Stabalizing a LONG “Dolly” shot, nothing works!

[Darby Edelen]

If you can get a decent camera solve then you might be able to use the 3D Camera Tracker or another camera tracking solution. You’ll probably need to roto out all of the actors in order to get the solve accurate.

Once you have your solved camera make the footage a 3D layer, parent it to the solved camera and place it directly in front of the camera with these transforms: Position [0, 0, Camera Zoom], Orientation [0,0,0] and zero out any other rotation.

Now duplicate the solved camera and apply a smooth() expression to all of the keyframed properties. Make sure this is the top camera in the composition.

Last step you’ll probably need to scale the footage layer up slightly so that it doesn’t leave the frame.

This works pretty well to smooth things out. You may want to play with the optional properties of the smooth() expression to improve the smoothing for your particular shot.

Darby Edelen

[John O’riley]

Hey Darby

Thanks for replying

Following your advice this is what I did.

Selected the footage, clicked “Animation – Track Camera”

Used these Settings
Fixed Angle of View
3D Solved
Solve Method – Auto
Detailed Analysis

Once that was done I clicked “Create Camera”

Changed the footage layer to a 3D layer and Pick Whipped it to the camera

THIS IS WHERE I GOT A BIT CONFUSED WITH YOUR ADVICE.

Under Transform for the camera I changed all the position and orientation keys to 0, 0, 0

Then duplicated the camera and added the smooth() expression to the position, orientation and zoom (under camera options) of the new 3d cam.

Played the footage back but nothing was done..

Iv clearly gone wrong somewhere, can you explain more please.

Thanks

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Mask out the actors and other extraneous movement so that the Warp Stabilizer is able to solve, strictly, for camera movement. Once you’v e masked out the actors, you can try the Warp Stabilizer and Darby’s 3D Camera Tracker recipe to see which gives you the best result.

HTH
RoRK

Intensive mocha & AE Training in Singapore and Other Dangerous Locations

Imagineer Systems (mocha) Certified Instructor
& Adobe After Effects CS6 ACE

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

[John O'Riley] “THIS IS WHERE I GOT A BIT CONFUSED WITH YOUR ADVICE.

Under Transform for the camera I changed all the position and orientation keys to 0, 0, 0”

You apply these settings to the tracked footage layer – NOT to the camera. If you applied these settings to the camera then you would be negating the tracked data.

HTH
RoRK

Intensive mocha & AE Training in Singapore and Other Dangerous Locations

Imagineer Systems (mocha) Certified Instructor
& Adobe After Effects CS6 ACE

[John O’riley]

If I was to mask them out, would I leave it transparent underneath or make a solid and try and match the colour of the walls/floor?

[John O’riley]

Also, I did the 0,0, on the footage layer.
But once I duplicated the camera, it send the footage crazy! was spinning around and flipping all over the place haha.

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

[John O'Riley] “If I was to mask them out, would I leave it transparent underneath or make a solid and try and match the colour of the walls/floor?”

1) Mask out the actors
2) Precompose the layer – select Move All Attributes
3) Apply WS and 3D Cam Tracker separately to test for best results

HTH
RoRK

Intensive mocha & AE Training in Singapore and Other Dangerous Locations

Imagineer Systems (mocha) Certified Instructor
& Adobe After Effects CS6 ACE

[Darby Edelen]

[John O'Riley] “Under Transform for the camera I changed all the position and orientation keys to 0, 0, 0”

Don’t change any of the camera transforms. Only the footage. Also make sure that the footage is parented to the solved camera and the Position of the footage is:

X = 0
Y = 0
Z = The ‘Zoom’ value of the solved camera

The 3D footage layer should look exactly as it did when it was 2D until you duplicate the solved camera and apply the smooth() expressions.

If you’re having trouble and can share the footage I can give it a shot.

Darby Edelen

[John O’riley]

just tested the masking/WS on small section, seems to work pretty damn well!

Now just got to mask 3 and a half mins of footage haha. Fun times ahead.

Thanks guys

Really appreciate all the help!

Will let you know how it turns out!

Thanks

[John O’riley]

Hey

Just wanted to say, the extensive masking and WS worked a treat!

Thanks for all your help guys.

If you would like to see the finished film, can bee seen here.

https://www.broken-silence.co.uk

1st video, called “Conscience”

thanks again