max2afx_TrackData_Exp

Workflow steps:

3D Studio Max :

1. Add the objects to use as motion trackers (Any object; The script gathers the pivot position of the object even if it's outside the camera FOV.)

2. Choose animation range and framestep (interval between motion tracker keyframes)

3. Tricky Part - for faster export isolate only the objects used as motion trackers.

4. Press "Write Data", select filename (*.jsx) and voila.. on to After Effects.

After Effects:

1. Create or Open a project and choose File -> Scripts -> Run Script File

2. Locate the script file (*.jsx), open it and wait for the calculations.

3. Now we have a new composition called "max2afx_...." which contains a single Solid object called... "max2afx"

4. The solid has a Motion Tracker with Tracker Points corresponding to each max object used for tracking

5. Tricky Part: Since AFX can use Motion Trackers only on Footage Items we must copy the Tracker from our "max2afx" solid to the desired Footage (watch out for the first frame of the tracking data, and the frame in which to paste the tracker)

6. With footage selected on the Tracker Controls Panel choose Motion Source to be our footage and the Track Type to whatever serves your needs.

7. For best results (in motion tracking at all) create a new null layer and apply the Tracker data to it (Tracker Controls Panel -> Motion Target -> Edit Target ). Now you can link any object to follow the null and in the same time transform that object anyway you like without affecting the tracked motion.

...and that's it.

You can check this link for a simple method of smoothing out the motion