Stablization problem

Apple Final Cut Pro

Stablization problem

Posted by Phillip Mortimer on November 21, 2011 at 2:54 am

Hi, I’ve just joined the forum and would like some advice on the following problem.

I am cutting a project in FCP X, but the built-in stabilization is not working. My footage has no pans or tilts, but it has some shake from unsteady hands. The result of the FCP X stabilizer is a second or so of smooth footage followed by a sudden jump to another brief period of smooth footage. This often looks worse than the footage without stabilization.

I can’t round-trip to Motion 5 where I could specify tracking points.
If I open the raw footage in Motion and stabilize using tracking points, Motion crashes after it has finished its analysis.
I have Lock and Load X for FCP 7, but it is not available for FCP X.

What options do I have? Can I export XML from FCP X and open the project in FCP 7?

I am running FCP X 10.0.2 on a late 2008 MacBook Pro.

Thanks!

Phillip Mortimer replied 14 years, 5 months ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
4 Replies

T. Payton
November 21, 2011 at 4:06 pm

I’ve experienced some of the same issues with SmoothCam, the stabilization used in FCP X. However, when I examine the unstabalized footage I realize that I did have some drastic moves that are only a frame or two because of my shaky handheldness. SmoothCam just doesn’t do well with certain shots.

Lock and Load is coming for FCP X, but just not released yet, so perhaps it will come out in beta the next few days.

However, since you have Lock and Load, I would suggest you fix your footage there and then bring it into FCP X. You could also consider using Mocha or After Effects to stabilize if you have it.

Here is a little video to help you with replacing clips:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/6XtczNjIG-A

If you really want to bring your timeline into FCP 7 (I don’t think you need to), you can use X27 ($50 ish) or if you just need a few shots you can use the Free Automatic Duck as describe here:

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/344/5529

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque
Phillip Mortimer
November 22, 2011 at 12:57 am

Thanks for the response. I tried Lock & Load on the raw footage in FCP 7, but had many of the same problems. There is some motion within the frame which is confusing any dominant motion analysis. I am now trying to use Motion 5 on the raw footage, specifying a tracking areas. Unfortunately, it keeps crashing on me. If Lock & Load comes out for FCP X, I will be delighted.
Gregor Queck
November 22, 2011 at 10:09 am

I had success with the most complicated shots with mercalli
https://www.prodad.com/home/products/videostabilizing/300391667,l-us.xhtml
Its only available for 7 but works very good. I would give it a try.
Phillip Mortimer
November 22, 2011 at 3:33 pm

Thanks for the tip. I have now stabilized my footage in Motion 5, but have come up against an incredible bug on export. Even though I set Borders to ‘Zoom’ it exports the footage as if Borders were set to ‘Normal’. The footage plays back as expected in Motion 5, the RAM preview is as expected, even the little preview window before export looks ok. But the ProRes export from Motion does not match any of that. Same result whether I export directly or via Compressor.

This is a lot of work that I now can’t do anything with. Very frustrating.

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