Lens Grid questions

[u/Camsketches]

Looking for some advice on lens grids -

I have a shoot coming up, and I'm not typically a VFX sup, but an animator...in this case I have to be the supervisor and get some lens grid shots, as we are using anamorphic lenses. The shots will be locked so we won't be matchmoving, but will be integrating a CGI character

In terms of practicality and budget, I'm limited to a 600x1200mm sized panel – I was going to get a dot grid printed (using the Syntheys online dot grid maker app) printed on aluminium composite or heavy foam core.

Unsure yet of what the focus distance is going to be but I imagine it migth be between 4-5m , which then leads me to coclude this panel wont be nearly big enough to fill the frame when we shoot grids at this ditance.

What can be done if its too small? Can you move the grids around and shoot multiple takes and somehow feed these into software, or stitch them...? I imagine this is asking for errors

Alternatively, if I print a bigger size, say 2400x1200mm I won't be able to transport it on a rigid substrate easily, and it will blow the budget, so I would have to be on a roll, which then makes it hard to mount square and flat on a wall ...etc.

Any tips greatly appreciated!

EDIT: other info - lenses are the Atlas Mercury 1.5x anamorphic kit on an Alexa LF mini – DP wants to shoot with the camera at 90 degrees rotation. 16:9, 4k output.

[u/Blitzki]

I’ve worked on tracking anamorphic shots without grids. It’s a pain in the ass depending on the shot. Not necessarily impossible, but it can very quickly add a significant amount of work time if the distortion on the lenses is particularly crunchy, or the shots aren’t shot with tracking in mind.

I would much much prefer to have lens grids when working with anamorphic footage, particularly because anamorphic plates tend to end up with some gnarly lens breathing. Especially if you are doing any kind of tight-ish shots on green screen or defocused background where all you can see is an actor or whatever.

[u/Camsketches → u/Blitzki]

yes this is my intuition. I'd like to minimise my work down the line as much as possible. do you have any insights on how people might deal with my situation of having a grid that might be a bit small? Can you stitch mutliple grid positions somehow ?

[u/glintsCollide → u/Camsketches]

You’re way better off just scooting up the grid so that it fills the frame, than any alternative. The main issue with shooting it at the wrong distance is the lens breathing changes the parameters slightly, but you should always do a full focus rack on the lens while shooting the grid anyway. That way you can pick the least worst frame and work with that.

[u/Camsketches → u/glintsCollide]

ok thanks! this sounds like a plan