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“vibrating” footage from a camera zoomed all the way in at a live event
I shot footage of a live event from a tripod on top of a riser at the back of the room. To get a good frame, I had to be almost all the way zoomed in (on the Sony EX-1). What I didn’t realize at the time is that the people walking past, and my own movements on the slightly unsteady riser caused unacceptable but subtle camera shake. The frustrating part is that I KNEW this was an issue, and was concerned about it during the event; but it was only when I brought the footage into FCP that I could see just how bad the problem is.
It’s not large, handheld style shake, or even occasional jarring motions. Instead, it’s a kind of fine vibration, if you know what I mean. A first quick test of Smoothcam eliminated that fine vibration–by replacing it with big, swaying motions.
My question is what the best software is for this situation. Should I work more with Smoothcam and adjust the parameters? Should I switch to something else, like Core Melt Lock & Load (I’m downloading the trial right now)? I also have access to After Effects and to Motion.
Can I set tracking points in After Effects (on the edge of the podium, say) and have it handle this very fine, subtle–but horrible–movement? I’m not terribly familiar with After Effects, but I can certainly go through the manual.
Thankfully, I have a second camera to cut to, but that camera had its own problem (the reading light on the podium shines right into the camera–I’m going to try to minimize that with a vignette in Apple Color, but that’s a post for a different forum).
Thanks in advance for any tips you can provide! I’m embarrassed to have made such rookie mistakes. But I guess this is why I’m a rookie…
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8 Replies
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Search the Cow tutorials. I believe I’ve seen one for Lock & Load and AfterFX stabilization. If not, try Google, too.
John
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Most likely its impossible to fix. I fight this problem with filming concerts, why heavy stadium lenses and the right platform are so important. I have pissed off a lot of people by requiring (2) 4×4 platforms instead of one 4×8 or smaller.
The issue is most of the image within a frame is blurry from the shake unlike a floating camera in a handheld shot. If Lock and Load works for this I would love to know.
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Your FCP already has a motion stabilizing plug-in, I have seen it work on shots like you describe, however be prepared for lengthly waits while it calculates and renders. Don’t invoke it until the entire edit is done so you only apply it where it is actually needed.
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Mark,
He actually says in his original post, “A first quick test of Smoothcam eliminated that fine vibration–by replacing it with big, swaying motions.”
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
EPK Colorist – UP IN THE AIR – nominated for six academy awards
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Doh! Monday morning blur, sorry.
What about rendering out that slow wobbling bit and re-applying smoothcam to that?
Failing that, and not trying lock and load, I might import the footage intoApple Motion and try to keyframe it out. If it is very regular, that may not be so hard. -
Hi Ben,
Good motion stabilization is an art-form all its own. There is complete stand alone software design just for this purpose. Sometimes to get a good ‘track’ or proper stabilization, you’ll need to run multiple passes. You should reload the ‘swaying’ footage and see if you can stabilization out the sway.
FWIW: I ran into a similar issue with footage shot with a Helicopter, it had a slight wobble that the stabilizer couldn’t track out. (this was pre-FCP smoothcam) Eventually I ended up using a plug-in for AE, from the Foundry. It eliminated all of the vibration. Great plug-in, but VERY expensive.
Good Luck,
Todd at UCSB
Television Production -
what plugin did you use.
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Hi Michael,
Funny story about that…but the Plug In was “Furnace” from The Foundry. It included a stabilizer and Kronos.-Time re-mapper. (just 2 plugins and cost more than $500!)
I haven’t used it for a while and wanted to reload it onto my system, only to find out that they don’t make it for AE any more. I’ve looked on the companies website, but I can’t see that they bundle the stabilizer for FCP or AE? They still have great plug-ins (top 1 or 2 bundle packs on the market in my opinion) and plenty of bundles, but very few with the Stabilizer? So I’m not sure I can recommend it if no one can get it for their system.
Todd at UCSB
Television Production
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