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MillimeterStabilizing Your Video Footage, Part 1
Jul 6, 2010 12:00 PM, By Jan Ozer
So there I was at the Lincoln Memorial in the Washington, D.C. humid heat, glad I carried a monopod but wishing I had a tripod—a pretty common emotion that I experience when shooting with a single stick. The shot wasn't much, just a simple zoom in, but it's impossible to perform smoothly without three legs. "Oh," I thought, "I'll just fix it in post." Then I got back home, and recalled Apple Final Cut Pro SmoothCam's glacial rendering time, and remembered reading that Motion has a stabilization effect, as well. "Hmm," I thought, "common enough problem, there have got to be some third-party solutions. Let's turn it into an episode of Final Cut Pro Insider."
So here we are. In this issue, I'll discuss the image stabilization task in general, and analyze the usability, quality, and performance of Final Cut's SmoothCam filter and Motion's Stabilize behavior. In essence, these are the free tools that you likely already have. In the next issue, I'll compare these to three other image stabilization filters available from third parties; specifically Red Giant Software Magic Bullet Steady ($199), the Image Stabilizer in CHV-Electronics MotionTracker-collection ($69) and the Boris FX Boris Continuum Optical Stabilizer Mac ($99).
Figure 1. Choosing between Smoothing and Stabilization in Apple Motion.
Types of image stabilization tasks
Let's start with a look at the type of tasks that we want our image stabilization functions to perform. Basically, there are two: image stabilization and smoothing.
Regarding image stabilization, this refers to a more or less static clip shot without a tripod that you just want to stabilize. A good example is this shot of Old Time band Sugar Hill at a long past Galax Fiddler's Convention. Chasing my two then-toddler daughters around, even a monopod was beyond my carrying ability, but as you can see, Apple's Motion locks the image down like a fine Manfrotto tripod.
In contrast, smoothing features smooth out camera motion, whether simple zooming, like the Lincoln Memorial clip that started this review process.
Or a more complicated shot from the Munich Museum of Modern Art (Pinakothek der Moderne) showing how the simple bug evolved into a Porsche 911. In both cases, SmoothCam makes the camera motion appear much smoother.
Interestingly, not all tools perform both functions equally well. For example, Final Cut Pro's SmoothCam feature doesn't differentiate between the two operations in the user controls, and while competent at stabilization, doesn't seem capable of truly locking the camera down like Apple Motion. In contrast, in Motion, you can choose between the Smoothing and Stabilize functions, and the tool customizes its approach for each task, performing both very well.
Continue the discussion on “Crosstalk” the Millimeter Forum.