I'm just another noob trying to figure out tracking.  I have a piece of footage that starts in close on a book and the person holding it starts getting up closing it and walking from right to left out to a doorway.  I'm getting the Cannot process frames error.  I don't have any helper images, so would I need to go back and take some pictures at different angles to get better solving?
 
Now.. I tried just solving about 60 frames at a time.  It worked on the first part, but not on the second part.  I try not to solve the frames that gives me errors, but when I do that, it'll throw up 1 or 2 more frames it didn't before.  So how exactly do you fix reference frames to help solve the problem frames?  I think I'm asking that right.. but any help would be nice.  I read about this same problem in this forum, but I didn't get much out of it, because I'm still trying to figure out this stuff.
 
I would supply the video sequence, but it's a big file.  It was shot in 24p and converted to 30 for broadcast.  So I'm loading it as 30 with variable focal length.  Thanks for all your help.

also.. I forgot, even though I had good luck on the first 60 frames,  the Auto tracks are grey.  Now, I was under the impression from the tutorial that green was good and yellow is ok.. and red is bad.  But I can't seem to get any green, yellow or red.. just grey.  Could that also be explained?  Thanks

Hello,  
 
It's hard to have accurate advices without seeing the shot, but I'll try (anyway you can upload big files on our ftp our render it in low res, this would help).
 
The reference frames should be set on 2 frames that have a good number of points in common, and with a lot of parallax (that means a perspective difference between the 2 point of view). The solver automatically set them on such frames, but you can select your own.
 
The best way on project that goes mad in to start with a small subsection that you know works fine (using the work area), and where the 3D is good  (having green tracks means good reconstruction error, but if there's low perspective the 3D might not be so good. It's always good to check in 3D mode). Then you can start adding more frames, piece by piece to see what range is problematic.
 
You said you were able to solve a first part, but not a second one. What happen between them ? Do you loose all the tracks ? Are they well tracked in 2D  ?
You can check the longest track and turn them to manual to be sure they'll always be used by the engine if you know they're good. Or you can simply add some manual tracks to help bridging the gap between the 2 parts.
 
Gray tracks means track that have not been reconstructed (either because they were found bad or because they're not defined in the frames that have been solved). If they're all gray, that means none of them are solved, which means that the solved camera is very bad.

alright.. some things I do not understand... but just take a look at the shot.  I've posted it on my ftp.  
 
www.jamiebyers.com/Scene01Small.zip
 
quicktime - 30 fps - 320 X 240

All right...
 
The main question is: what do you want to track ?
 
Because the beginning of the shot shows the book and the guy, which are all non-rigid moving objects (you need to do some mocap for this). With one camera, you can only track fixed or rigid object.  
 
Tell me exactly what you want to do and we'll see what's possible
Thanks

My goal is to have the camera match up so I can put in lines that flow around and near the person.  Also I would put random items on the wall.. that sort of thing.  I'm so new at this stuff, that I don't know exactly what I'm doing.  But like I said, my goal is to have that same camera move from the shot ... and export a script to Max to match the move.  I can go out on location at the moment and take the helper images if necessary.  Only problem is, the guy won't be there.. so don't know if that'll pose a problem or not on helper images?  I think though, like you said, I'll have to do 2 kinds of tracking.  Would this be one of those type of shots that are more complicated to do?  I appreciate all your help.

OK.. I've added an effect of sort of what I'm going for in still images.  I whipped it up in Photoshop just to show you about how it may look.  And of course, I'd be putting stuff in the scene that may attach to the walls.. ect.  So maybe this will help you understand what I'm going for.

If I broke up this shot, would I be able to track better?  (I'm talking about the shot above).  Like, instead of tracking the close up part.. if I just tracked the part where the guy is walking out, would it do alot better?

I definitely think so... and it's the only solution.

Just for future reference... how would you handle shooting something like this for tracking purposes, if you don't mind letting me know.  I do appreciate all your help.

Hum, I think trying to have at least 4 fixed points all the time, to be sure I can easily interpolate a camera path to any frame, even if it needs to be done manually.  
 
Even if they're only in the background, it would have help tracking this shot. In your case, none of what you see at the beginning is fixed.
 
But that's definitely something that should be done in 2 parts: track the camera starting from the end to the most that you can, and then try to  interpolate the few first frames by keyframing in the 3D package.
 
Hope this helps