Any advantages of stabilizing individual clips vs the entire video.

Len Kaufman wrote on 10/24/2024, 12:15 PM

I'm editing a video of about 13 minutes in length. Within that video, there are 13 clips that need to be stabilized. (It was very windy when I was shooting in Kazakhstan.) Is there any advantage to stabilizing each clip requiring it individually vs stabilizing the entire video with Track FX Stabilization, using either Vegas stabilize or ProDad Mercalli.

Yes, I'm aware that the clips should not be modified after stabilizing. I would only do it in the final edit phase.

One other possibility is stabilizing the entire rendered clip.

Suggestions?

Comments

jetdv wrote on 10/24/2024, 12:33 PM

My personal opinion, I prefer to put the clip that needs stabilized on the timeline by itself, add Stabilizer to it, and render out a stabilized version. Do that for each clip requiring Stabilization, and then edit using the "Stabilized" clips.

Len Kaufman wrote on 10/24/2024, 12:51 PM

@jetdv Thank you. I wondered if the other way might be more efficient. In some instances, for example, when I do aerial video from helicopters (often), I batch stabilize the entire shoot in Mercalli, so they're still individually stabilized. But on the ground, I don't usually need that much stabilization. As mentioned, it was super windy on that shoot. I didn't know I would need to stabilize so many. I've already graded and sized (length) all of the clips, so, I may cut each clip needing stabilization, one at a time, stabilize and render it, then paste it back into its slot on the timeline.

DMT3 wrote on 10/24/2024, 2:25 PM

From my experience with stabilizing, if you stabilize a long clip, it will try to average the position of all of the movement, which means in some case it may overcompensate the zoom or angle level. Stabilizing clips usually means less overcompensation.

Len Kaufman wrote on 10/24/2024, 2:32 PM

@DMT3 Thank you. That makes sense to me. I was wondering how the stabilization would work when it transitioned from from clip to another. So, it seems like doing them individually is the way to go. The reason I would render them individually, as suggested by @jetdv is I many have do a little bit of trimming after stabilizing, even though I think they're in their final form.