optical flow question

[Chris Borjis]

one thing to help for much faster operation, mark in and out your selection only you want to stabilize and export it, other wise the entire source clip is analyzed.

one thing you might try that works pretty well, is the “smoothcam” effect in final cut.

but again, export just the part you want to stabilize so you are not wasting time. then re import it and smooth cam it.

[Paul Escandon]

I didn’t read him say anything about stabilization – I’m assuming he’s trying to retime the clip and that’s why he’s trying to use the optical flow in motion to retime. Am I right in this?

Using Chris’ advice is still worthwhile in that exporting just the portion of the clip you want to use will save you from an overly long analyzing process. Give that a try and see if you still have the problems you’re experiencing.

* * *
Paul Escandon
Producer | Director | Editor
Apple Certified Trainer – Final Cut Pro
Oremus Productions
http://www.oremusproductions.com
– –
Adjunct Professor of Media
John Paul the Great Catholic University

[Dave Blodgett]

Thanks guys – Yes, my question is specifically about timeremapping and optical flow – what would cause the .motn clip to play well in the clip Viewer, but not in the Canvas?

the clip is 2 seconds long as I pan a camera shot of a motorcycle passing by, and is the only clip in the sequence.

I’ve tried smoothcam in the past to see what improvements it could make on my panning performance, but it gives up – I forget the exact msg, but essentially it complained about too much movement.

-dave

[Rafael Amador]

The Media Manager is very useful to save time on analizeing the clips.

PPC G5 2x2Gh 4GbRAM/BlackMagic SD/PMBP 17″Core2Duo 4GbRAM
JVC DTV-17″/FCS2/AE CS3/COMBUSTION/SHAKE

[Dave Blodgett]

Thought I would try exporting the sequence as a QT movie to see if the ‘stuttering’ was apparent there (since it isn’t there when the clip is played in the Viewer, but *is* there when played in the Canvas).

The exported clip plays just like the Canvas with all the stuttering.

any other thoughts?

thx,
-dave

[Chris Borjis]

how much are you slowing it down?

if its 50% or less, i’d just do it in fcp.

I know thats not the answer your looking for, but maybe a work around for you if your deadline is looming.

[Dave Blodgett]

Thanks Chris – I’m taking the clip down to 25% which is why I was searching for something better than frame blending.

Neither the client nor I am really happy with the frame blending result, and I was hoping to redo a few of their videos for them with optical flow and improve the result. No time pressure as the project has already been delivered – just trying to deliver a better product to them.