-
Image Stabilization for the Big Screen
Is there any reason that image stabilization shouldnt work for the big screen (ie cinema). I spoke with a producer who said that his tests always made the image softer. Does anyone have any direct experience in stabilizing video for the big screen? I havnt seen any sharpness difference in my own after effects test. Does the re-sampling have the potential to weaken the image? Is Ae the best tool for image stabilization. Could one expect much better results from a smoke or flame etc?
Thanks
-
7 Replies
-
Consider that the original footage consisted of things moving around, thus making them slightly soft due to motion blur. When we stabilize the footage, those things are now made static, making the softness due to motion blur more noticeable.
(my 2 cents)
-
After stabalizing a sequence, one almost always has to scale up the image to fit the comp. This invariably results in a softer image, post-stabalization.
Going from video to bigscreen of course depends on what rez your video footage is reltive to the output screen size. And this process alone AFAIK will also result in a softer image.
Your worse nightmare, however is matching stabilized shots against ‘normal’ shots.
HTH
RoRKSell your AEPs with broadcastGEMs’ DVD series of templates. Click here for more
-
Also, you have to blow up the footage a bit after it’s been stabilized (to keep the edges of the original frame out of sight in the stabilized frame). This will soften the image.
EDIT: Pardon my duplicate thought seconds after yours, Roland — great minds think alike, right?
Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events -
Hi. If you move your footage 0.47 pixels in x and 0.38 pixels in y (for example) and you then compare that to the original (using AE’s snapshot feature), you will see the softness that the producer is talking about.
PeteRogue Keyframe
Feature Film Compositing -
Hi Pete, you’re alluding to AE’s often loved, occasionally disliked, automated resampling procedure which occurs when the difference between the Anchor Point and Position is not an integer. Automated resampling can be avoided if the layer is in Draft Mode – though I’m not too sure how that will affect the tracking and the end-result.
Nudging one of the effected values should help though. Just ensure that your comp magnification is set according to the amount of nudging you have to do, which has an inverse relationship.
HTH
RoRKSell your AEPs with broadcastGEMs’ DVD series of templates. Click here for more
-
Hi Roland. Using draft mode is an interesting option. This forces the image to the nearest full pixel, right?
For tracking at 2k for something you are going to see in a cinema, you need to get down to between 0.1 and 0.2 pixel accuracy in order for a track to look rock solid, so in this case draft mode might not be the best option. There is no easy answer to this problem. When you stabilize a plate very accurately, it invariably will get softened slightly due to the sub-pixel re-sampling you mentioned.
PeteRogue Keyframe
Feature Film Compositing -
[Peter O’Connell] “When you stabilize a plate very accurately, it invariably will get softened slightly due to the sub-pixel re-sampling you mentioned.”
My thoughts exactly. It’s not a panacea for stabilization issues but it may come in handy.
Cheers
RoRKSell your AEPs with broadcastGEMs’ DVD series of templates. Click here for more
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up