Tips & tricks for stabilizing this footage?

[bobhongsa]

Hi there, i have this shaky footage that we did in a studio.

Iv'e been looking into alot of methods, but i really cant find a good way to do this.

I want to stabilize it until it hits 00:45.

Link to video:

Private video on Vimeo

Code: 123

[BartonGarrett256]

The problem is you need two small objects with contrast that stay in focus and in the shot and do not move.  He moves as do the flames.  I never use Warp Stabilizer, I find for my stuff I get better results with the legacy tracker.  But that's a long shot.  I'd try that and use small target regions on the base of the flames.  But that's a lot of stabilization, maybe try breaking it up into sections. 

Or get a shopping cart and shoot it again.  It looks okay to me, movement is in style these days.

[Roland Kahlenberg]

Can you brighten the footage so that you can have a better view of the scene? There must be objects that are not self-animating, which can be used for tracking purposes. All you need from the tracking footage is tracking data - it doesn't matter if they look bad. In essence, enhance the footage for tracking purposes and in this case, brighten it up a lot.

[Roei Tzoref · Accepted solution]

this is difficult. even if you do find a feature to stabilize, there is so much parallax movement in the shot that 2d stablization won't cut it. if reshoot is an option - this would save you a lot of hassle. if a solution exists, it's probably with a 3d software like Syntheyes which offers a 3d stablizing tool. this means you would have to carefully solve the scene with a camera, and then try with the 3d stablizer to see what options exists. this would of course require training and understanding how it works. I would probably consult with Russ Anderson (the creator of the software) first. he is very nice and answer his email about these things. here's a whitepaper about 3D stabilization in SE: Why SynthEyes Stabilization?

there could also be a trickery solution here where you could stabilize the hero in the middle, and reconstruct the scene in 3d space compositing. this would take many many hours. so... reshoot, or pay the price. it could be done. really anything could be done with enough resources.

[Roland Kahlenberg]

Another option is to make the shot even shakier - with motion blur too. And do this at the beginning of the shot cos the latter parts of the footage is acceptable.

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi bobhongsa,

Did you ever solve this issue? Please let us know.

Thanks,
Kevin