Stablizing footage

CiPO

CiPO

Well-known member
Does someone has experience with this this SW to stabilize the footage in post ? How does it work compared to AE ?
 
Never used it, but why not download the free demo and try it out. Heck if the 480p looks good - $39 is barely anything for a good stabilizer program.
 
Have not used that program you mentioned. But After Effects CS4 comes with a third party stabilizing/tracking program called Mocha. It works really good, much better than the stock stabilizer/tracking that operates within AE.

Just look in your AE CS4 folder and it should be there. It called "Mocha for After Effects 4."

It's just a program Adobe bought and threw in there, so the interface is very non-adobe. It looks like it's from the early 90s or something, but it works good.
 
CiPO said:
Does someone has experience with this this SW to stabilize the footage in post ? How does it work compared to AE ?
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It's hard to stabilize DSLR footage without noticing the rolling shutter. Shoot a high shutter speed, and maybe even shoot 60p or 30 to get it to look a little better... Smoothcam in FCP or Magic Bullet Steadycam are decent at best. For any shots you have to smooth out, try to get a hold of a traditional 3 CCD camera like the HVX200.
 
FWIW VirtualDUb has a free plugin for it called Deshaker, which will not only stabilise the footage, but also has settings to correct for rolling shutter. In my limited testing of it, it seems to work well.
 
jshaw300 said:
FWIW VirtualDUb has a free plugin for it called Deshaker, which will not only stabilise the footage, but also has settings to correct for rolling shutter. In my limited testing of it, it seems to work well.
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Of the ones I've tried, deshaker is the best in my opinion. (That includes mercalli, mocha, and trying to track in AE) It's easy to use and the default setup usually works on 90% of what I'm trying to stabilize.


I just wish it took and could output more formats. I've been using mp4s as an input but the output options kill me. I'd love for someone to step up and get virtual dub a little more current.
 
kidwoo said:
I just wish it took and could output more formats. I've been using mp4s as an input but the output options kill me. I'd love for someone to step up and get virtual dub a little more current.
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That's exactly what Mercalli did. They re-wrapped the deshaker program in a commercial program. Sadly, it appears they removed some functionality from what I could tell.
 
PerroneFord said:
That's exactly what Mercalli did. They re-wrapped the deshaker program in a commercial program. Sadly, it appears they removed some functionality from what I could tell.
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Mercalli seems to consistently upsize my clips much more than deshaker does.......without any appreciable improvement in stabilization.


Mercalli was the very first stabilizing application I ever tried. I started using deshaker/VD specifically because it works better in my opinion.


But you are right of course. Using mercalli as a plugin allows for many more formats. I just wish there was a deshaker plugin for editing apps beyond vegas.
 
kidwoo said:
But you are right of course. Using mercalli as a plugin allows for many more formats. I just wish there was a deshaker plugin for editing apps beyond vegas.
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What are you talking about?

AfterEffects has a stabilizer, FCP has SmoothCam, Avid has a stabilizer and it works pretty well too.
 
I would definitely try Deshaker first. If you find it too difficult to use, then go for Mercalli. I have used both - using the Mercalli plugin for Edius. But as said earlier, the default settings on Deshaker work 90% of the time.
 
CiPO said:
So, the suggestion is to use Deshaker or Mercally (if I want a better GUI) ?
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Like jshaw says, just see what deshaker/virtual dub does for you first. They're both free. Then decide if the file format issues are a hindrance to you.

If not, mercalli works fine and is a lot more intuitive and easier to use. I just perfer the output quality of deshaker more.
 
I am on the hunt for a good deshaker as well but preferrably OSX.
IMO smoothcam in FCP is not working for me= the output has pixelized mush where movement has been rendered.

Anybody ever try it in Motion? Stabilize ?

Supposedly Avid is said to do it best.....?
 
I haven't used deshaker since buying Avid. But on OSX.... The Mac culture doesn't include freebie stuff. Everybody wants a nice GUI on everything, so you pay.
 
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