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Using motion tracking to fix shaky hand-held footage
I’ve got some footage that was shot hand-held and is pretty shaky. The way I have been fixing the shakiness is to zoom in about 20% and keyframe the postion and rotation properties to compensate, using a still frame for reference, and taking the opacity way down on the video. That worked pretty well for the establishers, but I also have some hand-held footage of an actor walking across the screen that I will need to fix.
The way I understood it, this is fixable if you set a couple of motion tracking reference points, but so far, all I have managed to do is create a motion path that lines up to the actor and follows him across the screen, but the video itself is unchanged.
Am I missing a step somewhere? I can always use the same procedure I did for the stills and see how that works, but I don’t want to do it the long way if I can help it.
As always, any help will be most appreciated.
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6 Replies
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Did you set the tracker to stabilize motion?
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I clicked the button that said “stabilize motion” in the effects controls, and it produced a tracking point that followed the actor, and clicking it again gave me another tracker, which followed a different point (I put one point on his head, and another one at his beltline). Both points follow the actor, but the video itself does not change.
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You should place the trackers on points in the footage that you want to remain static in the frame, depending on whether you want to track position, or position & rotation. Once you track, then apply, those points will remain static, and the edges of the frame will bounce around.
Have you read the manual on this?
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So you’re saying this is an RTFM problem? *g* I’ve looked for the solution to this in the Meyers’ books, but couldn’t find it.
The reference points draw a path when I analyze, but the reference points are following the frame instead of the frame following the reference points.
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If you applied the stabilization (by hitting the stabilize button) then you should be golden. Unless… you are still looking at the layer window – the window where you track, and not the comp window. They occupy the same space – so make sure you have the correct tab selected.
Aharon Rabinowitz
Email: arabinowitz (AT) yahoo (DOT) com
All Bets Are Off Productions, Inc.
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I finally figured out the problem…I was looking at the trackers, and not the comp. I just discovered the “apply” button, and now it’s working great. Thank you to all of you for the help on this. You guys rock!
This works much better than what I tried to do in desperation last night…I set up a couple of small solids at the desired tracking points as a reference, and tried to keyframe it manually…didn’t work so well.
I know that our computers need us for pretty much everything, but when it comes to our world, they can offer so much in return if only we can figure out how to talk to them 🙂
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