Stabilization problem

[riccardor88384511]

Hello,

I have a problem in stabilizing a video in premiere pro. This shot consists in the actor sitting and talking; it`s hendheld and contains a bit of shaking (I should have used tripod, I know!). I have tried to lock the camera with Warp stabilizer but it doesn`t work.The option "No motion" combined with "Advanced Analysis" makes the background weird with jelly effects. I have tried also in After Effects and Da Vinci with no good results. Do you have any advice?

[Ann Bens]

Probably a bit too much shaking for No Motion.

Try different settings with Smooth Motion.

[Richard van den Boogaard · Accepted solution]

First of all, Warp Stabilizer is a tool, not a magic wand, nor a panacea that solves all your issues.

From your description it sounds like two things are happening at the same time: a moving camera and a moving subject. The infamous Warp Stabilizer wobble occurs, because the effect is trying to stabilize the camera movement using data from both the non-moving environment and the moving actor. What you need to do, is teach Warp Stabilizer what the background is vs the moving actor. By removing the moving actor from the stabilization process, you're more likely to get acceptable results (albeit that large camera movements will result in larger crops or less stable results).

Now, perhaps you know that Warp Stabilizer is an effect that originates from After Effects and was later implemented inside PPro. With that move, inside AE, the name of that plugin became Warp Stabilizer VFX. The main difference is that you can teach Warp Stabilizer VFX what to ignore and what to stabilize on.

For your problem: highlight the clip on the timeline that you like to use Warp Stabilizer on. Then, choose Replace with After Effects Composition. AE will then open and prompt you to save the project (if AE is already open, it will add the new composition to the opened project).

Next, apply Warp Stabilizer VFX to the clip and tick the advanced menu, let it process and tick Show tracking points. Once it is done processing, you see all the tracking points as you scrub through the clip. You then have to go through the clip from the head to the tail, and then select the tracking points that you don't want the stabilization to happen on. Once selected, hit the DEL key on your keyboard. AE will now re-render the stabilization process. Next, progress forward a few frames until you notice that the area you don't want stabilization to occur on, starts to fill up again.

This (somewhat older) video shows how this process works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEjqVaol8Is

An alternative is to choose to stabilize on the moving actor, and omit the background. This can be achieved by reversing the process I detailed above, or through watching this video: https://youtu.be/cm1kU9EI_tA

[riccardor88384511]

Thank you Richard,

I have a tried it and there`s a significant improvement!

[Richard van den Boogaard]

You're welcome. Glad to be of help!