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Image stabilization with Warp Stabilizer
The archive where I work has something of an “experimental” scanner. It turns out 2048 x 1536 Quicktime files, but the transport is so shaky, that there is a LOT of up and down travel of the film as it moves past the camera — even at 6 fps. Depending upon how bad the movement is, After Effects Warp Stabilizer can sometimes help, but more often than not, it gets so confused that it only makes matter worse.
Understandably, Warp Stabilizer was intended to handle camera shake…not a film’s bob and weave as it goes through a scanner. Also, the film can be anywhere between 30 to 93 years old, so there are some condition issues 8^).
Does anyone have any suggestions — either within the After Effects world, or some other one — how I might attack this problem?
Thank you,
Scott Allen
sa****@********sc.edu -
1 Reply
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Unfortunately, i have little control over the scanning process. Either the original choice of machinery or the method. The scanner has no teeth, and only maintains framing based on a not-totally-reliable perf-recognition laser. I will ask if they could do it one frame at a time, though the scan time would obviously skyrocket.
It doesn’t actually cut off the top and bottom, since they have pulled the camera back far enough to get an edge-to-edge scan — perfs and all are visible, including parts of the frames above and below (don’t ask). Which may be another reason it’s hard to stabilize, because of the added noise.
After several years of this, the powers-that-be have finally agreed to let us look at a used Spirit, or maybe a NOVA Data Scanner. From their lips to God’s ears 8^).
Thanks for the advice. I’ll see what I can do. I’ll probably start with cutting the file down into more manageable chunks.
Scott Allen
sallen@mailbox.sc.edu
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