Creative Communities of the World Forums

The peer to peer support community for media production professionals.

Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy Manual tracking in FCP?

  • Manual tracking in FCP?

    Posted by Daniel Grixti on January 19, 2011 at 4:45 pm

    Hi there,

    I am using Final Cut Pro 7.

    I have some footage of a man walking towards the camera as we dolly backwards.

    I want to somehow track his face so it remains in the center of the screen, even though he is swaying side to side as he walks. I realise that this would probable make the background shift around like crazy but this is kind of the effect I am going for. Also, I shot in full HD and the final product is going to be at quite a small resolution for internet distribution so am not worried about stretching the image sufficiently so the edges don’t come in to frame.

    I know there is the smooth cam function but I think this tracks the frame as a whole. How can I track a specific part? Is it possible on FCP 7?

    Dan

    Michael Peele replied 15 years, 3 months ago 4 Members · 3 Replies
  • 3 Replies
  • Shane Ross

    January 19, 2011 at 7:54 pm

    FCP doesn’t do this without help. You need to get Mocha for FCP. Imagineer makes it. But then you will have to scale up the footage to make sure that none of the sides show.

    Shane

    GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
    Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

  • Patrice Freymond

    January 19, 2011 at 8:25 pm

    Mocha is great but since you own Final Cut Studio you could give it a try with Motion…

    Patrice

  • Michael Peele

    January 20, 2011 at 1:31 am

    You can do this in FCP using filters – Boris has a nice optical stabilizer. There are others too.

    By hand it is a bear, but if the clip is short you can do it.

    Start by creating a fixed point on the screen (text overlay a period or something).

    Now put the period on his nose, and keyframe his position. next frame, move his nose back under the point. next frame, move his nose back under the point. next frame, move his nose back under the point.

    Scale the image up to get rid of the edges.

We use anonymous cookies to give you the best experience we can.
Our Privacy policy | GDPR Policy