Making static shots appear to be hand-held?

[Dean Sensui]

Here’s how I was thinking of doing it, but it uses After Effects: Get a handheld shot of a target on the wall. Motion-track the target in AE, then apply the motion data to the original clip.

You might be able to do something similar in FCP: Shoot a target on the wall. Placed that shot under the clip you want to animate.

With the static clip’s opacity set at 50%, carefully mimic the motion you see in the target shot below. You’ll have to make sure the motion is keyframed all the way through.

This might be a little more tedious than doing it with AE, but it’s a lot cheaper than buying the broadcast version of AE.

However, if you’re going to be doing a lot of this sort of thing, as well as green screen, roto, etc, then AE is worth the money.

Come to think of it, you might be able to do the same thing in Motion.

Dean Sensui — Hawaii Goes Fishing

[Steve Price]

Thanks Dean, that’s great advice.
Happy fishing!
Steve.

[Scott Sheriff]

How about the ‘Earthquake’ filter?
Seems like you could keyframe that and get a handheld look.

[Bret Williams]

I forget what it’s called, but if you look in your effects there’s one that adds random jitter. Should be able to tweak that filter. Otherwise Im sure there’s something in Motion.