Deshaker Settings for Video Shot from Vehicle ?

[blewyn]

I have some shots taken from a moving bus that I am trying to stabilize with Deshaker. The lower half of the shot is moving road, the upper quarter is sky and the lower upper quarter is landscape, so I'm using only the top 300 lines to stabilise (640x480). The problem is that I get the occasional lamp-post or building moving rapidly right-left in the frame, and Deshaker wobbles as it passes by. How do I make Deshaker ignore the passing object and use the background only ?

[jagabo]

Try using the center portion of the frame for deshaking -- stuff off in the distance.

[johnmeyer]

Sometimes you have to "deshake" a video in segments. I wrote about this many years ago, both in the long Deshaker guide I wrote, as well as the automation scripts I wrote for the Vegas/Virtudaldub tandem that lets you select multiple events in Vegas and, at the push of a button, deshake each one while you walk away and do something else.

Here is the key insight: when you deshake a video clip, the first and last frame are always completely unchanged. They are not moved in the X, Y, or rotated axis from the original. What this means is that you can take a video clip and, if there is a portion where the video looks worse after deshaking, you simply don't stabilize those frames. You stabilize the portion of the video just prior to the problem area, and just afterwards. Because Deshaker doesn't process either the first or last frame, there will be no jump at the transition points as long as you use Deshaker's edge filling rather than zooming in to cover the borders.

So, this "trick" may help here. If you are doing this in Vegas, you can use my scripts. If you aren't, hopefully you can find some other workflow that makes it easy to join together the stabilized and un-stabilized portions of each scene.

[jagabo]

You're best bet is to post a sample of the source so others can determine the best approach.

[blewyn]

Sometimes you have to "deshake" a video in segments. I wrote about this many years ago, both in the long Deshaker guide I wrote, as well as the automation scripts I wrote for the Vegas/Virtudaldub tandem that lets you select multiple events in Vegas and, at the push of a button, deshake each one while you walk away and do something else.

Here is the key insight: when you deshake a video clip, the first and last frame are always completely unchanged. They are not moved in the X, Y, or rotated axis from the original. What this means is that you can take a video clip and, if there is a portion where the video looks worse after deshaking, you simply don't stabilize those frames. You stabilize the portion of the video just prior to the problem area, and just afterwards. Because Deshaker doesn't process either the first or last frame, there will be no jump at the transition points as long as you use Deshaker's edge filling rather than zooming in to cover the borders.

So, this "trick" may help here. If you are doing this in Vegas, you can use my scripts. If you aren't, hopefully you can find some other workflow that makes it easy to join together the stabilized and un-stabilized portions of each scene.

Oh my Lord that sounds amazing !! Let's see if Santa brings me copy of Sony Vegas.....

[blewyn]

You're best bet is to post a sample of the source so others can determine the best approach.

Thanks for the offer but I finished it already. I used the top 200 lines or 300 lines depending on how much sky was in the shot, and edited out the jerky bits.
Cheers.