How simple would this editing be?

[GBfromtheway]

I'm trying to find out if i filmed someone pitching a softball, how hard would it be to go back and edit the video to highlight the seams of the softball to easily identify the rotation of the ball?

[poisondeathray]

It depends on how fast it was pitched, and what type of camera.

Usually it would be impossible to show the actual seams unless it was thrown as a very slow lob with limited rotation. You need expensive, specialized high FPS cameras and setups to record this as slow motion

The other option is to "fake" it with a graphical overlay with illustrative seams, or animation arrows

[GBfromtheway]

So it would be better to probably paint the seams before videoing.. it would be rotating up to about 30 rotations per second.

[poisondeathray]

Even if you emphasize the seams by painting on the ball beforehand, you're unlikely to catch the seams cleanly on normal video, with a normal consumer level camera. The ball is small, the seams smaller, and the camera has shutter motion blur . You can reduce the blur using a faster shutter speed, but most consumer cameras typically only go to 59.94 fps (typically would have 1/120 shutter speed). That's not fast enough for typical softball/baseball slow motion - usually 300-20,000 FPS is used with special cameras.

You have a better chance of catching the seams, the higher the resolution (UHD cameras are much more affordable now), and the higher the fps. If you can position or frame the camera somehow to optimize the field of view of the ball - that will increase your chances too

But to get a feel of what you're up against - take a look at some random youtube videos, it's nearly impossible to see seams on typical videos.

In professional MLB, sure - but they are using the expensive slow motion cameras

The "editing" part is easy. It's the acquisition part that is difficult

[aedipuss]

not only do you have to take into account spin rate, but also how fast the pitch is traveling. a 60mph pitch is going 88 feet per second.

[smrpix]

So it would be better to probably paint the seams before videoing.. it would be rotating up to about 30 rotations per second.

If the ball were actually going at that precise speed, all the other considerations aside, you could end up with a video where, due to strobing, the seams could appear not to move at all. Think of the old westerns where the spokes of wagon wheels look like they're going backwards.

(Of course, you'll never actually capture it clearly enough for the illusion to work.)

[babygdav]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=k5X86nD_WS4
1000 fps would still blur the seams, but you can detect the location.
At regular 24-60fps, it's just a blur.

Besides rotation, you also have position change.
Both together makes it more difficult to image clearly without a high frame rate.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TUauI7AVGlU
The final issue is distance to the ball.
Any top smartphone can do 480+fps filming, but if you're far away, that ball might only occupy 10-50 pixels high and wide out of the entire frame. Not a lot of detail with so few pixels, so makers on the ball may help.