Postprocessing 1080/50i - stabilizing?

[v1ru5]

Hey,

I have 42 hours of video shot with Canon HF100 using 1080/50i mode.

Some of the material has been shot using a tripod, but about 99% of it is just shot by hand.

I have googled a lot about the subject, and it seems that Adobe After Effects is the only program that would be able to do a decent job.

However, apparently that said program comes with a certain set of "filters" and "stuff". Do these include a (good) image stabilization filter?

I am getting Adobe Premiere pack (including AE) in a few months to edit the material, so AE will be my choice for this postprocessing image stabilization; I've seen people recommending a lot of smaller, cheaper software but I really do want that this material will be supergood, and I figure AE will do a better job than cheaper programs. I might be wrong?

And how is the image quality affected in this process? Some say it cuts the pixel count by 50%. Sounds pretty bad, but I guess I just have to deal with it... But is the 50% pixelcut on the whole image, or are just the sides of the image affected, or what?

[poisondeathray]

It depends on what type of stabilization you're looking for.

AE has a built in tracker, but also comes with mocha . They are usually used for locked off shots (for compositing , placing things on objects etc...) so you need perfect precision. You have to smooth or ease keyframes if you just want a natural , smooth looking shot. It doesn't do natural pans or smooth motion automatically, and you need to track each shot individually. In contrast, other stabilizers (e.g. deshaker, mercalli prodad) tend to just be "smoothers" (but prodad has a locked off mode), and work automatically.

Neither AE or mocha have automatic edge compensation modes. So the amount of edge black borders you get is proportional to how shaky or x,y translation you have in your shot. There are techniques to fill the borders, like mirroring or scaling the image, but those really suck. Deshaker has a good edge compensation mode which uses past/future frames to fill in the black borders, best of all it's free. But it doesn't do locked off or super stable shots - it's not meant for compositing like AE or mocha

If you have a CMOS camera, Deshaker has partial rolling shutter compensation for skews, and I think the latest version of prodad has it too. None of the stabilizers work on vibrational jello very well, only skews from linear pans.

[lordsmurf]

If you have a CMOS camera, Deshaker has partial rolling shutter compensation for skews, and I think the latest version of prodad has it too. None of the stabilizers work on vibrational jello very well, only skews from linear pans.

The first day I had my D3s, I shot a handheld movie with a telephoto. I think the deshaked version looks worse than the shaky one. It made the jello-vision far more noticeable. Discord between foreground and background really didn't help the case either.

This was completely for fun, of course.

[v1ru5]

Thanks for the replies!

My material isn't super shaky, except for some parts shot when in a moving van in the Mongolian countryside...

So I have hope, as you poisondeathray said that it works well to stabilize ****ed up pans, and I have lots of these.

But apparently this stabilization can take a long time, as you have to map each frame manually if you want good results.

I'd also use it a lot to just stabilize "a bit shaky" handtaken shots when hiking etc, and I got the idea from these replies that these postproduction stabilizing things cannot do wonders, but provide a good "bandage" for a "bit crippled" footage.

One last question: As my video format is AVCHD (17mbps/s) - will this cause any problems when trying to do this stabilization?

[poisondeathray]

So I have hope, as you poisondeathray said that it works well to stabilize ****ed up pans, and I have lots of these.

It depends if your pans have a vibration component to it. I just noticed you are using HF100, which has a CMOS chip.

But apparently this stabilization can take a long time, as you have to map each frame manually if you want good results.

Yes, can take very long, because the algorithms look at past/future frames to reference motion

I'd also use it a lot to just stabilize "a bit shaky" handtaken shots when hiking etc, and I got the idea from these replies that these postproduction stabilizing things cannot do wonders, but provide a good "bandage" for a "bit crippled" footage.

It can definitely improve the footage , but not for "jello" . I have a feeling you're not quite understanding the difference in the artifacts. You should read up on CMOS vs CCD, and Rolling Shutter , x & y translation, and rotation. "stabilization" only deals with x,y rotation and +/- rotation . "Skew" and "Jello" are different types of artifacts introduced by CMOS cameras. CCD chips are immune to those 2

One last question: As my video format is AVCHD (17mbps/s) - will this cause any problems when trying to do this stabilization?

No, but progressive always works better than interlaced (field based) for motion estimation for any stabilizer . 1080i50 results won't be as good as if you shot 1080p50 (if your camera was capable - it isn't , but just for arguments sake)


If you just want to smooth it over a bit, AE and mocha are the wrong tools for this sort of thing, unless you want to emulate locked down shots. You have to reset track points for each scene, and it's alot of work compared to other tools