[Ivan Myles]

If the work session has not ended, you might be able to Undo to the point before the clip was deleted (check the History panel). In the future, save the file with a new revision number every time you open the project.

[Ivan Myles]

Im stabilizing a 30 min sequence of many shots edited in FCP.

Are you applying Warp Stabilizer to the entire sequence as one 30 min clip? If so, that’s the root cause. Replace the single clip on your timeline with a series of shorter clips (one clip for each shot you want to stabilize). Applying Warp Stabilizer to each shot individually should solve the problem.

The following discussion can be ignored if the above action resolves the issue.

Can this be done in Premiere, or do I need to get AE?

Works in either application. This discussion assumes Warp Stabilizer in Premiere Pro.

So what I gather WARP is going to zoom in some factor to give room for the most radical single stabilizing excursion in the sequence. I guess, even if there were tripod shots in the sequence, they would get the same zoom factor too

Yes. That is one reason why Warp Stabilizer should be applied on a shot-by-shot basis. Another reason is that the smoothing algorithm becomes meaningless once the shot changes.

So what you are doing is analyzing the stabilization excursions, and then applying some “clamping” (the thin lines) to limit the cropping or zoom.

Yes. The technique animates the clip to constrain the most extreme shifts so that cropping/scaling can be smaller. Let’s say that the Stabilizer creates a right border (crop) of 120 pixels, but you don’t want the border to be greater than 80 pixels in order to keep a low scaling factor. Then at the most extreme point, create a Position keyframe that shifts the image 40 pixels to the right to make the border smaller. Repeat this process at the extreme points for all borders.

And the bezier function is to soften that “clamp” so you dont get artifacts from halting the attempt to stabilize further.

Bezier = Ease In / Ease Out. It makes a change in direction less noticeable. You are trying to avoid pong-style bounces when changing direction.

to learn how to set this up, are there any articles?

I am not aware of specific instructions regarding this technique; it is just an application of some simple concepts. Here is basic information from Adobe help:

Animation and keyframes
Motion: position, scale, and rotate a clip
Controlling effect changes using keyframe interpolation

[Ivan Myles]

Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 default keyboard shortcuts
Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and CS5.5 default keyboard shortcuts
Finding and customizing keyboard shortcuts

[Ivan Myles]

You can prevent Warp Stabilizer from cropping by setting Borders > Framing to “Stabilize Only,” and then adjust scale manually using Additional Scale. With Smoothing down to 1%, though, your options are limited. Over how many frames is the stabilizer being applied? Does the clip include multiple shots, or is it one continuous shot?

I am using the term displacement curve to describe Position keyframes, typically with Bezier in/out points, that shift the image to reduce cropping. The following example is from After Effects, but it can be applied as a motion effect in Premiere Pro, also.

The chart on the bottom shows Anchor Point and Position curves in After Effects Motion Stabilizer. Red is horizontal and green is vertical. The jagged curves are the anchor points produced by Motion Stabilizer to steady the image. The thin lines with only a few keyframes are the Position curves that were added manually to reduce cropping.

[Ivan Myles]

Try applying the stabilizer in multiple, shorter sections. Manually reposition to match the start and end points between sections as required. Also, don’t crop with Warp Stabilizer; keep the full image and add a displacement curve to move the image around. This will allow you to minimize cropping.

An alternative to Warp Stabilizer is the Stabilize Motion effect in After Effects. It provides more control over the settings: you can change the tracking point at different points in the video, edit the stabilization keyframes, and manually set the scaling factor. Note, however, that Stabilize Motion always tries to hold the tracking point in place; you will need to add a motion curve to minimize scaling.

Stabilize Motion in After Effects can be much more involved than Warp Stabilizer. In addition, Stabilize Motion typically requires multiple iterations.

[Ivan Myles]

Good to hear you were able to resolve the issue. Here are the answers to your questions:

I’m wondering what ABR and MBR are.

ABR = Average Bitrate
MBR = Maximum Bitrate

What do the bitrates mean?

Bitrate is a measure of the amount of data used to store the file. In general, higher bitrates yield better quality, but require more file space and higher bandwidth. The ABR and MBR export settings tell the encoder how big you want the final file to be, and how much the data rate is allowed to vary.

Average bitrate is the total file size (megabits) divided by the length of the video (seconds). So a 60 second video that is 30MB in size (240 megabits) has an average bitrate of 4 megabits/second.

Bitrate can either be held constant or allowed to vary. In a variable bitrate (VBR) file, the maximum bitrate is the highest data rate at any point in the movie (typically during high motion scenes). Maximum bitrate is important when considering the amount of bandwidth required to play a video.

And what does the keyframe setting do?

Keyframes (aka I-frames) are reference frames that represent a full image of a video frame. Keyframes are similar to a jpg or png image of a picture. Typically, most of the frames in a movie are actually constructed of many small sections of the I-frames. This allows the file to be much smaller. However, more computing resources are required to encode each frame. Similarly, more processing power is required to reconstruct all the frames during playback, which is why video players sometimes skip. (The player takes too long to reconstruct each frame, so it has to leave out a few frames in order to play the movie at normal speed.)

Encoding with a keyframe distance to 1 makes it easier to view the output file but results in a larger file size. Increasing the keyframe distance will reduce file size, but more processing power is required to play the movie smoothly.

Also why would you render out at 50 BR and then import and render again at 8 and 3?

Those are two different settings for exporting the source file. The 50 ABR output file was not recompressed; the source file was saved twice at two different bitrate settings. My purpose was to test whether the problem was related to bitrate.

[Ivan Myles]

I am unable to replicate the issue; the source clip looks fine at 24fps and the exported files did not have any repeated frames. Here is what I did in Premiere Pro CS6 (Win7-64):

1280×720-24fps Timeline

– Inserted the 1280×720-59.94fps source file on a 1280×720-24fps sequence with Speed/Duration set to 40%/850f.
– Imported another instance of the source file, used Interpret Footage to set frame rate to 24fps, and inserted a second clip onto the 1280×720-24fps sequence.
– Exported the 1280×720-24fps sequence to H.264, Level 4.1 Main, ABR 50, MBR 50, key frame interval 1 frame.
– The exported file plays fine in Windows Media Player. Playback was choppy in QuickTime 7.2, but that is a player issue (I could not find any repeated frames).
– Imported the 1280×720-24fps output file and inserted it onto the timeline; could not find any differences with the source clip.

1276×532-24fps Timeline

– Inserted the two source clips (one modified using Speed/Duration, the other using Interpret Footage) onto a 1276×532-24fps sequence as per your sample file.
– Exported the 1276×532-24fps sequence to H.264, Level 4.1 Main, ABR 50, MBR 50, key frame every 1 frame. No issues found with the exported file.
– Exported the 1276×532-24fps sequence to H.264, Level 4.1 Baseline, ABR 3, MBR 8, key frame every 72 frames. No issues found with the exported file.

When you look at the source clip on your 24fps timeline, are any of the frames repeated?

Are there any effects applied to the clip?

What are your export settings?

[Ivan Myles]

I just use the arrow keys to view frame by frame in Premiere.

[Ivan Myles]

I see what you mean. Starting at frame 801 every frame is repeated. Could you please post an H.264 version of the 5th clip source file at 60fps, and preferably all I-frame? I would like to try replicating the issue. Also, does the source clip look good when you view it on the 24fps timeline, or are frames repeated prior to encoding?

[Ivan Myles]

Repeat the process outlined above to troubleshoot. It is important to narrow down whether the issue is with playback, encoding, or on the timeline.