• Adobe After Effects

  Possible to stabilize with multiple trackers?

  Posted by Phelps Harmon on January 27, 2009 at 10:26 pm

  I’ve searched the forum posts for an answer to this question but can’t find a clear answer. I have a long complicated shot that needs to be stabilized. The camera moves 360 degrees, so there is no single point on which I can put a tracker that stays in the frame of the shot the entire time. I saw Andrew Kramer’s tutorial on set extensions where he sort of talks about this using multiple trackers with the targets set to null objects, but that was only in regard to tracking the motion of a shot and not stabilizing it. How can this be done? Thanks.

  Peter O’connell replied 17 years, 3 months ago 4 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

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  Stuart Elith

  January 27, 2009 at 10:31 pm

  I am a little sketchy on the details but I *think* you can do this with one tracker.
  Part way through a track, you can change the track point of it by holding a key (alt/option?) and dragging the + to a new point. This is different to just dragging the square, which repositions the track data… this way is just adjusting the place which is being sampled.

  Although now that I write it out, I’m thinking it may not work because that’s mostly based about tracking motion still. Stabilizing is similar in concept but could be different, not sure.
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  Bill Morris

  January 27, 2009 at 10:42 pm

  Yes, you can stabilize motion with multiple trackers as registration points move off screen, but I believe it is also possible to use ONE tracker. If you move the bounding box, but NOT the anchor point, you can stabilize using one tracker. If the two get out of sync, though, it’s very tough to fix.

  I used multiple trackers on my last project – LOTS of camera motion, so my reference points in the shot kept changing. Just stop tracking a frame or two before the point leaves the shot and apply that data. Then create the new tracking point on a new reference point, track, apply. Repeat as necessary.
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  Peter O’connell

  January 28, 2009 at 3:08 am

  Hi, to change the feature you are tracking without changing the attach point, hold down option before moving the search area box to a new, better point. Another option is Mocha.
  Pete O’Connell

  roguekeyframe.com

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