10: Data: Tracab, Zebra, Pro Football

Tracab Data Import

Paint 10 supports importing video clips and pairing them with player paths exported from Tracab systems. The paths allow you to link Keyframe animations to them (see "Linked keyframe animations").

Workflow

1. Get the match data from a Tracab system for the match of interest. The data consists of the player positions definition file (.dat) and match metadata file (.xml). These two files must be in the same directory.
2. Enable the TracabData plugin in the Config editor, Plugins tab.
3. Import a clip from the match of interest and define 3D perspective (see "3D Calibration").
4. Open the Administration menu on the Clear button and choose: Import Tracking Data > Import Tracab data
5. In the import dialog Browse the .dat file to import the data.
6. Now we need to match current video with the correct time in the players data. When the import is finished, click on four players in the video (click on their feet, not body - see example below). In most cases, four players are enough to find the match. If the found match is ambiguous, you will be asked to click on another player. If no match is found, press the Clear button and start again. We recommend clicking on different players. 
   
7. When a match is found, but computed positions differ from players' real position slightly, use the slider at the bottom part of the Import dialog. It allows you to display the players' positions from the timeframe of the computed time match. Leave the slider at the time of the best match.
8. Press Save to save the paths to the clip.
9. You can import the data into another clip or close the dialog and start binding tools to the newly imported paths.

Zebra NFL Data Import

Zebra NFL Data Import plugin allows to import player tracking data from NFL NGS servers. Imported data can be matched with Paint clips in the same fashion as Tracab data.

Workflow

1. Acquire NFL NGS tracking data login credentials from NFL.
2. Enable ZebraData plugin in Config Editor, Plugins tab. Type login credentials into the plugin configuration fields. Save configuration and launch Paint.
3. Import a clip from the match of interest and define 3D perspective (see "3D Calibration").
4. Open the Administration menu on the Clear button and choose “Import Tracking Data > Import Zebra NFL data”.
5. Use Download Zebra NFL Data button to open Download Dialog.
6. Download Dialog allows user to choose a season and a particular game for download. To narrow down list of games available, it is possible to filter game list using the Search field.
   ‎Data to be downloaded can be trimmed down to specified time range by entering game time values into the Start Game Time/ End Game Time fields.
7. After selecting the game, use Download button to start downloading game data from NFL NGS servers.
8. After the download finishes, data are ready for matching against video.
9. To narrow down the number of NFL plays where the matching algorithm searches for match, use filtering. After setting filtering criteria, apply the filter by pressing Filter button.
10. For actual matching of players, use the same workflow as with the Tracab data.

Selecting the ‘Player Data’ checkbox in the ZebraData section of the Configuration Editor Plugins tab enables player names to be automatically bound to imported targets to PathPlayerNumber or PathPlayerLastName. You can then link tags, labels or animations to the player path (see "Linked keyframe animations" chapter)

Pro Football Data Integration

Since Paint 10.4 a plugin is introduced to connect to and access Pro Football Data inside of Paint, the plugin will sync and download data for saved clips from Paint's live inputs and introduce metrics for example: speed, rush yards, separation, air yards and more just a couple of clicks away.

Setup

The plugin for NFL Next Gen Stats is disabled by default and to activate it user needs to:

1. Open the Paint config editor and select the plugins tab
2. Activate the plugin for NextGenStats
3. Add the Consumer Key and Consumer Secret from the data provider
4. Save

Select the Advanced tab and locate:

<EpochTime>
   <Enabled value="false"/>
 </EpochTime>

Set value to true

Plugin

Accessing the plugin for Next Gen Stats can be done in 2 ways, either by accessing it from the admin menu or using F11 on the keyboard. Plugin contains the following:

• Dropdown with access to games from the current day and 5 days ahead
• Refresh Data button
• Advanced config to control what metric uses what tool and specific graphics
• Available metrics and players for the saved clips
• Add Graphics button to place the selected player metric inside video‎

Tool Setup for Next Gen Stats

Paint comes with predefined sets of tools connected to the different metrics but user can setup their own look and feel to each metric in the following way:

• Open Paints config editor and select plugins
• Select the plugin for NextGenStats
• Activate the tool configuration checkbox
• Save and launch Paint

After launch of Paint there is an extra option added to the Tag tools Home/Away selector called in which user can build specific tools that are only used by the Plugin for Next Gens Stats
‎

When tool is built it can be selected inside of the plugins Advanced Tab for Next Gens Stats.

Workflow

Using the plugin for Next Gen Stats is a simple process as long as a user is connected to the correct game and it only requires the user to:

• Save a clip from the incoming live video
• Use F11 to access the plugin for Next Gen Stats and download the data for that specific play
• Select metric and player
• Use Add Graphics button to place metric inside video