mouse horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. When a cell is painted, its background color changes from black to blue. The camera mask consists of all blue cells obscuring unwanted reflections. |
| **Erase a mask from the camera**
 | Click an individual tile, drag the mouse across multiple tiles, or hold down ALT and click while dragging the mouse across an entire area of blue cells in the camera grid. You can drag the mouse horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
When an individual cell is erased, its background color changes from blue to black, and any reflection that had previously been obscured is visible again. |
| **Clear the mask from the camera**
 | Click the button to automatically remove the entire mask from the camera.
When the mask is cleared, the background color of any previously painted cells changes from blue to black, and any reflections that had previously been obscured are visible again. |