Anchoring with Warp Stabilizer

[5bravo]

Is there a way to set an anchor point when using Warp Stabilizer?

I am using Warp Stabilizer to undo sporadic spinning/rotation I have in my original footage. Imagine having a camera hanging from a string, pointed down at the ground. The camera naturally spins in the wind which create the end result of continuously rotating footage.

By using Warp Stabilizer (set to No Motion; Position, Scale, Rotation; and Preserve Scale) I am able to reverse the spinning of my raw footage. The problem, however, is that the footage no longer has an anchor point and will fly all over the screen; sometimes even off the screen completely.

If there's a way to tell the Warp Stabilizer to move the footage only based on the anchor point, this would solve my problem.

[Richard van den Boogaard]

Instead of using Warp Stabilizer in PPro, consider using it in After Effects.

In Warp Stabilizer's Advanced menu, you can choose which points the tracker should use for stabilization and which ones it should ommit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nNy0gLwDT0

Alternatively, inside PPro, you achieve a similar result by applying Warp Stabilizer to a nested version of the clip where the moving parts you don't want the stabilization to happen on are masked out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJR0pET4Lfc

Hopefully any of these methods will help you in preventing the effect to skid off.

[Ann Bens]

The tutorial in Ae: technique looks great the end result not so.

[Ann Bens]

If the clip has a static background I would use Tracker/Stabilize Motion with 2 trackers.

[5bravo]

Thanks for the reply! After Effects does seem to handle the Warp Stabilizer rotation correction better than Premiere Pro does, however, it still has the same issue with the video flying off the screen. 

[Ann Bens]

You cannot correct video flying off screen.

[5bravo]

Any ideas on other methods to try to achieve the desired result? Perhaps without the Warp Stabilizer

[Richard van den Boogaard]

Please bear in mind that warp stabilizer is a tool intended for helping to salvage shots. It's not guaranteed to work on any shot.

In your edit, the further you are able to zoom in on the shot, the more 'flesh' surrounding your subject you have for stabilization.

Alternatively, resort to jump-cutting (to the beat of the music?) to cover up the non-stabilized part of the shot. When done deliberately, this technique can work.

Hope this helps.

[5bravo]

Within After Effects, is there a shortcut for centering a clip's anchor point to the center of the screen or work space?

[5bravo]

Or rather, what options are there for locking the anchor point position?

[5bravo]

Best method I've found so far is to do a first pass with the Warp Stabilizer, then use a Null Layer to Pre-Compose all footage as one saving the Warp Stabilizer effect so I can then use the Stabilize Motion with trackers to fix the X and Y positions. It's an incredibly lengthy process and all footage has to be broken into 5-20 second clips throughout each step otherwise the software gets lost.

[FlyingFourFun]

Is there a reason you can't use the Mocha Plugin for After effects?

Mocha Pro: The Stabilize Module - YouTube

At about 03:15 they start to talk about adding full frames, which combines with the other stabilization in the early part of the video, might, allow you to stabilize to the effect you're after?    This would solve the 'fly all over' and 'off screen' comments you made.

I tend to only use warp stabilize for very specific type of shots that I need to get some bounce/jitter/shake out or smooth out abrupt motion.  Anything more complex, Mocha is pretty powerful.

I look forward to your thoughts on this approuach.

[5bravo]

Funny you mention Mocha Pro; I was just looking into that plug-in to see if my company could expense it! I don't know if it would actually solv ewhat we're trying to do but at the very least, I'm confident it would speed up the current method's process time.

Fortunately, they offer a free trial version to test out but even at that, the software is quite expensive that it may be difficult to justify the investment 😞

In either case, I was going to give the trail version a shot after my current project is finished.

[FlyingFourFun]

I thought there was a version of Mocha already included with After Effects - After checking there is, but it seems to not included the stabilize feature...  unfortunately. 

I found this feature chart for what's included in the different versions:

Boris FX | Mocha AE (Mocha for After Effects)

The costs are $695 for a perpetual license,  but I would not do that, as you only get upgrades for a year, then must pay for support anyway.

If I was buying it today, I would get the annual subscription, for $295USD which includes all the upgrades also.  They have been doing some pretty decent worth while upgrades the last few years so I have not regreated the support payments I make annually (I purchased mine before subscriptions was an option).

Hopefully your business can find a way to approve the funding, there is some significant time savings for many different use cases with Mocha.

Aside from that,  the 

[5bravo]

I'm looking forward to checking out the trial version. I'm very hopeful that it will save me a lot of time and at least partially remedy what is right now a very tedious process. When you have hundreds of hours of footage to work with, having a time saving tool even at a high price has a better chance of being justified.

Cheers!