The VFX toolkit SLAPSHOT, developed by Hotspring, has added a new module: an AI-powered camera tracking tool designed for 2D compositing workflows. According to Hotspring, it can generate production-ready camera solves and point clouds in minutes, a process that traditionally consumes many hours using manual or semi-automated tracking methods.
From zero data to full solve
The new Camera Tracking module targets artists who primarily work in 2D compositing but occasionally require 3D camera data to integrate digital elements into live-action plates. Hotspring says the tool can produce accurate camera tracks without needing any prior camera metadata such as lens information or focal length. Users can, however, supply camera data if they have it, and the software will incorporate that information into the final solve.
Output formats include .abc and .glb camera files, .exr STMaps for warping and undistortion tasks, undistorted .jpg plates, and a .mov playblast. This ensures compatibility with most standard 3D and compositing environments. Hotspring states that the tool was built to handle the bulk of real-world VFX work, background replacements, screen inserts, sky swaps, and clean-ups, where precision matters but speed is often the main constraint. The system is hosted entirely in SLAPSHOT’s cloud environment on AWS, supporting resolutions up to 8K and removing the need for heavy local compute resources.
Why this might matter
Camera tracking has long been one of the most time-consuming stages in VFX production. Solving for camera movement, lens distortion and point clouds often requires manual supervision and multiple iterations. Hotspring claims that SLAPSHOT can complete many of these tasks in under ten minutes, compressing what was once a day-long operation into a near-real-time process.
For smaller studios or freelance compositors who lack dedicated matchmove teams, this could represent a measurable reduction in turnaround time and cost. However, the company makes clear that the system is not designed to replace full-featured matchmove pipelines for heavy CG integration.
Not for every shot
Jon Mason, co-founder and CEO of Hotspring, emphasises that SLAPSHOT’s AI Camera Tracking is aimed at medium-difficulty shots, not full 3D sequences with extensive camera-lens complexity. According to Mason, the tool’s purpose is to close the gap between 2D tracks and complex CG matchmoves, where automation can safely accelerate work without sacrificing usable accuracy. Mason also noted that building the system required combining multiple open-source AI components to achieve consistent and dimensionally accurate results. There was, he said, “no off-the-shelf way to do something like this.”
Pricing
SLAPSHOT operates on a subscription model with four pricing tiers. The Free plan allows artists to test the tools at no cost, capped at 2K resolution and 1 GB of storage. The Lite plan, aimed at entry-level users, costs $9 per month and raises the limit to 3K resolution with 5 GB of storage.
The Starter plan, recommended for freelancers and solo compositors, is priced at $39 per month, allowing up to 4K output and 50 GB of storage. The Pro plan, intended for professional users and studios, costs $129 per month and supports 8K resolution, 250 GB of storage, and unlimited seats. Each plan includes a defined number of export frames, after which additional renders are billed at $0.02 per frame.
Part of a broader toolkit
Camera Tracking joins SLAPSHOT’s existing suite of AI-assisted post-production tools, which includes AI Rotoscoping for matte generation, Generative Retiming for extending footage by synthesising new frames, and Video Depth Maps for stable per-pixel depth estimation. Together, these cloud-based tools form a platform for accelerating everyday compositing and finishing work without high hardware costs. All of SLAPSHOT’s modules run on Hotspring’s independently audited AWS infrastructure, which is designed for commercial, film, and episodic-scale productions. And sometimes goes down, as we have seen last week. So far no information of a on-prem option.
Hotspring’s background
Hotspring is best known as a global VFX outsourcing platform used by studios worldwide. Its founders — Jon Mason, Varun Parange, and Ben Stallard, have backgrounds in delivering Oscar-, Emmy-, and VES-winning visual effects. Drawing on this experience, they built SLAPSHOT to automate repetitive VFX tasks while keeping final quality in artists’ hands. The company says that Camera Tracking continues its mission to “tackle the real-world problems artists face every day” by turning complex, technical workflows into faster, accessible processes.
What professionals should test
For compositing supervisors and VFX artists, SLAPSHOT’s new tool could be worth evaluating in production conditions. The key questions will concern accuracy under difficult circumstances, such as handheld or fast-motion footage, extreme lens distortion, or heavy motion blur, and how well exported data fits into existing workflows across Nuke, After Effects, Blender, and other software. Pipeline integration, output fidelity, and network performance in high-resolution workflows remain areas that users will need to test directly before adopting the system for ongoing projects.
Unverified details at press time
Some technical specifics remain unconfirmed from official sources, like full benchmark results across shot types, and the level of pipeline integration offered beyond the stated file formats. These details were not publicly available on SLAPSHOT’s or Hotspring’s websites at the time of publication. Therefor, as always, artists should run extensive tests before integrating any automated tracking system into mission-critical workflows.