How can I stabilize my clip from scanned warped 8mm film

Question

I am trying to stabilize a movie file of a scanned 8mm film, but I'm NOT talking about the motion of the subject of the film. The film was already slightly warped from aging when I sent it through my trusty wolverine scanner, and as a result, the individual frames did not maintain their location from frame to frame during the scan.

You can see the issue clearly here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wrpru8osbuoghol/8mmUnStabilized.mov?dl=0

- I've tried using warp stabilizer, with "no motion" and "position only" and "stabilize only" selected. It didn't work.

- Then I tried exporting to aftereffects and using the "track motion" as outlined in several youtube videos:

https://youtu.be/P8ly3_26QIo

https://youtu.be/cm1kU9EI_tA?t=142

but that doesn't work either even though I'm following the tutorials exactly. Maybe AE is thrown off because I'm marking one of the big white sprocket hole areas as the object to track and it doesn't like that? I dunno.

- I even tried manually fixing the position with motion keyframes in premiere frame by frame, using a still image as a reference superimposed on the track above. It took me 45 minutes to do 1 minute of actual footage and the results were less than impressive for all that tedium.

Anyone ever had to do this?

Richard van den Boogaard · Answer

You need to tell the app what to stabilize on and what to discard for stabillization.

This is best achieved with Warp Stabilizer in After Effects, not the Warp Stabilizer inside PPro.

First, edit your footage inside PPro. When done, import the PPro project inside AE (File > Import > Import Premiere Pro Project).

Second, search for and apply the Warp Stabilizer effect.

Inside the effect, twirl out Advanced, select Detailed Analysis and select Show Track Points. After the analysis has finished, you re-start the manual datapoint selection process by deleting the tracking points that you don't want the stabilization to happen on. This typically is everything in the frame, safe for the border holes.

Everytime you select and remove the points you don't wish to stabilize on, stabilization will happen again. Skip a few frames forward and repeat the process. Eventually, the track will get better as you remove more data points.

Hope this helps.

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