Motion tracking and stabilization for helmet cam

cbrougham

cbrougham

Well-known member
I just purchased a helmet cam setup that should arriving next week, and I'll be using it to shoot a variety of action footage for one of my clients--skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, and so on. As this is going to be for professional/commercial use, I'd like the resulting footage to be pretty smooth. Everything I've read/heard involves post-processing with some kind of motion tracking and stabilization.

I've used AE's built-in tracker/stabilizer on the occasional shot here and there, and usually with pretty decent results. However, I'm sure this is going to be a whole different ball of wax, and I'd like a more competent and capable tracking program.

Right now, Digital Juice has got a pretty good deal on the node-locked version of Mocha AE, and it would seem to me that this could be a more reliable and relatively inexpensive cure to my future shot-stabilization woes.

Can anyone weigh in on Mocha + AE being utilized in this kind of shooting situation? Your feedback is appreciated!
 
Mocha is a hell of a program. But it is a tad pricey. See if you can find a copy of Dynapel Steadyhand. It will do almost as much, and is a hell of a lot cheaper.

Also, there are free utilities which you can use as well. Check out http://www.videohelp.com/ and do a search for "motion stabilizer". You will be headed in the right direction.

You can use AE alone, I have many times, with good results. It's not a simple click, walk away, and when you come back it is done like other apps (you have to set it up properly) but it certainly can be done.
 
Matt, thanks for the reply. The Digital Juice deal right now is for the AE-specific version of Mocha (I assume it only exports tracking data in an AE format, instead of for other compositors--not a problem since I only have AE). They're listing the normal price for that particular version at $299, and it's 50% off at $149.50. Will this version do what I need, or is it crippled in some manner? Even if it doesn't do everything, that sounds like a pretty good deal to me, and the output I've seen from the program is incredible.

I tried Googling for Dynapel Steadyhand, and unfortunately didn't come up with much. I found Dynapel's website, but they're only listing a product called Steadyeye, which is actually a hardware appliance. I found an OLD website (goodervideo.com?) that mentions Steadyhand, but also that it's a plugin for Premiere 6...? Any links to a more recent version, or is that what I'm looking for?

Thanks!
 
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